head to head · open source
photocraft vs FerrumPix
photocraft has 76,676 GitHub stars, 13,582 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. FerrumPix has 745 stars, 18 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. photocraft leads on adoption by 10,192% (76,676 vs 745 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; FerrumPix is written in Visual Basic .NET under GPL-3.0. photocraft has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, FerrumPix 2%. photocraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (photo-editing), 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
| photocraft | FerrumPix | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 745 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Visual Basic .NET |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 18 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick photocraft if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick FerrumPix if
- You want the FerrumPix feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Visual Basic .NET
- You evaluated both and FerrumPix fits your workflow better
About photocraft
PhotoCraft Image editing; an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, rebuilt in pure Rust. Layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles, type, vectors, brushes and real PSD files, in a native app written entirely in Rust. Open source, offline, and yours. PhotoCraft on getartcraft.com · ArtCraft · All Crafting Apps A caption card with a drop shadow, live type, and Vibrance and Curves adjustment layers, with the Curves editor open. The Great Wave off Kanagawa , Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1831 [!NOTE] ArtCraft is a community of artists from all walks of life. Digital, generative, music, games…
read the full photocraft overview →
About FerrumPix
FerrumPix FerrumPix is a desktop photo manager and image editor for Linux and Windows, with experimental ARM64 and macOS builds. Browse your folders, sort and rate what is in them, look at photos properly, and edit them all in one application, all on your own machine. It can also connect to a self hosted Immich or Nextcloud server. It is built with Avalonia UI and .NET 10, in VB.NET, which I still love even though it is rare nowadays. This started as a private project an application built exactly the way I always wanted one to look and work and it is free and open source for anyone who finds it useful. To be…
read the full FerrumPix overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or FerrumPix more popular?
photocraft has 76,676 GitHub stars and FerrumPix has 745. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and FerrumPix free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FerrumPix under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and FerrumPix?
photocraft is written in Rust and FerrumPix in Visual Basic .NET. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, photocraft or FerrumPix?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (76,676 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose FerrumPix if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.