head to head · open source
calibre vs LibreTranslate
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars, 2,690 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LibreTranslate has 16,640 stars, 1,705 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. calibre leads on adoption by 56% (25,923 vs 16,640 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 | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 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 LibreTranslate
LibreTranslate is a free and open source machine translation API written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the open source translation ecosystem and is positioned as a self hosted alternative to hosted translation services. The project does not rely on proprietary software such as Google or Azure for translation. Instead, it uses the open source Argos Translate library as its translation engine.
read the full LibreTranslate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or LibreTranslate more popular?
calibre has 25,923 GitHub stars and LibreTranslate has 16,640. 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 (25,923 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.