head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs PyMuPDF
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars, 2,116 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PyMuPDF has 10,732 stars, 798 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 163% (28,217 vs 10,732 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; PyMuPDF is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, PyMuPDF 7%. PyMuPDF 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 | PyMuPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 11K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 798 |
| 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 PyMuPDF if
- You want the PyMuPDF feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PyMuPDF 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 PyMuPDF
PyMuPDF is a high performance Python library, built on the MuPDF C engine, for extracting, analysing, converting, rendering and manipulating PDF and other documents, aimed at Python developers building data extraction, document processing and AI retrieval pipelines.
read the full PyMuPDF overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or PyMuPDF more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars and PyMuPDF has 10,732. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and PyMuPDF free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and PyMuPDF under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and PyMuPDF?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and PyMuPDF 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, koodo-reader or PyMuPDF?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,217 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose PyMuPDF if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.