head to head · open source
sharp vs thumbor
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars, 1,447 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. thumbor has 10,529 stars, 861 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 212% (32,817 vs 10,529 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; thumbor is written in Python under MIT. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, thumbor 8%. thumbor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (avif, image-processing, jpeg, png), 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 | thumbor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 861 |
| 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 thumbor if
- You want the thumbor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and thumbor 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 thumbor
Join thumbor bootcamp for a learning and contribution experience with ❤️ and 🤗 from the thumbor team Crop, resize, transform and much more, all on demand and AI Powered thumbor is trusted by hundreds of companies worldwide and many more! thumbor is a smart imaging service that enables on demand cropping, resizing, applying filters and optimizing images. Cropping photos automatically can be a frustrating experience with severed heads involved. thumbor uses AI for smart detection. thumbor is an HTTP server and you can create as many different images as you want just by varying path parameters: You should see an…
read the full thumbor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or thumbor more popular?
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars and thumbor has 10,529. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and thumbor free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and thumbor under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and thumbor?
sharp is written in JavaScript and thumbor in Python. 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 thumbor?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,817 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose thumbor if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.