head to head · open source
Shotcut vs filmcraft
Shotcut has 15,362 GitHub stars, 1,525 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. filmcraft has 1,343 stars, 344 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shotcut leads on adoption by 1,044% (15,362 vs 1,343 stars). Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; filmcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Shotcut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, filmcraft 26%. filmcraft 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 | filmcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 344 |
| 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 filmcraft if
- You want the filmcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and filmcraft 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 filmcraft
FilmCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of the Adobe Premiere Pro editing workflow, written in pure Rust, for professional editors who want a native, self owned non linear editor on desktop or in the browser.
read the full filmcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shotcut or filmcraft more popular?
Shotcut has 15,362 GitHub stars and filmcraft has 1,343. Shotcut has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shotcut and filmcraft free?
Both are open source. Shotcut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and filmcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shotcut and filmcraft?
Shotcut is written in C++ and filmcraft in Rust. 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 filmcraft?
Choose Shotcut if you want the larger community (15,362 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose filmcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.