This is the comparison with a twist: the two sides are the same tool. ExifTool, by Phil Harvey, is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing metadata — and it has no graphical interface of its own. ExifToolGui — Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen — is a Windows front-end that drives that same ExifTool on your behalf. So the question is never which is more powerful in principle; it is which interface makes you faster and less error-prone. This page, in the Comparisons hub with ExifToolGui vs jExifToolGUI and ExifToolGui vs GeoSetter, compares them honestly, including why many people end up keeping both. Everything is available from the download page.

Licences, so they are on the record: ExifTool is free software under the same terms as Perl itself, in its author’s wording, and the V6 GUI fork is GPL-3.0. Nothing in this comparison is a sales pitch; it is an ergonomics decision.

The two interfaces at a glance

ExifTool’s own documented scope frames both columns: it reads, writes and edits EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP, ID3 and maker notes; it deletes metadata individually, in groups or altogether; it geotags from GPS track logs with time-drift correction; and it renames and organises files by date or any other metadata. The GUI does not add engine capability — it surfaces the documented workflows its author chose to build panels and menus for, no more and no less.

What the command line does better

Automation and reach. A command can be saved, re-run next month on a new folder, embedded in a script, and aimed at an entire directory tree with conditions (‘only files where the camera model is X and GPS is missing’). It runs identically on Windows, macOS and Linux, which is why archives and newsrooms standardise on it. It also exposes everything: any tag, any group, any combination, including the long tail no GUI panel will ever include. The costs are real too — a mistyped argument writes exactly what you said, not what you meant, to every file the command touches, and discovering a tag’s current values means asking in text rather than glancing at a panel. The command line rewards precision and punishes its absence at full batch scale.

What the GUI does better

Visibility and guardrails. In ExifToolGui you select files in a list, see the current values in the Metadata panel, edit in the Workspace, and re-read to verify — the loop that catches the wrong folder, the wrong file and the stale display before anything is written. Recurring jobs become Workspace definitions instead of remembered syntax. The Modify menu covers the operations home users actually repeat: DateTime shift and equalize for clock errors, geotagging from a log file, renaming from DateTime, metadata removal. And the map view makes manual geotagging a visual act rather than a pair of typed coordinates. The honest limits: Windows-only, and bounded by the workflows the GUI implements — an exotic tag surgery that ExifTool can do may have no panel here (the GUI’s ExifTool direct tradition exists partly for that gap).

Coming from pyExifToolGui?

If you arrived here from pyExifToolGUI, Harry van der Wolf’s earlier Python/PySide GUI, one fact matters: pyExifToolGUI is no longer supported, and its own site directs users to switch to jExifToolGUI, the same author’s Java successor. We position the choice honestly: jExifToolGUI is the author’s designated successor and the cross-platform route (Windows, Linux, macOS), though its development has itself stopped at release 2.0.2 — see that comparison for the full picture. On Windows, ExifToolGui V6 is the maintained front-end in this family. And if neither GUI fits, the command line underneath all of them remains fully supported by Phil Harvey — the GUIs come and go, the engine is the constant.

Verdict: keep both, in the right order

Learn the GUI first if you are new: it teaches you what tags exist and what correct looks like, with verification built in. Graduate to the command line for the jobs that repeat identically, span platforms, or reach tags no panel shows. Many experienced users do metadata repair interactively in the GUI and bulk, scripted passes on the command line, against the same paired ExifTool — production release 13.55, or the latest release overall, 13.59, a distinction our version guide explains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the GUI make ExifTool more powerful?

No — it makes ExifTool more approachable. The engine’s capabilities are identical; the GUI surfaces the documented workflows (viewing, Workspace editing, Modify operations, map geotagging) as panels and menus instead of commands.

Can I use both the GUI and the command line with one ExifTool?

Yes. The GUI pairs with a correctly named exiftool.exe (renamed from exiftool(-k).exe, with its exiftool_files folder); that same executable is the command-line tool. One pairing serves both interfaces.

I used pyExifToolGui. What replaces it?

Its own site says pyExifToolGUI is no longer supported and directs users to jExifToolGUI. On Windows, the maintained alternative is ExifToolGui V6; on any platform, the ExifTool command line itself is always an option.

Whichever interface you pick, the files start at the download page, and the other pairings live in the Comparisons hub.

