head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs citadel
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars, 2,116 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. citadel has 1,276 stars, 20 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 2,111% (28,217 vs 1,276 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; citadel is written in Rust under MIT. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, citadel 2%. citadel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ebook, epub), 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
| koodo-reader | citadel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 20 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick koodo-reader if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick citadel if
- You want the citadel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and citadel fits your workflow better
About koodo-reader
Koodo Reader is a cross platform ebook manager and reader written in JavaScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and the web, and it is distributed both as downloadable desktop and mobile applications and as a hosted web version at web.koodoreader.com. The project lives in the JavaScript ecosystem, is developed with yarn and git, and has been maintained for roughly seven years, with a repository that carries about 28,000 stars and 2,100 forks.
read the full koodo-reader overview →
About citadel
Citadel is a desktop application for managing ebook libraries, written in Rust and released under the MIT license. It is positioned inside the Calibre ecosystem as a backwards compatible manager for ebook collections, with the stated goal that Calibre must be able to read any library that Citadel has edited. The project targets users who want a faster and easier to use interface for organizing ebooks, especially epub files, without replacing the Calibre library format.
read the full citadel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or citadel more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars and citadel has 1,276. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and citadel free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and citadel under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and citadel?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and citadel in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, koodo-reader or citadel?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,217 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose citadel if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.