head to head · open source
sharp vs geemap
sharp has 32,850 GitHub stars, 1,452 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. geemap has 4,070 stars, 1,157 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 707% (32,850 vs 4,070 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; geemap is written in Python under MIT. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, geemap 28%. geemap 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 | geemap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 4.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 geemap if
- You want the geemap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and geemap 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 geemap
geemap A Python package for interactive geospatial analysis and visualization with Google Earth Engine GitHub repo: Documentation: PyPI: Conda forge: 360+ GEE notebook examples: GEE Tutorials on YouTube: Free software: MIT license Join our Discord server 👇 Acknowledgment: The geemap project is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Grant No. 80NSSC22K1742 issued through the Open Source Tools, Frameworks, and Libraries 2020 Program. Announcement The book Earth Engine and Geemap: Geospatial Data Science with Python , written by Qiusheng Wu, has been published by Locate Press…
read the full geemap overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or geemap more popular?
sharp has 32,850 GitHub stars and geemap has 4,070. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and geemap free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and geemap under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and geemap?
sharp is written in JavaScript and geemap 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 geemap?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,850 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose geemap if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.