head to head · open source
Shotcut vs lightcraft
Shotcut has 15,415 GitHub stars, 1,535 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lightcraft has 12,100 stars, 4,402 forks, 347 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shotcut leads on adoption by 27% (15,415 vs 12,100 stars). Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0; lightcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Shotcut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, lightcraft 36%. Shotcut 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 | lightcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 4.4K |
| 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 lightcraft if
- You want the lightcraft 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 lightcraft 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 lightcraft
LightCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Lightroom written in pure Rust, aimed at photographers who want a native, non destructive photo library and raw editor on their own machine.
read the full lightcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shotcut or lightcraft more popular?
Shotcut has 15,415 GitHub stars and lightcraft has 12,100. Shotcut has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shotcut and lightcraft free?
Both are open source. Shotcut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and lightcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shotcut and lightcraft?
Shotcut is written in C++ and lightcraft 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 lightcraft?
Choose Shotcut if you want the larger community (15,415 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lightcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.