Exif Pilot and ExifToolGui are both Windows metadata editors, and on a feature checklist they look like close cousins: both view and edit EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP data. The differences that matter live one layer down — in how batch work is priced, in a file-location constraint, and in the engine underneath. Exif Pilot (by Two Pilots / ColorPilot) offers a free core editor, with batch processing sold as a paid plug-in. ExifToolGui — Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen — is GPL-3.0 free software whose batch capability is built in, because it is a front-end for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool. This comparison, in the Comparisons hub with ExifToolGui vs XnView MP and ExifToolGui vs the command line, sticks to sourced facts for both sides. Get ExifToolGui from the download page.

The one-line summary: for single-file editing, both are plausible; for folder-scale work, the pricing model and the batch design decide it, and they point the same way.

The two programs at a glance

Note what the free core of Exif Pilot genuinely includes, because it is respectable: creating and deleting tags (not just editing existing ones), GPS fields, keywords, and structured import/export through XML, CSV and Excel files. A reader whose work is one file at a time, with spreadsheet-driven values, is served by that core. The comparison turns on what happens when the unit of work becomes a folder.

Batch work: built-in design vs paid plug-in

Batch capability is not an add-on in ExifToolGui’s lineage; the original GUI’s stated goals, from its earliest documentation, include selecting multiple files and modifying them at once, and the V6 program carries that through its Workspace saves (values written to all selected files) and Modify operations (DateTime shift, equalize, geotagging, removal). In Exif Pilot, multiple-photo processing — along with tag-to-tag copying and command-line use — is the paid Batch Editing Plug-in, priced at €79.95 on the vendor’s page as sourced for this comparison. Neither model is dishonest; they are simply different answers to who pays for scale. A hobbyist editing a card’s worth of photos after every trip does folder-scale work constantly, and for that reader the plug-in is not an edge feature — it is the product. In ExifToolGui that same work is included, under GPL-3.0, with ExifTool (free software under the same terms as Perl itself) as the engine, separately downloaded and paired.

Constraints and working style

Exif Pilot’s documented constraint — processed files must be in the same directory — is a small sentence with real workflow weight: archives organised in nested folders need gathering or repeated passes, where a selection-based front-end works on the folder you open as it lies. Working style differs too. Exif Pilot centres on its tag list and its import/export formats; ExifToolGui centres on the Workspace, where you define the tag panel for the job (a dates panel, a credits panel, a location panel) and save the definition for reuse, plus a Modify menu for operations rather than value typing. Neither is objectively better as an interface; they reward different habits. What is objective is the depth ceiling: ExifToolGui’s ceiling is ExifTool itself — the full tag universe of EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, ICC, maker notes and more that the engine documents — while a self-contained editor’s ceiling is its own implementation.

Verdict

Choose Exif Pilot if you edit metadata file by file, value its XML/CSV/Excel import-export in the free core, and will never need batch work — or are willing to pay €79.95 for the plug-in when you do. Choose ExifToolGui if folders are your unit of work: batch editing is built in and free, the Workspace is yours to shape, and the engine underneath is ExifTool, the reference tool in this field. For Windows users, that combination is why this site is built around it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Exif Pilot completely free?

Its core is free: view, edit, create and delete EXIF, GPS, IPTC and XMP data, keywords, and XML/CSV/Excel import-export. Batch processing is not in the free core — it is a paid plug-in at €79.95, which also adds tag-to-tag copy and command-line use.

What does ‘files must be in the same directory’ mean in practice?

Exif Pilot processes files that live in one directory. A library spread across nested folders needs the files gathered or processed folder by folder. ExifToolGui works on the selection in the folder you open, with batch saves to all selected files.

Which handles more metadata formats and tags?

ExifToolGui’s ceiling is ExifTool’s: Phil Harvey’s engine documents support for EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB and maker notes from around 30 camera makers. Exif Pilot’s documented scope is EXIF, EXIF GPS, IPTC and XMP.

See the remaining pairings in the Comparisons hub, including ExifToolGui vs GeoSetter, and download ExifToolGui and ExifTool from the download page.

Adobe Bridge and ExifToolGui both put metadata panels in front of a photographer, and that surface similarity hides a real difference in purpose. Bridge is Adobe’s asset manager for commercial creative workflows — the place a Lightroom and Photoshop user browses, organises and inspects a library, with metadata panels for keywords, IPTC fields and related information. ExifToolGui — Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen — is a single-purpose Windows front-end for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool, built to view and edit metadata at the engine’s full depth. This page compares them for metadata work specifically, using only what can be stated honestly about both. It lives in the Comparisons hub with ExifToolGui vs XnView MP and ExifToolGui vs jExifToolGUI; ExifToolGui itself is on the download page.

