head to head · open source
OpenCut vs pireel
OpenCut has 90,465 GitHub stars, 8,941 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. pireel has 1,226 stars, 108 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 7,279% (90,465 vs 1,226 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; pireel is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pireel 9%. pireel 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 | pireel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-10 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.9K | ⑂ 108 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCut if
- You weight community size — 90K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pireel if
- You want the pireel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pireel 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 pireel
Pireel is an open source AI video editor, positioned as the open source alternative to CapCut and ChatCut, that is built for both human editors and AI agents and can be driven by any AI agent over MCP.
read the full pireel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or pireel more popular?
OpenCut has 90,465 GitHub stars and pireel has 1,226. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and pireel free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and pireel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and pireel?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and pireel in TypeScript. 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 pireel?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (90,465 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pireel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.