head to head · open source
calibre vs lime
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars, 2,743 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lime has 1,493 stars, 209 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. calibre leads on adoption by 1,663% (26,327 vs 1,493 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; lime is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, lime 14%. 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 | lime | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 209 |
| 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 lime if
- You want the lime feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and lime 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 lime
Lime An agent that can actually finish the work Open source full stack AI agent for Desktop and CLI/TUI Full stack AI agent for coding, files, terminals, tools, research, content, multimodal work, and multi agent workflows worldwide. 简体中文 · English · Feature Map · Docs · Release Notes · Issues Lime is more than a chat box: it understands context, calls tools, edits files, runs commands, organizes material, creates deliverables, and keeps moving a task forward from one desktop or terminal workspace. Table of Contents What is Lime? What the full stack agent can do How a task moves forward Core capabilities Who…
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or lime more popular?
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars and lime has 1,493. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and lime free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and lime under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and lime?
calibre is written in Python and lime in TypeScript. 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 lime?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (26,327 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lime if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.