A disclosure note on method: this site has not verified Adobe’s current pricing or licensing terms for Bridge in its fact base, so this page makes no price claims and no ‘free’ claims about Bridge at all. What it can compare — purpose, metadata depth, and how the two fit around a Lightroom or Photoshop workflow — is compared in full.

The two programs at a glance

The pattern in the table is depth versus context. Bridge gives metadata a home inside a managed library: you see and edit fields while browsing the same collection you will open in Adobe’s editors. ExifToolGui gives metadata the whole program: the tag set is the interface, the Workspace shows exactly the tags you choose, and operations like shifting every timestamp by an offset or removing whole metadata groups are first-class menu entries rather than side effects of an export.

Metadata depth: panels in a library vs the full tag set

For everyday descriptive work — keywords, captions, credit lines — a library tool’s metadata panels are convenient because the library is already open. The limits appear at the edges: auditing every tag a file carries (maker notes, serial and lens data, embedded XMP history), repairing EXIF capture times that an editor’s import assumed were right, aligning EXIF and XMP date-times after a fix, or removing metadata groups wholesale before a file leaves the studio. Those are ExifTool operations, and a dedicated front-end exists to expose them. ExifToolGui’s documentation tradition — view all metadata ExifTool recognises, edit the frequently used tags, modify many files at once — is exactly that edge-case list turned into a program.

How the two fit together in practice

They are sequential more often than they are rivals. A clean pattern for an Adobe-centric studio: do the forensic pass in ExifToolGui first (dates true, credits and keywords written, location data deliberately kept or stripped), then let the library tool manage the corrected files day to day. If you later edit in Lightroom or Photoshop, the Photography plan is the usual Adobe route, and our link for readers who want it is Adobe Photography (Lightroom and Photoshop). Some links on this page are affiliate links — see our affiliate disclosure. That sequencing is also the subject of our metadata-first Lightroom workflow, which walks the hand-off step by step.

There is also an audit argument for the specialist pass, and it is the one studios feel first. When a file leaves the building — to a client, a publication, a marketplace — someone may ask what it contains: whose credit, which date, whether location is embedded. A library panel answers from the fields the library tracks; ExifToolGui answers from the file itself, tag by tag, including the groups nobody thought to ask about until they mattered. Running that check before delivery is cheap insurance, and it is a check the browsing tool was never designed to perform.

Verdict

For metadata work as the main event — inspection depth, date repair, batch operations, removal — ExifToolGui is the specialist and costs nothing, under GPL-3.0, on Windows. For metadata as one panel inside a managed Adobe library, Bridge is the natural home, on Adobe’s commercial terms. Most Adobe-workflow photographers who care about provably correct files end up wanting the specialist pass first, whichever library they live in afterwards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can ExifToolGui and Bridge be used on the same library?

Yes, sequentially: fix and audit metadata in ExifToolGui, then browse and organise the corrected files in your library tool. The files are standard photos with standard metadata; no conversion is involved.

Which shows more metadata?

ExifToolGui, by design: it surfaces everything ExifTool recognises, arranged in Workspace panels you define. Library tools show the fields their workflow needs, which is a subset aimed at keywords and descriptive data.

Why does this page state no price for Bridge?

Because this site’s fact base did not verify Adobe’s current Bridge pricing or terms, and unverified prices are not published here. Check Adobe’s own site for current terms; ExifToolGui’s basis is verified: GPL-3.0 free software.

Continue in the Comparisons hub with ExifToolGui vs Exif Pilot, or go straight to the files on the download page.

This comparison pairs two programs that photographers often install side by side without realising they are different species. XnView MP, from XnSoft (Pierre-Emmanuel Gougelet), is a cross-platform image viewer, organizer and converter that also shows and partly edits metadata. ExifToolGui — Bogdan Hrastnik’s GUI, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen — is a dedicated Windows front-end for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool that does nothing but metadata, and does it at full ExifTool depth. Choosing between them is really choosing what the program is for. This page is part of the Comparisons hub, with ExifToolGui vs jExifToolGUI and ExifToolGui vs Adobe Bridge; files are on the download page.

