head to head · open source
sharp vs nomacs
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars, 1,447 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. nomacs has 3,288 stars, 212 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 898% (32,817 vs 3,288 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| sharp | nomacs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 212 |
| 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 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 nomacs
nomacs Image Lounge 🍸 nomacs is a free, open source image viewer, which supports multiple platforms. You can use it for viewing all common image formats including RAW and psd images. nomacs is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 and available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, Haiku, and OS/2. Downloads Latest stable release Latest beta release Continuous builds (Windows) Continuous builds (Linux,macOS) Get the Source Build nomacs (Windows) We assume you have an IDE (i.e. Visual Studio), python, git, and Qt installed. Get all dependencies: Project folders in 3rd party will not be empty anymore. Now…
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 32,817 GitHub stars and nomacs has 3,288. 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 (32,817 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.