head to head · open source

so-novel vs Calibre-Web-Automated

so-novel has 8,911 GitHub stars, 754 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Calibre-Web-Automated has 6,547 stars, 565 forks, 443 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. so-novel leads on adoption by 36% (8,911 vs 6,547 stars). so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0; Calibre-Web-Automated is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. so-novel has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Calibre-Web-Automated 9%. so-novel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ebook), 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.

so-novel ★ 8.9K Calibre-Web-Automated ★ 6.5K category Content & Publishing

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Side by side

so-novel Calibre-Web-Automated
GitHub stars ★ 8.9K ★ 6.5K
License AGPL-3.0 GPL-3.0
Written in Java JavaScript
Last push 2026-10-26 2026-10-09
Forks ⑂ 754 ⑂ 565
Self-hosting Yes Yes
Data ownership Your server Your server

pick so-novel if

  • You weight community size — 8.9K stars and counting
  • You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
  • Your stack matches Java
  • You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full so-novel profile →

pick Calibre-Web-Automated if

  • You want the Calibre-Web-Automated feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
  • Your stack matches JavaScript
  • You evaluated both and Calibre-Web-Automated fits your workflow better

full Calibre-Web-Automated profile →

About so-novel

So Novel 概述 So Novel 是一款通用的网页内容处理与导出工具,它致力于帮助用户高效地从网页中提取结构化信息,并将其灵活导出为 EPUB、TXT、PDF 等多种标准电子文档格式。适用于学习采集、格式转换、电子书制作等场景。 预览 点击查看图片 TUI 预览 (Text based User Interface) WebUI 预览 (网页版) CLI 预览 (Command Line Interface) 安装 📦 手动下载压缩包 🪟 Windows 1. PowerShell 2. CMD (命令提示符) 🐧 Linux cmd REM REM 高级用户使用自定义 JRE 启动程序 REM 将 "your path\java.exe" 替换为你的 JRE 路径,例如: REM "C:\Java\jdk 21\bin\java.exe" REM @echo off your path\java.exe ^ XX:+UseZGC ^ XX:+ZGenerational ^ Dconfig.file=config.ini ^ Dmode=tui ^ Dfile.encoding=GBK Big5 ^ jar app.jar Linux / macOS:run linux.sh / run macos.sh 修改 java 路径 常见问题 讨论 支持 & 赞助

read the full so-novel overview →

About Calibre-Web-Automated

Calibre Web Automated (formerly Calibre Web Automator) Making Calibre Web your dream , all in one self hosted digital library solution. Supporting the Project ❤️ CWA is and always will be free and open source. If it makes your library life easier and you're able to support development, contributions go directly to: Testing hardware (ereader devices & tablets ect.) Development tools and infrastructure Coffee ☕ (lots of coffee) Quick Access Features 🪄 Releases 🆕 Roadmap 🛣️ How to Install: 📖 Quick Install 🚀 Docker Compose 🐋⭐(Recommended) Users Migrating from stock Calibre Web 🔄 Post Install Tasks 🏁 Default…

read the full Calibre-Web-Automated overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is so-novel or Calibre-Web-Automated more popular?

so-novel has 8,911 GitHub stars and Calibre-Web-Automated has 6,547. so-novel has the larger community by that measure.

Are so-novel and Calibre-Web-Automated free?

Both are open source. so-novel is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Calibre-Web-Automated under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between so-novel and Calibre-Web-Automated?

so-novel is written in Java and Calibre-Web-Automated in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.

Which should I choose, so-novel or Calibre-Web-Automated?

Choose so-novel if you want the larger community (8,911 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Calibre-Web-Automated if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.