StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Languages
  4. Languages
  5. MATLAB vs OpenCV

MATLAB vs OpenCV

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

MATLAB
MATLAB
Stacks1.1K
Followers702
Votes37
OpenCV
OpenCV
Stacks1.4K
Followers1.1K
Votes102

MATLAB vs OpenCV: What are the differences?

  1. Compatibility with platforms and languages: MATLAB is a proprietary programming language primarily used for numerical computing, while OpenCV is an open-source computer vision library compatible with C++, Python, and Java. This difference in platform compatibility can influence the choice of developers based on their existing skills and project requirements.

  2. License and cost: MATLAB requires a paid license for commercial use, whereas OpenCV is free to use and distribute under the BSD license. This distinction in cost and licensing models can be a significant factor for individuals and organizations with budget constraints or specific licensing requirements.

  3. Functionality and features: MATLAB is renowned for its extensive library of mathematical functions and toolboxes for numerical computations, data analysis, and signal processing, while OpenCV specializes in image and video processing algorithms for computer vision applications. The focus on different functionalities can determine the choice of software depending on the specific requirements of the project.

  4. Community and support: MATLAB has a dedicated support system with extensive documentation, forums, and customer service, while OpenCV has a large community of developers contributing to its open-source development and providing support through forums and online resources. The availability and accessibility of community and support resources can impact the ease of troubleshooting and development experience for users.

  5. Learning curve and ease of use: MATLAB offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive syntax, making it accessible to users with limited programming experience, whereas OpenCV requires a deeper understanding of computer vision concepts and programming languages, potentially resulting in a steeper learning curve. The difference in learning curves and ease of use can influence the adoption and proficiency level of developers using the software.

  6. Industry adoption and applications: MATLAB is widely used in academic research, engineering, and scientific fields for its numerical computing capabilities, while OpenCV is commonly employed in industries such as robotics, autonomous vehicles, surveillance systems, and augmented reality for its computer vision functionalities. The variance in industry adoption and applications can guide developers in selecting the appropriate tool for their specific use cases.

In Summary, MATLAB and OpenCV differ in platform compatibility, cost, functionality, community support, ease of use, and industry applications, influencing the choice of developers based on their specific project requirements.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Detailed Comparison

MATLAB
MATLAB
OpenCV
OpenCV

Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java.

OpenCV was designed for computational efficiency and with a strong focus on real-time applications. Written in optimized C/C++, the library can take advantage of multi-core processing. Enabled with OpenCL, it can take advantage of the hardware acceleration of the underlying heterogeneous compute platform.

-
C++, C, Python and Java interfaces and supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS, iOS and Android;More than 47 thousand people of user community and estimated number of downloads exceeding 7 million;Usage ranges from interactive art, to mines inspection, stitching maps on the web or through advanced robotics
Statistics
Stacks
1.1K
Stacks
1.4K
Followers
702
Followers
1.1K
Votes
37
Votes
102
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 20
    Simulink
  • 5
    Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy
  • 5
    Model based software development
  • 3
    S-Functions
  • 2
    REPL
Cons
  • 2
    Does not support named function arguments
  • 2
    Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with *
  • 2
    Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky
  • 1
    Costs a lot
Pros
  • 37
    Computer Vision
  • 18
    Open Source
  • 12
    Imaging
  • 10
    Face Detection
  • 10
    Machine Learning

What are some alternatives to MATLAB, OpenCV?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase