head to head · open source
ImageToolbox vs libvips
ImageToolbox has 14,689 GitHub stars, 637 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. libvips has 11,656 stars, 797 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ImageToolbox leads on adoption by 26% (14,689 vs 11,656 stars). ImageToolbox is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0; libvips is written in C under LGPL-2.1. ImageToolbox has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, libvips 7%. ImageToolbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| ImageToolbox | libvips | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Kotlin | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 637 | ⑂ 797 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ImageToolbox if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick libvips if
- You want the libvips feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and libvips fits your workflow better
About ImageToolbox
ImageToolbox is a free and open source Android image editor written in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose and released under Apache 2.0, aimed at photographers, developers, and everyday Android users who need deep photo manipulation — crop, draw, filter chains, EXIF editing, background removal, and AI assisted enhancement — without analytics or crash reporting dependencies.
read the full ImageToolbox overview →
About libvips
libvips is a demand driven, horizontally threaded image processing library in C, licensed LGPL 2.1 or later, for developers who need to resize, convert and analyse large images quickly without exhausting memory.
read the full libvips overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Photo & Video Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Photo & Video Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is ImageToolbox or libvips more popular?
ImageToolbox has 14,689 GitHub stars and libvips has 11,656. ImageToolbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are ImageToolbox and libvips free?
Both are open source. ImageToolbox is licensed under Apache-2.0 and libvips under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ImageToolbox and libvips?
ImageToolbox is written in Kotlin and libvips in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ImageToolbox or libvips?
Choose ImageToolbox if you want the larger community (14,689 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose libvips if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.