head to head · open source
sharp vs PicImpact
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars, 1,437 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. PicImpact has 1,303 stars, 213 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. sharp leads on adoption by 2,409% (32,695 vs 1,303 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; PicImpact is written in TypeScript under MIT. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, PicImpact 16%. sharp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (exif, 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 | PicImpact | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-07-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 213 |
| 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 PicImpact if
- You want the PicImpact feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and PicImpact 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 PicImpact
PicImpact is a self deployable photography portfolio website built with Next.js and Hono.js, for photographers and small teams who want to publish and share image collections from infrastructure they control.
read the full PicImpact overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or PicImpact more popular?
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars and PicImpact has 1,303. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and PicImpact free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PicImpact under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and PicImpact?
sharp is written in JavaScript and PicImpact in TypeScript. 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 PicImpact?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,695 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose PicImpact if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.