head to head · open source
Shotcut vs freecut
Shotcut has 15,590 GitHub stars, 1,561 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. freecut has 2,306 stars, 362 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Shotcut leads on adoption by 576% (15,590 vs 2,306 stars). Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; freecut is written in TypeScript under MIT. Shotcut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, freecut 16%. Shotcut 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 | freecut | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 362 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shotcut if
- You weight community size — 16K 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 freecut if
- You want the freecut feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and freecut fits your workflow better
About Shotcut
Shotcut a free, open source, cross platform video editor Features: Roadmap: Install Binaries are regularly built and are available at Contributors Dan Dennedy : main author Brian Matherly : contributor Dependencies Shotcut's direct (linked or hard runtime) dependencies are: MLT: multimedia authoring framework Qt 6 (6.4 minimum): application and UI framework FFTW FFmpeg: multimedia format and codec libraries Frei0r: video plugins SDL: cross platform audio playback See for a more complete list including indirect and bundled dependencies. License GPLv3. See COPYING. How to build Warning : building Shotcut should…
read the full Shotcut overview →
About freecut
FreeCut freecut.net Edit videos. In your browser. FreeCut is a browser based, multi track video editor. No install, no uploads: projects and media stay local, while editing, preview, analysis, transcription, AI generation, and export run in the browser through WebGPU, WebCodecs, Web Workers, OPFS, and the File System Access API. FreeCut writes projects, linked media metadata, thumbnails, waveforms, generated AI assets, transcripts, scene cuts, and caches as plain files inside a workspace folder you choose on disk. User Guide New to FreeCut? Start with the user guide. Community Join the FreeCut Discord to share…
read the full freecut overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shotcut or freecut more popular?
Shotcut has 15,590 GitHub stars and freecut has 2,306. Shotcut has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shotcut and freecut free?
Both are open source. Shotcut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and freecut under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shotcut and freecut?
Shotcut is written in C++ and freecut in TypeScript. 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 freecut?
Choose Shotcut if you want the larger community (15,590 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose freecut if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.