head to head · open source
calibre-web vs so-novel
calibre-web has 18,530 GitHub stars, 1,902 forks, 409 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. so-novel has 8,911 stars, 754 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. calibre-web leads on adoption by 108% (18,530 vs 8,911 stars). calibre-web is written in Fluent under GPL-3.0; so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. calibre-web has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, so-novel 8%. 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.
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Side by side
| calibre-web | so-novel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Fluent | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 754 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick calibre-web if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Fluent
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick so-novel if
- You want the so-novel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and so-novel fits your workflow better
About calibre-web
Calibre Web Calibre Web is a web app that offers a clean and intuitive interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks using a valid Calibre database. Table of Contents (click to expand) 1. About 2. Features 3. Installation Installation via pip (recommended) Quick start Requirements 4. Docker Images 5. Troubleshooting 6. Contributor Recognition 7. Contact 8. Contributing to Calibre Web This software is a fork of library and licensed under the GPL v3 License. Features Modern and responsive Bootstrap 3 HTML5 interface Full graphical setup Comprehensive user management with fine grained per user permissions…
read the full calibre-web overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre-web or so-novel more popular?
calibre-web has 18,530 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,911. calibre-web has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre-web and so-novel free?
Both are open source. calibre-web is licensed under GPL-3.0 and so-novel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre-web and so-novel?
calibre-web is written in Fluent and so-novel in Java. 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 or so-novel?
Choose calibre-web if you want the larger community (18,530 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose so-novel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.