head to head · open source
OpenCut vs photon
OpenCut has 91,217 GitHub stars, 9,021 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. photon has 3,897 stars, 189 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 2,241% (91,217 vs 3,897 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; photon is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, photon 5%. 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.
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Side by side
| OpenCut | photon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 189 |
| 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 photon if
- You want the photon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and photon 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 photon
photon is an open source Rust library that compiles to WebAssembly for fast image processing in the browser, on Node, or natively, aimed at developers who need to apply image effects from their own applications.
read the full photon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or photon more popular?
OpenCut has 91,217 GitHub stars and photon has 3,897. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and photon free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and photon under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and photon?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and photon 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 photon?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (91,217 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose photon if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.