head to head · open source
OpenCut vs thumbnailator
OpenCut has 98,114 GitHub stars, 9,799 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. thumbnailator has 5,428 stars, 787 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 1,708% (98,114 vs 5,428 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 14%. 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 | ★ 98K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-02-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 787 |
| 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 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 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 thumbnailator
October 1, 2025: Thumbnailator 0.4.21 has been released! See Changes for details. Thumbnailator is now available through Maven! What is Thumbnailator? Thumbnailator is a thumbnail generation library for Java. Why Thumbnailator? Making high quality thumbnails in Java can be a fairly difficult task. Learning how to use the Image I/O API, Java 2D API, image processing, image scaling techniques, ... but fear not! Thumbnailator will take care of all those things for you! Thumbnailator is a single JAR file with no dependencies to external libraries, making development and deployment simple and easy. It is also…
read the full thumbnailator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCut or thumbnailator more popular?
OpenCut has 98,114 GitHub stars and thumbnailator has 5,428. 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 (98,114 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose thumbnailator if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.