head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs so-novel
koodo-reader has 28,699 GitHub stars, 2,148 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. so-novel has 8,898 stars, 752 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 223% (28,699 vs 8,898 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, so-novel 8%. 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 (ebook), 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 | so-novel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 8.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 752 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick koodo-reader if
- You weight community size — 29K 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 so-novel if
- You want the so-novel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and so-novel fits your workflow better
About koodo-reader
简体中文 हिंदी Português Indonesian English Türkçe Koodo Reader A cross platform ebook reader Download Preview Roadmap Document Plugins Preview Features Format support: EPUB ( .epub ) PDF ( .pdf ) DRM free Mobipocket ( .mobi ) and Kindle ( .azw3 , .azw ) Plain text ( .txt ) FictionBook ( .fb2 ) Comic book archive ( .cbr , .cbz , .cbt , .cb7 ) Rich text ( .md , .docx ) HyperText ( .html , .xml , .xhtml , .mhtml , .htm ) Platform support: Windows , macOS , Linux , Android , iOS and Web Sync and backup your data with OneDrive , Google Drive , Dropbox , iCloud , MEGA , pCloud , Yandex Disk , Box , FTP , SFTP , WebDAV…
read the full koodo-reader overview →
About so-novel
So Novel 概述 So Novel 是一款通用的网页内容处理与导出工具，它致力于帮助用户高效地从网页中提取结构化信息，并将其灵活导出为 EPUB、TXT、PDF 等多种标准电子文档格式。适用于学习采集、格式转换、电子书制作等场景。 预览 点击查看图片 TUI 预览 (Text based User Interface) WebUI 预览 (网页版) CLI 预览 (Command Line Interface) 安装 📦 手动下载压缩包 🪟 Windows 1. PowerShell 2. CMD (命令提示符) 🐧 Linux cmd REM REM 高级用户使用自定义 JRE 启动程序 REM 将 "your path\java.exe" 替换为你的 JRE 路径，例如： REM "C:\Java\jdk 21\bin\java.exe" REM @echo off your path\java.exe ^ XX:+UseZGC ^ XX:+ZGenerational ^ Dconfig.file=config.ini ^ Dmode=tui ^ Dfile.encoding=GBK Big5 ^ jar app.jar Linux / macOS：run linux.sh / run macos.sh 修改 java 路径 常见问题 讨论 支持 & 赞助
read the full so-novel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or so-novel more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,699 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,898. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and so-novel free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and so-novel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and so-novel?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and so-novel in Java. 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 so-novel?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,699 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose so-novel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.