LightCraft vs RawTherapee

Comparing two open source alternatives to Adobe Lightroom. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

LightCraft

Apache-2.0

Open-source, clean-room reimplementation of Adobe Lightroom in Rust — photo library and raw development, local-first.

GPL-3.0

Powerful, cross-platform open source raw photo processing program and a strong alternative to Adobe Lightroom.

	LightCraft	RawTherapee
License	Apache-2.0	GPL-3.0
Self-hostable	No	No
GitHub Stars	290	4,199
Forks	62	420
Open Issues	3	1,041
Last Commit	Oct 4, 2026	Oct 4, 2026
First Released	Sep 30, 2026	Aug 11, 2015
Categories	Image Editing	Image Editing
Tags	#photo #photo-management #raw-processing	—

Open source photography workflow application and raw developer for organizing, editing, and exporting large photo libraries.