head to head · open source
sharp vs Shotcut
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars, 1,437 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shotcut has 15,242 stars, 1,510 forks, 52 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sharp leads on adoption by 115% (32,695 vs 15,242 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; Shotcut is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Shotcut 10%. sharp 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 | Shotcut | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Shotcut if
- You want the Shotcut 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 Shotcut 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 Shotcut
Shotcut is a free, open source, cross platform video editor written in C++ and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It lives in the Qt and MLT ecosystem, using Qt for its application and user interface and MLT as its multimedia authoring framework. It provides regularly built binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is positioned as an open alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve (Studio).
read the full Shotcut overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or Shotcut more popular?
sharp has 32,695 GitHub stars and Shotcut has 15,242. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and Shotcut free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shotcut under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between sharp and Shotcut?
sharp is written in JavaScript and Shotcut 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 Shotcut?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,695 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Shotcut if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.