head to head · open source
photocraft vs Shotcut
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars, 7,428 forks, 1,208 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shotcut has 15,399 stars, 1,531 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. photocraft leads on adoption by 203% (46,731 vs 15,399 stars). photocraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. photocraft has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Shotcut 10%. 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 | Shotcut | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 47K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Shotcut if
- You want the Shotcut 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 Shotcut 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 Shotcut
Shotcut is a free, open source, cross platform video editor written in C++ and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It lives in the Qt and MLT ecosystem, using Qt for its application and user interface and MLT as its multimedia authoring framework. It provides regularly built binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is positioned as an open alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve (Studio).
read the full Shotcut overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is photocraft or Shotcut more popular?
photocraft has 46,731 GitHub stars and Shotcut has 15,399. photocraft has the larger community by that measure.
Are photocraft and Shotcut free?
Both are open source. photocraft is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shotcut under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between photocraft and Shotcut?
photocraft is written in Rust and Shotcut 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 Shotcut?
Choose photocraft if you want the larger community (46,731 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Shotcut if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.