Kepla vs PixCull

Kepla is a Mac app that sorts photo cards as they copy, flagging frames for the photographer to review rather than making the final selection. It groups burst duplicates and flags similar shots, out-of-focus frames, closed eyes, very dark or blown frames, and images with nobody in them. The maker says it does not delete, move, rename, or add reject flags to photo files; decisions are recorded in XMP sidecars. Processing runs on the Mac, works offline, and does not upload photo frames, according to the maker. Supported formats include CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, DNG, ORF, JPEG, and HEIF. Kepla provides a Lightroom Classic plugin; the maker says Capture One and Bridge read the same sidecars. It requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. The app is in private preview, with the preview plan listed at free and billing starting when version 2.0 ships. Solo is listed at $15 a year, billed $15 a month yearly. A separate Solo monthly option costs $19 a month.

PixCull is an open-source photo and video culling tool that sorts shoots into keep, maybe, and cull groups. It scores each frame from 1–5 stars on technical quality, subject, composition, light, moment, and aesthetic, with a written rationale for each area. The product describes nine photography verticals, from weddings and wildlife to journalism and still life. For photo workflows, it exports XMP sidecars for Lightroom and Capture One, IPTC captions, and HTML galleries; it can also watch tether destinations and sync folders through iCloud, Dropbox, or NAS. Video tools score clips, identify reel candidates, transcribe audio, and export EDL files for Premiere or Resolve. RAW decoding, scoring, face analysis, and GPS analysis can run locally. The maker says photos are sent to MiniMax for judging by default since v2.50 after recorded consent; cloud judging can be disabled with `--vlm-mode off`. PixCull states it has no telemetry, and cached models plus disabled cloud judging can allow runs without a network connection. The plan is free; optional cloud model calls may incur API costs.