head to head · open source
palmier-pro vs pireel
palmier-pro has 14,448 GitHub stars, 1,124 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped today. pireel has 1,226 stars, 108 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. palmier-pro leads on adoption by 1,078% (14,448 vs 1,226 stars). palmier-pro is written in Swift under GPL-3.0; pireel is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. palmier-pro has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pireel 9%. palmier-pro was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-video, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| palmier-pro | pireel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 108 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Photo & Video Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Photo & Video Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is palmier-pro or pireel more popular?
palmier-pro has 14,448 GitHub stars and pireel has 1,226. palmier-pro has the larger community by that measure.
Are palmier-pro and pireel free?
Both are open source. palmier-pro is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pireel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between palmier-pro and pireel?
palmier-pro is written in Swift 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, palmier-pro or pireel?
Choose palmier-pro if you want the larger community (14,448 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pireel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.