head to head · open source
calibre vs PyMuPDF
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars, 2,743 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PyMuPDF has 11,047 stars, 831 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. calibre leads on adoption by 138% (26,327 vs 11,047 stars). calibre is written in Python under GPL-3.0; PyMuPDF is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. calibre has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, PyMuPDF 8%. PyMuPDF was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (epub, python), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | PyMuPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 11K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 831 |
| 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 PyMuPDF if
- You want the PyMuPDF 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 PyMuPDF 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 PyMuPDF
PyMuPDF The PDF engine behind over 50 million monthly downloads, powering AI pipelines worldwide. PyMuPDF is a high performance Python library for data extraction, analysis, conversion, rendering and manipulation of PDF (and other) documents. Built on top of MuPDF — a lightweight, fast C engine — PyMuPDF gives you precise, low level control over documents alongside high level convenience APIs. No mandatory external dependencies. Why PyMuPDF? Fast — powered by MuPDF, a best in class C rendering engine Accurate — pixel perfect text extraction with font, color, and position metadata Versatile — read, write…
read the full PyMuPDF overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre or PyMuPDF more popular?
calibre has 26,327 GitHub stars and PyMuPDF has 11,047. calibre has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre and PyMuPDF free?
Both are open source. calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and PyMuPDF under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre and PyMuPDF?
calibre is written in Python and PyMuPDF 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 PyMuPDF?
Choose calibre if you want the larger community (26,327 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose PyMuPDF if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.