The honest summary: if you want one program to browse, organize and convert a library and glance at its metadata, XnView MP is built for that. If the metadata itself is the job — auditing every tag, repairing dates, writing descriptive fields, removing location data — ExifToolGui is built for that. Many libraries end up using both, in sequence.

The two programs at a glance

Two rows decide most real cases. The writing row: XnView MP’s documented editing reaches IPTC fully and XMP partly, which covers captions and keywords for many users but is not a general metadata editor — EXIF repair work such as DateTimeOriginal correction is ExifTool territory. And the licence row: XnView MP is freeware with a use condition, not free software — private, educational and non-profit use is free, while commercial use requires a licence. ExifToolGui’s V6 fork is GPL-3.0 free software with no such use split.

Browsing and organising vs auditing and repairing

XnView MP’s centre of gravity is the library itself: thumbnails, organisation, batch renaming and conversion across more than 500 formats it can read. Metadata there is something you check while doing something else — confirm a date, read a caption, fix a keyword on export. ExifToolGui’s centre of gravity is the file’s tag set: a file list, a Metadata panel driven by your own Workspace definitions (you choose exactly which tags are shown and editable), an ExifTool direct view, and Modify operations for date shifts, geotagging from track logs and metadata removal. When a reader asks ‘why does this photo sort wrong / share its location / carry the wrong credit’, the auditing tool is the one that answers, because it shows everything ExifTool can see rather than the common fields only.

Platform and workflow fit

XnView MP runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, so a mixed-OS household or studio can standardise on it in a way ExifToolGui (Windows-only, both in the original and in Bijnen’s fork) cannot match. On a Windows desk, the question flips to depth versus breadth in the daily workflow. A practical combined pattern, and the one this site’s guides assume: browse and cull in your viewer of choice, then open the keepers in ExifToolGui for the metadata pass — dates verified, credits and keywords written through the Workspace, GPS deliberately kept or removed — before the files go anywhere else. The tools are complements wearing similar clothes, not substitutes, and treating the viewer as your metadata editor is where partial XMP writing quietly limits you.

One more practical distinction belongs in this section: breadth of display is not depth of record. A viewer that opens 500+ formats is showing you the fields it chooses to surface for each; a metadata front-end is showing you the record the file actually carries, including groups a viewer has no reason to display, such as maker-note internals or embedded GPS detail. When a file’s history matters — a submission, a dispute, a privacy decision before sharing — the record, not the summary, is the evidence, and that is the ground ExifToolGui was built to stand on.

Verdict

Choose XnView MP as your library front door if organising, viewing and converting are the daily work and your metadata needs stop at viewing EXIF/IPTC/XMP and writing IPTC plus some XMP — and note the licence condition if the use is commercial. Choose ExifToolGui when the metadata is the deliverable: full-depth inspection, date and time repair, batch descriptive editing and removal, all through ExifTool, under GPL-3.0, on Windows. Choose both if, like many photographers, you have a library to run and files whose metadata must be provably right.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can XnView MP replace ExifToolGui for metadata editing?

Only for light needs. XnView MP shows EXIF/IPTC/XMP and can write IPTC and partly XMP. Full-depth work — viewing every tag ExifTool recognises, repairing EXIF dates, removing metadata groups — is what the dedicated ExifTool front-end exists for.

Is XnView MP free for commercial work?

No. Its licence is freeware for private, educational or non-profit use; commercial use requires a licence. ExifToolGui’s V6 fork, by contrast, is GPL-3.0 free software.

Which one runs on Mac or Linux?

XnView MP — it is cross-platform on Windows, macOS and Linux. ExifToolGui is Windows-only. The cross-platform ExifTool GUI in this family is jExifToolGUI, compared in the hub.

Browse the full Comparisons hub for the remaining pairings, including ExifToolGui vs Exif Pilot, and get ExifToolGui and ExifTool from the download page.

GeoSetter and ExifToolGui overlap in an interesting way: both are Windows programs for photo metadata, and both lean on Phil Harvey’s ExifTool to do their writing. The difference is intent. GeoSetter, by Friedemann Schmidt, is a geo-first tool — built around viewing and editing geo and EXIF/IPTC/XMP metadata, syncing photos with GPS track files, and placing photos on a map. ExifToolGui — Bogdan Hrastnik’s original GUI, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen — is a general metadata workshop whose map and geotagging features are one department among many. This page compares them on sourced facts only, in the Comparisons hub with ExifToolGui vs jExifToolGUI and ExifToolGui vs XnView MP. Program files are on the download page.

