head to head · open source
photocraft vs filmcraft
photocraft has 58,515 GitHub stars, 9,919 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped today. filmcraft has 12,692 stars, 5,140 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. photocraft leads on adoption by 361% (58,515 vs 12,692 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; filmcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. photocraft has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, filmcraft 40%. photocraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (art, rust), 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 | filmcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 5.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick photocraft if
- You weight community size — 59K 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 filmcraft if
- You want the filmcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and filmcraft fits your workflow better
About photocraft
PhotoCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Photoshop, written in pure Rust, for image editors who want a native offline app they can own rather than a subscription.
read the full photocraft overview →
About filmcraft
FilmCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of the Adobe Premiere Pro editing workflow, written in pure Rust, for professional editors who want a native, self owned non linear editor on desktop or in the browser.
read the full filmcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or filmcraft more popular?
photocraft has 58,515 GitHub stars and filmcraft has 12,692. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and filmcraft free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and filmcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and filmcraft?
photocraft is written in Rust and filmcraft in Rust. 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 filmcraft?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (58,515 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose filmcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.