head to head · open source
OpenCut vs thumbnailator
OpenCut has 90,710 GitHub stars, 8,968 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. thumbnailator has 5,432 stars, 791 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 1,570% (90,710 vs 5,432 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; thumbnailator is written in Java under MIT. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, thumbnailator 15%. 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 | thumbnailator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-02-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 791 |
| 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 thumbnailator if
- You want the thumbnailator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and thumbnailator 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 thumbnailator
Thumbnailator is a thumbnail generation library for Java that provides a fluent interface for resizing images and writing thumbnails, and it is aimed at Java developers who want high quality thumbnails without hand writing Image I/O and Java 2D code.
read the full thumbnailator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or thumbnailator more popular?
OpenCut has 90,710 GitHub stars and thumbnailator has 5,432. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and thumbnailator free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and thumbnailator under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and thumbnailator?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and thumbnailator in Java. 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 thumbnailator?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (90,710 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose thumbnailator if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.