Our take
Activeregular commits- Activity
- 53
- Community
- 82
- Issues
- 40
- Pull requests
- 36
+5 stars in the last 29 days
- Slower to merge pull requests than 95% of the projects we track
CellProfiler is an actively maintained, established tool for biological image measurement, though its latest stable release is older than its recent development activity.
Good fit if
- Your work involves quantitative phenotype measurement from biological images.
- You want a ready-to-use macOS or Windows release, or can build from source on Linux.
- You value an active project with broad contributor participation, recent commits, and merged pull requests.
Look elsewhere if
- You need a newly published stable release: there has been no release in over a year.
- Your workflow is not based on biological image analysis and phenotype measurement.
- Your organization requires a clearly identified license before adoption, since the repository reports its license as NOASSERTION.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2026-10-23 (4 days ago) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 100+ |
| Releases, last 12 months | 0 (latest v4.2.8, 2024-09-27) |
| Contributors | 82 (top contributor: 26% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 7 (typically closed in 158 days) |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 28 (typically merged in 10 days) |
| Project age | 15 years |
Checked on 2026-10-28 with the GitHub API.
Project history
Daily GitHub snapshots since Oct 7, 2026. History covers stars and forks; health signals are not tracked historically.
Stars
1,142Forks
427Change since Nov 4, 2026: 0 stars·0 forks
Overview
CellProfiler is a Python application for biological image analysis, designed to help biologists without computer-vision or programming training measure phenotypes from thousands of images automatically. It addresses the need to turn large collections of images into quantitative measurements without requiring users to build image-analysis software themselves.
The project provides stable releases for macOS and Windows. Linux users and contributors can follow the source-installation instructions in the project wiki; the README also points users to beta and nightly releases for testing and third-party module maintenance.
Key Features
- Automatically measures phenotypes across large sets of biological images.
- Targets biologists who do not have computer-vision or programming training.
- Offers stable releases for macOS and Windows.
- Provides source-installation instructions for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- Offers beta releases for users who want to test upcoming changes.
- Offers nightly releases for maintainers of third-party CellProfiler modules.
Use Cases
- A biology lab can quantify phenotypes across a large image collection without developing its own analysis application.
- Researchers without programming or computer-vision training can use the application for image-based measurements.
- Third-party module maintainers can test compatibility against nightly releases.
- Users who want to try changes before a stable release can evaluate the beta version and report bugs.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- Python (main language on GitHub)
- A test suite and automated checks on GitHub Actions
Getting Started
Download a stable release for macOS or Windows from the CellProfiler releases page. For source installation, follow the platform-specific instructions in the GitHub wiki. See the README for guidance on choosing stable, beta, or nightly releases.
License in Plain Words
No standard license was detected. Without a license, the default copyright rules apply: you may read the code, but not reuse it. Check the repository or ask the authors.
Considerations
The repository is active, with regular recent commits and ongoing pull-request merges, but its latest stable release dates from 2024, so recent development activity does not by itself establish when the next stable version will arrive. The project has many contributors and work is not concentrated mostly in one person. Issue closure is comparatively slow, with a median resolution time of several months. The repository data does not identify a license, so confirm licensing terms before incorporating it into a project.
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