head to head · open source
OpenCut vs sharp
OpenCut has 97,156 GitHub stars, 9,671 forks, 378 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. sharp has 32,817 stars, 1,447 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. OpenCut leads on adoption by 196% (97,156 vs 32,817 stars). OpenCut is written in TypeScript under MIT; sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. OpenCut has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sharp 4%. sharp 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
| OpenCut | sharp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 33K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.7K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenCut if
- You weight community size — 97K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick sharp if
- You want the sharp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and sharp fits your workflow better
About OpenCut
OpenCut A free and open source video editor for web, desktop, and mobile. Status OpenCut is being rewritten from the ground up. What's coming: An Editor API First class third party plugins (made possible by a plugin first architecture) Desktop, mobile, and browser from one codebase (Rust core) MCP server (for AI agents) Headless mode (automation, batch rendering) A scripting tab directly in the editor You can still find the previous version at opencut app/opencut classic, which is the one to reach for today. opencut.app still runs the classic version. The rewrite will live at new.opencut.app until it's ready to…
read the full OpenCut overview →
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 →
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 OpenCut or sharp more popular?
OpenCut has 97,156 GitHub stars and sharp has 32,817. OpenCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenCut and sharp free?
Both are open source. OpenCut is licensed under MIT and sharp under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenCut and sharp?
OpenCut is written in TypeScript and sharp in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenCut or sharp?
Choose OpenCut if you want the larger community (97,156 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sharp if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.