head to head · open source
OpenCut vs imaginary
OpenCut has 97,637 GitHub stars, 9,731 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. imaginary has 6,091 stars, 502 forks, 135 open issues and last shipped 1.0 years ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 1,503% (97,637 vs 6,091 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; imaginary is written in Go under MIT. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, imaginary 8%. OpenCut 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| OpenCut | imaginary | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 98K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2025-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.7K | ⑂ 502 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCut if
- You weight community size — 98K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick imaginary if
- You want the imaginary feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and imaginary 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 imaginary
imaginary Fast HTTP microservice written in Go for high level image processing backed by bimg and libvips. imaginary can be used as private or public HTTP service for massive image processing with first class support for Docker & Fly.io. It's almost dependency free and only uses net/http native package without additional abstractions for better performance. Supports multiple image operations exposed as a simple HTTP API, with additional optional features such as API token authorization , URL signature protection , HTTP traffic throttle strategy and CORS support for web clients. imaginary can read images from…
read the full imaginary overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Photo & Video Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Photo & Video Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or imaginary more popular?
OpenCut has 97,637 GitHub stars and imaginary has 6,091. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and imaginary free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and imaginary under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and imaginary?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and imaginary in Go. 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 imaginary?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (97,637 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose imaginary if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.