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	9,326	4,220
Forks	3,014	422
Open Issues	380	1,046
Last Commit	Oct 11, 2026	Oct 7, 2026
First Released	Sep 30, 2026	Aug 11, 2015
Categories	Image Editing	Image Editing
Tags	#photo #photo-management #raw-processing	—

LightCraft9,326

RawTherapee

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