head to head · open source
sharp vs nomacs
sharp has 32,692 GitHub stars, 1,436 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. nomacs has 3,174 stars, 203 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 930% (32,692 vs 3,174 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; nomacs is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, nomacs 6%. sharp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (avif), 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| sharp | nomacs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 203 |
| 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 nomacs if
- You want the nomacs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and nomacs 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 nomacs
nomacs is a free, open source image viewer written in C++ and released under the GPL 3.0, built for anyone on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, Haiku, or OS/2 who needs to open and inspect common images as well as RAW and PSD files on the desktop.
read the full nomacs 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 sharp or nomacs more popular?
sharp has 32,692 GitHub stars and nomacs has 3,174. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and nomacs free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nomacs under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and nomacs?
sharp is written in JavaScript and nomacs 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 nomacs?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,692 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nomacs if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.