head to head · open source
sharp vs RapidRAW
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars, 1,437 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. RapidRAW has 10,115 stars, 556 forks, 407 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 223% (32,695 vs 10,115 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; RapidRAW is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, RapidRAW 5%. RapidRAW 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 | RapidRAW | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 556 |
| 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 RapidRAW if
- You want the RapidRAW feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and RapidRAW 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 RapidRAW
RapidRAW is a free, AGPL 3.0 licensed, GPU accelerated RAW image editor for photographers who want a clean, fast, non destructive editing workflow, shipped as a package under 20 MB for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.
read the full RapidRAW overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or RapidRAW more popular?
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars and RapidRAW has 10,115. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and RapidRAW free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and RapidRAW under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and RapidRAW?
sharp is written in JavaScript and RapidRAW 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 RapidRAW?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,695 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose RapidRAW if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.