head to head · open source
sharp vs ImageToolbox
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars, 1,437 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ImageToolbox has 14,689 stars, 637 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 123% (32,695 vs 14,689 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; ImageToolbox is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, ImageToolbox 4%. ImageToolbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (crop, exif), 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 | ImageToolbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 637 |
| 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 ImageToolbox if
- You want the ImageToolbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and ImageToolbox fits your workflow better
About sharp
sharp is a high performance Node.js image processing library that converts large images in common formats into smaller, web friendly JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and AVIF files, and it is built for JavaScript developers who need fast, dependency light resizing inside Node.js, Deno or Bun applications.
read the full sharp overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or ImageToolbox more popular?
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars and ImageToolbox has 14,689. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and ImageToolbox free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ImageToolbox under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and ImageToolbox?
sharp is written in JavaScript and ImageToolbox in Kotlin. 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 ImageToolbox?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,695 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ImageToolbox if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.