head to head · open source
ebook2audiobook vs so-novel
ebook2audiobook has 20,198 GitHub stars, 1,728 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. so-novel has 8,137 stars, 724 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ebook2audiobook leads on adoption by 148% (20,198 vs 8,137 stars). ebook2audiobook is written in Python under Apache-2.0; so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. ebook2audiobook has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, so-novel 9%. ebook2audiobook 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
| ebook2audiobook | so-novel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 724 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ebook2audiobook if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 ebook2audiobook
ebook2audiobook (E2A) is an open source Python tool that converts e books into audiobooks with chapters and metadata, using advanced text to speech engines. It supports voice cloning and 1158 languages, and runs on CPU or GPU. The project lives in the Python ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and carries topics covering audiobook, TTS, voice cloning, multilingual output, Gradio, Docker, and XTTS. It has been on GitHub for three years and holds roughly 20,175 stars and 1,727 forks.
read the full ebook2audiobook overview →
About so-novel
So Novel is an AGPL 3.0 Java tool that extracts structured content from web pages and exports it as standard ebook and document formats including EPUB, TXT, and PDF, built for people who want offline copies of web fiction and for anyone turning web content into readable documents.
read the full so-novel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ebook2audiobook or so-novel more popular?
ebook2audiobook has 20,198 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,137. ebook2audiobook has the larger community by that measure.
Are ebook2audiobook and so-novel free?
Both are open source. ebook2audiobook is licensed under Apache-2.0 and so-novel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ebook2audiobook and so-novel?
ebook2audiobook is written in Python 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, ebook2audiobook or so-novel?
Choose ebook2audiobook if you want the larger community (20,198 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose so-novel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.