head to head · open source
Kodi vs BookWyrm
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars, 6,598 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookWyrm has 2,779 stars, 336 forks, 418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kodi leads on adoption by 664% (21,229 vs 2,779 stars). Kodi is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; BookWyrm is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Kodi has attracted 31% as many forks as stars, BookWyrm 12%. Kodi 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
| Kodi | BookWyrm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 336 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kodi if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BookWyrm if
- You want the BookWyrm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and BookWyrm fits your workflow better
About Kodi
Kodi is a free and open source home theater and media center application, also described as an entertainment hub for digital media. It is written mainly in C++ and distributed as a native application for Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS, tvOS, and Windows, with support for many common processor architectures. The project began in 2003 and is run by the XBMC Foundation, with development and support carried out by volunteers worldwide.
About BookWyrm
BookWyrm is a social reading network for tracking books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. It lives in the ActivityPub ecosystem, so users can interact with other BookWyrm instances and with ActivityPub services such as Mastodon and Pleroma. The project is a Python web application using Django, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery, and ActivityPub.
read the full BookWyrm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi or BookWyrm more popular?
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars and BookWyrm has 2,779. Kodi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kodi and BookWyrm free?
Neither Kodi nor BookWyrm declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kodi and BookWyrm?
Kodi is written in C++ and BookWyrm 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, Kodi or BookWyrm?
Choose Kodi if you want the larger community (21,229 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose BookWyrm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.