head to head · open source
photocraft vs palmier-pro
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars, 7,428 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. palmier-pro has 14,552 stars, 1,138 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. photocraft leads on adoption by 221% (46,731 vs 14,552 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; palmier-pro is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. photocraft has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, palmier-pro 8%. 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 | palmier-pro | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 palmier-pro if
- You want the palmier-pro feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and palmier-pro 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or palmier-pro more popular?
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars and palmier-pro has 14,552. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and palmier-pro free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and palmier-pro under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and palmier-pro?
photocraft is written in Rust and palmier-pro in Swift. 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 palmier-pro?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (46,731 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose palmier-pro if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.