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OpenFocus vs Zerene Stacker

OpenFocus

github.com

Zerene Stacker

zerenesystems.com

Side by side

FigureOpenFocusZerene Stacker
Price fromFree—
Free planYes—
Free trial—Yes
Open sourceYes—
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Self-hostedYes—
Plans published14
Spec score · Focus Stacking Software8.4 (#5)7.6 (#15)
PurposeOpenFocus aligns and fuses multi-focus image sequences into images with greater depth of field.Zerene Stacker is focus stacking software designed for challenging macro subjects and discerning photographers.
RetouchingThe retouch brush paints pixels from a source frame and automatically chooses the sharpest frame beneath the cursor.Retouching is supported by all versions, including the lowest-price version.

Plans

OpenFocus

  • Free and open sourceFree

OpenFocus pricing →

Zerene Stacker

  • Student Edition$39, paid once
  • Personal Edition$89, paid once
  • Prosumer Edition$189, paid once
  • Professional Edition$289, paid once

Zerene Stacker pricing →

In their own words

OpenFocus

OpenFocus aligns and fuses multi-focus image sequences to create images with focus throughout. It offers ECC and Homography alignment and several fusion methods: Guided Filter, DCT, DTCWT, GFG-FGF and the StackMFF V4 AI model. A wipe view lets users compare source frames with results, and the software can generate depth maps showing focus position per pixel. It supports folder-based batch processing and a headless command-line interface for scripting and CI. Listed inputs include JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, MP4 and numbered image folders; the manual also describes decoding additional video formats. Outputs include those image formats, image-sequence folders and GIF animations. Research functions include metadata-calibrated scale bars and multi-page TIFF stacks that preserve 16-bit depth. The interface supports English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, with automatic system-language detection. OpenFocus is free under the MIT License, though included algorithms may have separate license terms. Its Windows and macOS app builds are unsigned and may trigger SmartScreen or Gatekeeper warnings on first launch.

Visit github.com

Zerene Stacker

Zerene Stacker has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit zerenesystems.com