head to head · open source
photocraft vs nomacs
photocraft has 76,172 GitHub stars, 13,501 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nomacs has 3,288 stars, 212 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. photocraft leads on adoption by 2,217% (76,172 vs 3,288 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; nomacs is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. photocraft has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, nomacs 6%. photocraft was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | nomacs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 14K | ⑂ 212 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick photocraft if
- You weight community size — 76K 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 nomacs if
- You want the nomacs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and nomacs 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…
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About nomacs
nomacs Image Lounge 🍸 nomacs is a free, open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and psd images. nomacs is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 and available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, Haiku, and OS/2. Downloads Latest stable release Latest beta release Continuous builds (Windows) Continuous builds (Linux,macOS) Get the Source Build nomacs (Windows) We assume you have an IDE (i.e. Visual Studio), python, git, and Qt installed. Get all dependencies: Project folders in 3rd party will not be empty anymore. Now…
read the full nomacs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or nomacs more popular?
photocraft has 76,172 GitHub stars and nomacs has 3,288. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and nomacs free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nomacs under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and nomacs?
photocraft is written in Rust and nomacs in C++. 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 nomacs?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (76,172 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nomacs if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.