head to head · open source
sharp vs google-images-download
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars, 1,447 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. google-images-download has 8,702 stars, 2,081 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. sharp leads on adoption by 277% (32,817 vs 8,702 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; google-images-download is written in Python under MIT. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, google-images-download 24%. sharp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (image-processing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| sharp | google-images-download | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-05-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sharp if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick google-images-download if
- You want the google-images-download feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and google-images-download fits your workflow better
About sharp
sharp The typical use case for this high speed Node API module is to convert large images in common formats to smaller, web friendly JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and AVIF images of varying dimensions. It can be used with all JavaScript runtimes that provide support for Node API v9, including Node.js ( = 20.9.0), Deno and Bun. Resizing an image is typically 4x 5x faster than using the quickest ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick settings due to its use of libvips. Colour spaces, embedded ICC profiles and alpha transparency channels are all handled correctly. Lanczos resampling ensures quality is not sacrificed for speed. As…
read the full sharp overview →
About google-images-download
Google Images Download Python Script for 'searching' and 'downloading' hundreds of images from Google to the local hard drive! Documentation ============= Documentation Homepage Installation Input arguments Examples and Code Samples Requirements ============ Chrome/Chromium browser is required for this tool to work. Google Images now requires JavaScript execution, so Selenium with Chrome is mandatory for all downloads. Installation: Linux : apt get install chromium browser or apt get install google chrome stable macOS : brew install cask google chrome Windows : Download from The tool will automatically download…
read the full google-images-download overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or google-images-download more popular?
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars and google-images-download has 8,702. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and google-images-download free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and google-images-download under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and google-images-download?
sharp is written in JavaScript and google-images-download in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, sharp or google-images-download?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,817 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose google-images-download if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.