head to head · open source
OpenCut vs chafa
OpenCut has 90,819 GitHub stars, 8,984 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. chafa has 5,284 stars, 118 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenCut leads on adoption by 1,619% (90,819 vs 5,284 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; chafa is written in C under LGPL-3.0. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, chafa 2%. chafa was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | chafa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 118 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCut if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chafa if
- You want the chafa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and chafa fits your workflow better
About OpenCut
OpenCut is a free, MIT licensed video editor that runs in the browser and is being rebuilt to serve web, desktop, and mobile from a single codebase, aimed at creators who want an open source alternative to CapCut.
read the full OpenCut overview →
About chafa
Chafa is a command line utility and C library that converts image data, including animated GIFs, into ANSI/Unicode character art or terminal graphics formats, and it is for anyone who wants to view images inside a terminal.
read the full chafa overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or chafa more popular?
OpenCut has 90,819 GitHub stars and chafa has 5,284. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and chafa free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and chafa under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and chafa?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and chafa in C. 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 chafa?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (90,819 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose chafa if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.