head to head · open source
rembg vs RawTherapee
rembg has 24,813 GitHub stars, 2,422 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. RawTherapee has 4,178 stars, 419 forks, 1,028 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rembg leads on adoption by 494% (24,813 vs 4,178 stars). rembg is written in Python under MIT; RawTherapee is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. rembg has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, RawTherapee 10%. RawTherapee 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
| rembg | RawTherapee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 419 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rembg if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick RawTherapee if
- You want the RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee fits your workflow better
About rembg
Rembg is an MIT licensed Python tool for removing image backgrounds, usable as a CLI, a Python library, an HTTP server, or a Docker container, and aimed at developers, designers, and automated image pipelines that need background removal without depending on a hosted service.
read the full rembg overview →
About RawTherapee
RawTherapee is a cross platform raw photo processing program released as libre software under the GNU General Public License Version 3. It is written mostly in C++ with a GTK+ front end, and it reads raw files through a patched version of dcraw combined with an in house solution that adds support for certain camera models dcraw does not handle and improves the accuracy of certain raw files dcraw already supports. The project lives in the open source photography ecosystem, with its documentation hosted on RawPedia and its community discussion taking place in the RawTherapee section of the pixls.us forum.…
read the full RawTherapee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rembg or RawTherapee more popular?
rembg has 24,813 GitHub stars and RawTherapee has 4,178. rembg has the larger community by that measure.
Are rembg and RawTherapee free?
Both are open source. rembg is licensed under MIT and RawTherapee under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rembg and RawTherapee?
rembg is written in Python and RawTherapee 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, rembg or RawTherapee?
Choose rembg if you want the larger community (24,813 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose RawTherapee if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.