[HN Gopher] OpenCut: The open-source CapCut alternative
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       OpenCut: The open-source CapCut alternative
        
       Author : nateb2022
       Score  : 109 points
       Date   : 2025-07-13 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | rtaylorgarlock wrote:
       | Again?
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44540804
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44355853
       | 
       | edit: I am genuinely curious about spam prevention on HN. What
       | systems we got working against fraudulent actors?
        
         | TheObviousOne wrote:
         | Beside the spam issue...Does the repo legit, though?
        
           | rtaylorgarlock wrote:
           | Wifey is an influencer and semi-dependent on capcut (features
           | the mobile instagram vid editor doesn't offer), so I'm quite
           | interested in quality 'simple' timeline-style editors.
           | Testing is on my list, though repeat submissions to HN does
           | NOT move it up my todo list.
        
             | limagnolia wrote:
             | Different accounts doing the submitting- could be the same
             | person, but might not be too. Also, HN guidelines don't
             | really discourage duplicate submissions, and in some cases,
             | HN moderators are known to encourage re-submission.
        
             | echelon wrote:
             | Why are you upset that the author resubmitted? The last
             | posts got no traction at all.
             | 
             | A post getting _two submissions_ twice does not make this a
             | re-post. Nobody on earth saw the previous submissions.
             | 
             | It's permissible for folks to submit posts a few times
             | until they actually get noticed or dang steps in to tell
             | them to stop. The author is doing things exactly as the
             | rules permit.
             | 
             | If you've learned from your wife's social media career, you
             | know that you often have to keep trying in order to pick up
             | traction. The algorithm requires signal.
        
         | NewJazz wrote:
         | Reposts aren't really moderated unless the previous posts were
         | highly updated/commented and recent.
        
         | nateb2022 wrote:
         | Considering the previous posts never got more than 2 points, I
         | didn't think reposting it would be an issue.
         | 
         | I am not a fraudulent actor (not sure what basis there is for
         | that accusation) and generally post things I come across.
         | OpenCut was in my GitHub feed today, seemed like it could be
         | useful to others, ergo I shared it.
        
           | danjl wrote:
           | TIL: there's a GitHub feed https://github.com/explore
        
       | jphoward wrote:
       | Sorry I'm a bit out of the loop, but what's CapCut?
        
         | nateb2022 wrote:
         | CapCut is one of several low-barrier video editing apps
         | generally geared towards content creators/ people targeting
         | Instagram reels, TikTok, and short video platforms.
        
         | poniko wrote:
         | Video editor owned by TikTok, very very popular.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | I really like the idea of an open source alternative to CapCut,
       | but the project is currently very far from the ease-of-use that
       | makess CapCut one of my favorite editors on Windows.
       | 
       | Very few casual desktop CapCut users are going to get past the
       | prerequisits of instal "Bun, Docker and Docker Compose, and
       | Node.js"
       | 
       | Blender, Shotcut, OpenShot, or Kdenlive are probably the better
       | open source video editor options right now.
        
       | yesbut wrote:
       | Kdenlive
       | 
       | https://kdenlive.org/
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | I like the idea but looks fishy at this point even if I did not
       | look at the code or try it yet.
       | 
       | So many GitHub stars and not a single screenshot of it anywhere,
       | not on GitHub, not on Google, not on the official webpage that
       | just have a wait-list and their twitter Bash capcut with
       | screenshots of capcut but none of opencutapp.
       | 
       | And I mean I wish something like that to succeed, but it doesn't
       | look like that they have much to show for at the moment.
        
         | acheong08 wrote:
         | https://xcancel.com/OpenCutApp
         | 
         | Follower count and activity looks about right. There's some
         | screenshots there. I assume the star count is due to some
         | amount of marketing.
        
           | eddythompson80 wrote:
           | The project is 3 weeks old with mainly 1 guy. I'm curious how
           | you get (legit/organic) 17k start and 3k twitter followers
           | for a 3 week old project presumably while I'm busy with it.
           | 
           | I know buying stars and followers is pretty straight forward.
        
       | laxd wrote:
       | Openshot, Shotcut, Opencut ... It's getting confusing.
        
       | ujkhsjkdhf234 wrote:
       | Someone tell CJ Fly he doesn't have to use the free trial any
       | more.
        
       | eddythompson80 wrote:
       | https://github.com/OpenCut-app/OpenCut/blob/main/apps/web/sr...
       | 
       | Well then.
        
         | pram wrote:
         | I kinda wonder why ByteDance charges for anything in CapCut at
         | all, considering it would make sense to make it as easy and
         | cheap as possible to get more slop on TikTok?
        
       | another_twist wrote:
       | >> useEffect(() => { initializeApp(); }, [initializeApp]);
       | 
       | Thats a weird bit of code. If the function changes execute it ?
       | 
       | Ref: https://github.com/OpenCut-
       | app/OpenCut/blob/main/apps/web/sr...
        
         | bravesoul2 wrote:
         | You often end up doing this to please the linting deities.
         | 
         | They want to make sure you call out dependencies. It annoys me
         | alot when you know they won't change. And if they do (some
         | reference change on render)... well that's just a footgun of
         | React and I argue this doesnt help.
        
           | another_twist wrote:
           | I think this is the one which detects dependencies of
           | closure. react-hooks/exhaustive-deps is the rule I think.
           | 
           | Makes sense. A few years back, a stale closure bug consumed
           | two full working days and one full night for me.
        
       | another_twist wrote:
       | I see that ShadCn has been used here. Good choice !
        
       | bravesoul2 wrote:
       | Next Photopea?
       | 
       | Also if you love the F word read this file:
       | https://github.com/OpenCut-app/OpenCut/blob/main/apps/web/sr...
        
       | timhigins wrote:
       | You can test it out at https://opencut.app/projects. I added some
       | screenshots to the README here
       | (https://github.com/alexkreidler/OpenCut/tree/main?tab=readme...)
       | and opened a PR to merge the update upstream.
        
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       (page generated 2025-07-13 23:00 UTC)