head to head · open source
calibre vs feather
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars, 2,690 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. feather has 607 stars, 54 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. calibre leads on adoption by 4,171% (25,923 vs 607 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; feather is written in Swift under MIT. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, feather 9%. feather 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
| calibre | feather | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 607 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 54 |
| 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 feather if
- You want the feather feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and feather 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 feather
Feather is a Swift based content management system for developers and publishing teams who want to run a blog or content site on their own infrastructure rather than through a hosted service.
read the full feather overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or feather more popular?
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars and feather has 607. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and feather free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and feather under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and feather?
calibre is written in Python and feather in Swift. 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 feather?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (25,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose feather if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.