head to head · open source
photocraft vs lightcraft
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars, 7,428 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lightcraft has 9,989 stars, 3,378 forks, 347 open issues and last shipped yesterday. photocraft leads on adoption by 368% (46,731 vs 9,989 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; lightcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. photocraft has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, lightcraft 34%. 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 | lightcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick photocraft if
- You weight community size — 47K 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 lightcraft if
- You want the lightcraft 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 lightcraft 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 lightcraft
LightCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Lightroom written in pure Rust, aimed at photographers who want a native, non destructive photo library and raw editor on their own machine.
read the full lightcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or lightcraft more popular?
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars and lightcraft has 9,989. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and lightcraft free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lightcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and lightcraft?
photocraft is written in Rust and lightcraft 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 lightcraft?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (46,731 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lightcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.