head to head · open source
Calibre-Web-Automated vs substance
Calibre-Web-Automated has 6,547 GitHub stars, 565 forks, 443 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. substance has 2,737 stars, 121 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Calibre-Web-Automated leads on adoption by 139% (6,547 vs 2,737 stars). Calibre-Web-Automated is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; substance is written in JavaScript under MIT. Calibre-Web-Automated has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, substance 4%. Calibre-Web-Automated 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-Web-Automated | substance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-04-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 565 | ⑂ 121 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Calibre-Web-Automated if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick substance if
- You want the substance feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and substance fits your workflow better
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 →
About substance
Substance.js Substance is a JavaScript library for web based content editing. It provides building blocks for realizing custom text editors and web based publishing system. It is developed to power our online editing platform Substance. Development Install the dev dependencies. Run the dev server. Navigate to for the running the browser test suite. The test suite is rebuilt as you make changes to the source files. To run the test suite headless.
read the full substance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Calibre-Web-Automated or substance more popular?
Calibre-Web-Automated has 6,547 GitHub stars and substance has 2,737. Calibre-Web-Automated has the larger community by that measure.
Are Calibre-Web-Automated and substance free?
Both are open source. Calibre-Web-Automated is licensed under GPL-3.0 and substance under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Calibre-Web-Automated and substance?
Calibre-Web-Automated is written in JavaScript and substance 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, Calibre-Web-Automated or substance?
Choose Calibre-Web-Automated if you want the larger community (6,547 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose substance if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.