head to head · open source
sharp vs GIMP
sharp has 32,821 GitHub stars, 1,448 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. GIMP has 6,563 stars, 915 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 400% (32,821 vs 6,563 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; GIMP is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, GIMP 14%. GIMP 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.
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Side by side
| sharp | GIMP | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 915 |
| 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 GIMP if
- You want the GIMP feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and GIMP 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 GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program 3.3 Development Branch This is an unstable development release in the GIMP 3.3 series. If you think you found a bug in this version, please make sure that it hasn't been reported earlier and report it! If you want to hack on GIMP, please read the file devel docs/README.md. For detailed installation instructions, see the file INSTALL. 1. Web Resources ================ GIMP's home page is at: Please be sure to visit this site for information, documentation, tutorials, news, etc. All things GIMP ish are available from there. The latest version of GIMP can be found at: We also have a…
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or GIMP more popular?
sharp has 32,821 GitHub stars and GIMP has 6,563. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and GIMP free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0, and GIMP has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between sharp and GIMP?
sharp is written in JavaScript and GIMP 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, sharp or GIMP?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,821 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose GIMP if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.