head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs reader
koodo-reader has 28,221 GitHub stars, 2,116 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. reader has 560 stars, 40 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 4,939% (28,221 vs 560 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; reader is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, reader 7%. koodo-reader was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (markdown), 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 | reader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 560 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 reader if
- You want the reader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and reader 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 reader
Reader is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript library and hosted service that scrapes, crawls, and drives stealth headless browsers to deliver clean Markdown to AI agents, built for developers who need production grade web access without assembling Puppeteer, stealth plugins, and proxy infrastructure by hand.
read the full reader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or reader more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,221 GitHub stars and reader has 560. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and reader free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and reader under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and reader?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and reader 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 reader?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,221 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose reader if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.