head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs so-novel
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars, 2,116 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. so-novel has 8,137 stars, 724 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 247% (28,217 vs 8,137 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 9%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| koodo-reader | so-novel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 724 |
| 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 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
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 so-novel
So Novel is an AGPL 3.0 Java tool that extracts structured content from web pages and exports it as standard ebook and document formats including EPUB, TXT, and PDF, built for people who want offline copies of web fiction and for anyone turning web content into readable documents.
read the full so-novel overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Publishing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Publishing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or so-novel more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,217 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,137. 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 (28,217 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.