LightCraft vs TagStudio

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

Tag and organize photos and files in place, with a tag library stored next to your folders instead of a proprietary catalog.

	LightCraft	TagStudio
License	Apache-2.0	GPL-3.0
Self-hostable	No	No
GitHub Stars	14,819	7,254
Forks	5,698	470
Open Issues	1,306	257
Last Commit	Oct 27, 2026	Oct 28, 2026
First Released	Sep 30, 2026	Apr 17, 2024
Categories	Image Editing	Photo Management
Tags	#photo #photo-management #raw-processing	#photo-management #tagging #photo gallery #metadata #file-manager

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

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

Self-hosted, booru-style gallery that tags, searches and deduplicates a local image, video and comic collection.

Desktop app for organising, describing and annotating photographs of archival research material.