head to head · open source
sharp vs RawTherapee
sharp has 32,821 GitHub stars, 1,448 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. RawTherapee has 4,272 stars, 429 forks, 1,028 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 668% (32,821 vs 4,272 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; RawTherapee is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, RawTherapee 10%. RawTherapee 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 | RawTherapee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 429 |
| 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 RawTherapee if
- You want the RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee
RawTherapee is a powerful, cross platform raw photo processing program, released as libre software under the GNU General Public License Version 3. It is written mostly in C++ using a GTK+ front end. It uses a patched version of dcraw for reading raw files, with an in house solution which adds the highest quality support for certain camera models unsupported by dcraw and enhances the accuracy of certain raw files already supported by dcraw. It is notable for the advanced control it gives the user over the demosaicing and development process. Target Audience RawTherapee is designed for developing raw files from a…
read the full RawTherapee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or RawTherapee more popular?
sharp has 32,821 GitHub stars and RawTherapee has 4,272. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and RawTherapee free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and RawTherapee under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and RawTherapee?
sharp is written in JavaScript and RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,821 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose RawTherapee if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.