head to head · open source
OpenCut vs RawTherapee
OpenCut has 89,680 GitHub stars, 8,852 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. RawTherapee has 4,178 stars, 417 forks, 1,028 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 2,046% (89,680 vs 4,178 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; RawTherapee is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, RawTherapee 10%. RawTherapee 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 | RawTherapee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-08-10 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.9K | ⑂ 417 |
| 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 RawTherapee if
- You want the RawTherapee feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee
RawTherapee is a cross platform raw photo processing program released as libre software under the GNU General Public License Version 3. It is written mostly in C++ with a GTK+ front end, and it reads raw files through a patched version of dcraw combined with an in house solution that adds support for certain camera models dcraw does not handle and improves the accuracy of certain raw files dcraw already supports. The project lives in the open source photography ecosystem, with its documentation hosted on RawPedia and its community discussion taking place in the RawTherapee section of the pixls.us forum.…
read the full RawTherapee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or RawTherapee more popular?
OpenCut has 89,680 GitHub stars and RawTherapee has 4,178. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and RawTherapee free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and RawTherapee under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and RawTherapee?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (89,680 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose RawTherapee if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.