head to head · open source
Shotcut vs beutl
Shotcut has 15,253 GitHub stars, 1,510 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped today. beutl has 1,232 stars, 60 forks, 61 open issues and last shipped today. Shotcut leads on adoption by 1,138% (15,253 vs 1,232 stars). Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; beutl is written in C# under MIT. Shotcut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, beutl 5%. beutl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (video-editor), 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
| Shotcut | beutl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 60 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shotcut if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick beutl if
- You want the beutl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and beutl fits your workflow better
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 →
About beutl
Beutl (pronounced /bjútəl/) is a free, MIT licensed, cross platform video editing and compositing application written in C on the latest .NET, built for editors, compositors, and C developers who need an extensible editor that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
read the full beutl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shotcut or beutl more popular?
Shotcut has 15,253 GitHub stars and beutl has 1,232. Shotcut has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shotcut and beutl free?
Both are open source. Shotcut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and beutl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shotcut and beutl?
Shotcut is written in C++ and beutl 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, Shotcut or beutl?
Choose Shotcut if you want the larger community (15,253 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose beutl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.