head to head · open source
palmier-pro vs cartcut
palmier-pro has 14,460 GitHub stars, 1,125 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cartcut has 755 stars, 70 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. palmier-pro leads on adoption by 1,815% (14,460 vs 755 stars). palmier-pro is written in Swift under GPL-3.0; cartcut is written in TypeScript under MIT. palmier-pro has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, cartcut 9%. cartcut was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (mcp, video-editor), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| palmier-pro | cartcut | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 755 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Swift | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 70 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick palmier-pro if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cartcut if
- You want the cartcut feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and cartcut fits your workflow better
About palmier-pro
Palmier Pro is a Swift native macOS video editor with built in generative AI and a Model Context Protocol server, aimed at Apple Silicon editors who want agents such as Claude, Codex, or Cursor to create and edit directly on the timeline.
read the full palmier-pro overview →
About cartcut
CartCut is an MIT licensed, TypeScript and Electron desktop video editor for AI agents, built on the belief that open source can beat commercial tools, and aimed at creators who want layer based motion graphics editing on their own machine.
read the full cartcut overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is palmier-pro or cartcut more popular?
palmier-pro has 14,460 GitHub stars and cartcut has 755. palmier-pro has the larger community by that measure.
Are palmier-pro and cartcut free?
Both are open source. palmier-pro is licensed under GPL-3.0 and cartcut under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between palmier-pro and cartcut?
palmier-pro is written in Swift and cartcut 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, palmier-pro or cartcut?
Choose palmier-pro if you want the larger community (14,460 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cartcut if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.