head to head · open source
calibre vs anymd
calibre has 26,019 GitHub stars, 2,706 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. anymd has 939 stars, 83 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. calibre leads on adoption by 2,671% (26,019 vs 939 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; anymd is written in Rust under MIT. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, anymd 9%. anymd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (epub), 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
| calibre | anymd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 939 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 83 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick calibre if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick anymd if
- You want the anymd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and anymd fits your workflow better
About calibre
calibre is the official source code repository for the calibre e book manager, an open source application written in Python and released under GPL 3.0. It lives in the content and publishing ecosystem as a desktop tool for books, and it is cross platform, running on Linux, Windows and macOS. The project has been hosted on GitHub for roughly thirteen years, carries about 25,900 stars and 2,683 forks, and its home on the web is calibre ebook.com, where an About page and a screenshots page document it further.
read the full calibre overview →
About anymd
anymd is an open source Rust MCP server and command line tool that converts PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint decks, Excel workbooks, EPUB files, HTML and web pages, images, audio and video into clean Markdown for AI agents, running on the user's own machine with no API key.
read the full anymd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or anymd more popular?
calibre has 26,019 GitHub stars and anymd has 939. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and anymd free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and anymd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and anymd?
calibre is written in Python and anymd in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, calibre or anymd?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (26,019 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose anymd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.