head to head · open source
calibre vs LibreTranslate
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars, 2,743 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LibreTranslate has 17,256 stars, 1,792 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. calibre leads on adoption by 53% (26,327 vs 17,256 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, LibreTranslate 10%. 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 | LibreTranslate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 17K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 LibreTranslate if
- You want the LibreTranslate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and LibreTranslate fits your workflow better
About calibre
calibre calibre is an e book manager. It can view, convert, edit and catalog e books in all of the major e book formats. It can also talk to e book reader devices. It can go out to the internet and fetch metadata for your books. It can download newspapers and convert them into e books for convenient reading. It is cross platform, running on Linux, Windows and macOS. For more information, see the calibre About page. Screenshots Screenshots page Usage See the User Manual. Development Setting up a development environment for calibre. A tarball of the source code for the current calibre release. Bugs Bug reports and…
read the full calibre overview →
About LibreTranslate
LibreTranslate Try it online! API Docs Community Forum Bluesky Free and Open Source Machine Translation API, entirely self hosted. Unlike other APIs, it doesn't rely on proprietary software such as Google or Azure to perform translations. Instead, its translation engine is powered by the open source Argos Translate library. Getting Started Quickstart Usage Instructions Community Resources Credits This work is largely possible thanks to Argos Translate, which powers the translation engine. License GNU Affero General Public License v3 Trademark See Trademark Guidelines
read the full LibreTranslate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or LibreTranslate more popular?
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars and LibreTranslate has 17,256. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and LibreTranslate free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LibreTranslate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and LibreTranslate?
calibre is written in Python and LibreTranslate in Python. 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 LibreTranslate?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (26,327 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose LibreTranslate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.