head to head · open source
OpenCut vs cap
OpenCut has 97,156 GitHub stars, 9,671 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. cap has 24,271 stars, 2,234 forks, 339 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenCut leads on adoption by 300% (97,156 vs 24,271 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; cap is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, cap 9%. cap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (oss), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| OpenCut | cap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 24K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.7K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCut if
- You weight community size — 97K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cap if
- You want the cap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cap fits your workflow better
About OpenCut
OpenCut A free and open source video editor for web, desktop, and mobile. Status OpenCut is being rewritten from the ground up. What's coming: An Editor API First class third party plugins (made possible by a plugin first architecture) Desktop, mobile, and browser from one codebase (Rust core) MCP server (for AI agents) Headless mode (automation, batch rendering) A scripting tab directly in the editor You can still find the previous version at opencut app/opencut classic, which is the one to reach for today. opencut.app still runs the classic version. The rewrite will live at new.opencut.app until it's ready to…
read the full OpenCut overview →
About cap
Cap Beautiful, shareable screen recordings. Open source, fast, and built for teams that want to own their data. Website Download Docs Pricing Discord Cap is the open source alternative to Loom. It gives you fast screen recording, polished local editing, instant share links, comments, transcripts, analytics, team workspaces, custom domains, custom S3 storage, and full self hosting when you need complete control. Use Cap for product demos, bug reports, onboarding, tutorials, design reviews, engineering walkthroughs, async standups, client updates, and any moment where showing the work is faster than scheduling…
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or cap more popular?
OpenCut has 97,156 GitHub stars and cap has 24,271. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and cap free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT, and cap has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between OpenCut and cap?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and cap in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenCut or cap?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (97,156 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cap if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.