head to head · open source
calibre vs gradle-play-publisher
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars, 2,690 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gradle-play-publisher has 4,317 stars, 349 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. calibre leads on adoption by 500% (25,923 vs 4,317 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; gradle-play-publisher is written in Kotlin under MIT. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gradle-play-publisher 8%. calibre 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 | gradle-play-publisher | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 349 |
| 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 gradle-play-publisher if
- You want the gradle-play-publisher feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and gradle-play-publisher 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 gradle-play-publisher
Gradle Play Publisher is an unofficial release automation Gradle plugin for Android applications. It connects Gradle tasks to the Google Play Developer API through a service account. The plugin is written in Kotlin and distributed under the MIT license.
read the full gradle-play-publisher overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or gradle-play-publisher more popular?
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars and gradle-play-publisher has 4,317. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and gradle-play-publisher free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and gradle-play-publisher under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and gradle-play-publisher?
calibre is written in Python and gradle-play-publisher in Kotlin. 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 gradle-play-publisher?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (25,923 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gradle-play-publisher if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.