head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs openreader
koodo-reader has 28,221 GitHub stars, 2,116 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openreader has 509 stars, 70 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 5,444% (28,221 vs 509 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; openreader is written in TypeScript under MIT. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, openreader 14%. openreader was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | openreader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 509 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 70 |
| 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 openreader if
- You want the openreader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and openreader 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 openreader
📄🔊 OpenReader OpenReader is an open source, self host friendly text to speech document reader built with Next.js for EPUB, PDF, TXT, MD, and DOCX with multilingual, synchronized read along playback. Previously named OpenReader WebUI . Get started in the docs . ✨ Highlights ▶️ Progressive background generation and playback — begin listening as soon as the first segment is ready while the worker continues generating ahead into one durable document timeline; cached audio is reused across seeks, reloads, and exports. 🧱 Layout aware PDF parsing with PP DocLayoutV3 (ONNX) — structured block detection, cross page sti…
read the full openreader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or openreader more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,221 GitHub stars and openreader has 509. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and openreader free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and openreader under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and openreader?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and openreader in TypeScript. 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 openreader?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,221 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose openreader if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.