One context note before the details: GeoSetter is a legacy program in practice. Its official updates archive shows version 3.5 as the last regular release, after a long gap in regular releases, and the tool should be treated as effectively unmaintained. No clean discontinuation date was ever published that we could source, so this page does not print one — ‘effectively unmaintained’ is the accurate description, and it shapes the recommendation at the end.

The two programs at a glance

The shared engine matters for expectations. Because GeoSetter uses ExifTool for writing, and ExifToolGui is an ExifTool front-end, the metadata either program writes is written by the same underlying tool, with the same format support and the same care around originals. What you are really choosing between is workflow and interface philosophy — and, increasingly, between a maintained program and a frozen one.

Where GeoSetter’s design still makes sense

GeoSetter was built geotagging-first, and it shows in its documented shape: synchronisation with a wide list of track formats (GPX, IGC, NMEA, PLT, Sony LOG and more) and map-based placement as the home workflow rather than a side panel. If your entire job is ‘these photos need coordinates from this track’, a tool organised around exactly that job can feel direct, and long-time users with a working GeoSetter setup have real muscle memory invested in it. ExifToolGui covers the same core job — its documentation describes geotagging files in batch using a GPS device log file, with a Reference DateTime choice and a timezone note — but arrives at it from the general side: the same program also shifts dates, removes metadata, manages Workspace panels and renames files from DateTime.

Where ExifToolGui is the broader workshop

Most metadata work is not geotagging. It is fixing a wrong camera clock (Modify → DateTime shift), aligning EXIF and XMP times (DateTime equalize), writing Artist, Copyright and Keywords through the Workspace, removing GPS data before sharing, or inspecting camera and lens tags. Those are ExifToolGui’s home turf, documented in its own manual tradition since the original v5 GUI set out to view all metadata ExifTool recognises, edit the most frequently used tags, and modify multiple selected files at once. GeoSetter does view and edit EXIF/IPTC/XMP beyond pure geo work, so the boundary is emphasis rather than capability — but a reader whose work is 80% non-geo will spend that 80% in the tool designed for it. Our GPX geotagging guide shows the ExifToolGui side of the shared job in detail.

The maintenance reality and the verdict

GeoSetter’s updates archive is candid reading: no regular release for years at a stretch, version 3.5 as the last regular release, and later community reports of map breakage as the web components around it changed. We describe it as effectively unmaintained because that is what the record supports; we do not print a discontinuation date because the author never published one that we could verify. Practical consequences follow: on a current Windows 11 machine, a frozen program’s map and track workflows are increasingly exposed to components it cannot adapt to, while ExifToolGui V6.3.12 (May 2026) is the release its maintainer is actively shaping for current Windows, with an updated map stack of its own. Verdict: keep GeoSetter if your installed copy does your geo job today; start new work in ExifToolGui, which covers geotagging plus the rest of the metadata workshop in one maintained program.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GeoSetter discontinued?

No sourced discontinuation date exists, and this page does not invent one. What the official updates archive supports is: version 3.5 was the last regular release after a long gap in regular releases. Treat GeoSetter as legacy and effectively unmaintained in practice.

Does GeoSetter use ExifTool?

Yes — GeoSetter uses ExifTool for writing metadata, just as ExifToolGui drives ExifTool as its engine. The written metadata comes from the same underlying tool in both programs.

Can ExifToolGui geotag from a track log like GeoSetter?

Yes. ExifToolGui’s documentation describes batch geotagging using a GPS log file, with a Reference DateTime selection. GeoSetter’s documented sync list is wider on track formats (GPX, IGC, NMEA, PLT, Sony LOG); ExifToolGui’s strength is that geotagging sits inside a general metadata workshop.

For most readers in 2026 the maintained, broader tool wins, and the geo job comes along with it. Browse the rest of the Comparisons hub, including the command-line comparison, and download the current files from the download page.

