head to head · open source
sharp vs FerrumPix
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars, 1,437 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. FerrumPix has 652 stars, 16 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 4,915% (32,695 vs 652 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; FerrumPix is written in Visual Basic .NET under GPL-3.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, FerrumPix 2%. FerrumPix was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (image), 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 | FerrumPix | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 652 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Visual Basic .NET |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 16 |
| 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 FerrumPix if
- You want the FerrumPix feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Visual Basic .NET
- You evaluated both and FerrumPix 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 FerrumPix
FerrumPix is a free, GPL 3.0 desktop photo manager and image editor built with Avalonia UI and .NET 10 in VB.NET for Linux and Windows, with experimental ARM64 and macOS builds, aimed at hobby photographers and enthusiasts who want library management, RAW development and pixel editing in one local application instead of across four separate programs.
read the full FerrumPix overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or FerrumPix more popular?
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars and FerrumPix has 652. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and FerrumPix free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FerrumPix under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and FerrumPix?
sharp is written in JavaScript and FerrumPix in Visual Basic .NET. 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 FerrumPix?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,695 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose FerrumPix if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.