SDWebImage
Loads, caches and displays web images on Apple platforms, with a UIImageView-style API.
- Stars
- 25.6k
- Forks
- 5.9k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- Objective-C
- Last update
- 7 months ago
- Type
- Library
What it is
SDWebImage is an Objective-C library for Apple platforms that downloads images from URLs asynchronously and keeps them in memory and on disk so they do not need to be fetched again. It adds helper methods to UI elements such as UIImageView, UIButton and MKAnnotationView so app developers can show a web image with a single call. It also supports animated images like GIF and APNG, and can be extended with plugins for other formats.
- Show profile photos or product images from a remote server in a UIImageView with a placeholder and loading indicator
- Display animated GIF or APNG images inside an app
- Resize or transform downloaded images right after download using built-in transformer support
- Add WebP or HEIC support by registering a coder plugin
Great for
- iOS or macOS app developers who need to show remote images in lists or grids
- Teams that want caching, progressive loading and image transformations handled by a tested library
- Developers building SwiftUI apps who want to use the separate SDWebImageSwiftUI module built on this core
Not ideal for
- Developers working only with Android, web browsers or other non-Apple platforms, since the library targets Apple platforms
- Beginners with no Xcode or Apple-platform experience, since integration assumes familiarity with app development
- Projects needing modern animated formats such as animated WebP or HEIC by default, since the README says these must be registered manually
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Xcode · Swift Package Manager, CocoaPods or Carthage
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/SDWebImage/SDWebImage - 2
Run it
- Add SDWebImage to your Xcode project using Swift Package Manager, CocoaPods or Carthage.
- Import the library in your code.
- Call the UIImageView web image method with an image URL and an optional placeholder.
- Run your app to see the image load and cache.
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Add the SDWebImageSwiftUI module if you build with SwiftUI.
- Register the WebP or HEIC coder if you need animated versions of those formats.
- Use the wiki's Advanced Usage page for transformers, custom caches and custom loaders.
- Install the Photos Library plugin if you need to load images from the device photo library.
Downloads
Strengths
- Widely used, with about 25,600 GitHub stars and an active push date in April 2026
- Covers downloading, memory and disk caching, and background decoding in one package
- Modular design with separate plugins for extra formats and SwiftUI
Trade-offs
- Only for Apple platforms; the README does not cover other ecosystems
- Many advanced features are documented in an external wiki, so the README alone gives limited detail
- Some formats such as animated WebP need manual registration, and visionOS support is described as beta for some versions
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDWebImage (this) | 25.6k | Library | intermediate | 7 months ago | iOS or macOS app developers who need to show remote images in lists or grids |
| Kingfisher | 24.4k | Library | beginner | 4 days ago | iOS or macOS developers who need to show remote images in lists or detail screens |
| SwifterSwift | 15.3k | Library | beginner | 4 days ago | Swift developers building iOS or macOS apps who want common helper methods ready to use |
| SVProgressHUD | 12.4k | Library | beginner | 8 months ago | iOS developers who need a quick loading indicator for a blocking task |
| FSCalendar | 10.6k | Library | intermediate | 2.2 years ago | iOS developers who need a calendar or date-picker view in their app |
| Eureka | 11.8k | Library | intermediate | 2.2 years ago | iOS developers building form-heavy screens in Swift |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.