Two programs with confusingly similar names do the same basic job — putting a graphical face on Phil Harvey’s ExifTool — for different audiences. ExifToolGui, in its current form, is Frank Bijnen’s V6 continuation of Bogdan Hrastnik’s original Windows GUI: Windows-only, maintained, and at version V6.3.12 (May 8, 2026) as of this writing. jExifToolGUI, by Harry van der Wolf, is a Java/Swing front-end that runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. Both are front-ends only: neither contains ExifTool itself, and both leave the actual reading and writing to the same engine. This comparison uses only sourced facts for both sides, and it sits in our Comparisons hub alongside ExifToolGui vs GeoSetter and ExifToolGui vs the command line. Both GUIs and the engine are linked from the download page.

The short version is a trade, not a victory. jExifToolGUI is the only one of the two that exists for Mac and Linux users at all. ExifToolGui is the one still being developed, and the one purpose-built for Windows. Everything below unpacks that trade honestly, including the fact that will decide it for many readers: jExifToolGUI’s development has stopped.

The two programs at a glance

Read the platform row first, because for many people it ends the comparison. If your computer runs macOS or Linux, ExifToolGui is simply not an option — both Hrastnik’s original and Bijnen’s fork are Windows-only, and no build exists for other systems. jExifToolGUI exists precisely for that gap: one Java program, the same interface on all three desktop platforms. If you are on Windows, both are real candidates, and the deciding rows become the runtime requirement and the development status.

Runtime and setup: native program vs Java program

ExifToolGui is a native Windows program. Its setup story is the pairing: the portable executables do not bundle ExifTool, and the V6 installer can download ExifTool during setup (the Phil Harvey zip, renamed into the install folder, or the Oliver Betz self-installing package). Settings live in an .ini file beside the program. jExifToolGUI adds a layer underneath: it is a Java/Swing application, so a Java runtime — version 8 or newer — must be present before the GUI itself can start, and ExifTool is still a separate download on top of that. Neither arrangement is difficult, but they fail differently: ExifToolGui problems are pairing problems (our not-found guide covers them), while jExifToolGUI problems can also be Java problems, one step removed from the metadata work itself.

Features: where each one puts its effort

Per its manual and README, jExifToolGUI’s documented strengths are copying tags from a reference image to many photos, extensive renaming from EXIF data, GPS and geotagging functions, lens templates, and user-defined tag sets. That is a serious feature list, and the reference-image copy workflow in particular is one Windows users may envy. ExifToolGui’s corresponding centre of gravity is the Workspace: user-defined tag panels you build once and reuse, a Modify menu with DateTime shift and equalize, geotagging from GPS track logs, metadata removal entries, and a map view (in V6, OpenStreetMap via WebView2). The overlap is large — both edit the frequently used tags, both batch, both geotag — because the engine underneath both is the same ExifTool, whose documented capabilities (reading, writing and editing metadata across EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP and maker notes) set the ceiling for any front-end.

The maintenance question, stated plainly

jExifToolGUI’s README states in capitals that development has stopped, and its latest release, 2.0.2, is dated March 18, 2023. That does not make the program useless — it still runs, and on Mac and Linux it may be your only GUI option in this family — but it does mean new camera support, bug fixes and adaptations arrive only if someone takes over or forks the project, which the author explicitly invites. ExifToolGui’s V6 line, by contrast, shipped V6.3.12 in May 2026 with translation updates, HEIC improvements and map updates, and ExifTool’s own site links the fork as the current Windows GUI. On Windows, choosing the maintained program is the low-risk default. Cross-platform users are choosing jExifToolGUI with open eyes: a finished, frozen tool rather than a living one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are ExifToolGui and jExifToolGUI the same program?

No. They are independent front-ends by different authors — ExifToolGui by Bogdan Hrastnik, continued as V6 by Frank Bijnen; jExifToolGUI by Harry van der Wolf. The similarity is the name and the shared engine, ExifTool by Phil Harvey.

Does either program include ExifTool?

Neither does. ExifToolGui’s portable builds require a separate ExifTool download (its installer can fetch it during setup), and jExifToolGUI’s documentation likewise states ExifTool is not included and must be downloaded separately.

I am on a Mac. Which one should I use?

jExifToolGUI is the cross-platform option here: it runs on macOS with Java 8 or newer and a separately downloaded ExifTool. ExifToolGui has no Mac build. Keep the development-stopped status in mind, and see the command-line comparison linked above for the other route.

Bottom line: Windows users get a maintained specialist in ExifToolGui V6; Mac and Linux users get a capable but frozen all-rounder in jExifToolGUI. Compare the neighbouring options in the Comparisons hub — XnView MP covers the viewer-organizer angle — and get the files from the download page.