head to head · open source
Shotcut vs Krita
Shotcut has 15,230 GitHub stars, 1,507 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Krita has 10,385 stars, 856 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shotcut leads on adoption by 47% (15,230 vs 10,385 stars). Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; Krita is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Shotcut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Krita 8%. Krita 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
| Shotcut | Krita | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 10K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 856 |
| 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 Krita if
- You want the Krita 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 Krita 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 Krita
Krita is a free and open source cross platform application for digital painting. It lives in the KDE ecosystem and is built on the KDE and Qt frameworks. The project is licensed under the GNU Public License, Version 3, and the GitHub repository is a mirror of the real code repository at https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita.git.
read the full Krita overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shotcut or Krita more popular?
Shotcut has 15,230 GitHub stars and Krita has 10,385. Shotcut has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shotcut and Krita free?
Both are open source. Shotcut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Krita under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shotcut and Krita?
Shotcut is written in C++ and Krita 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 Krita?
Choose Shotcut if you want the larger community (15,230 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Krita if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.