head to head · open source
koodo-reader vs zlib
koodo-reader has 28,373 GitHub stars, 2,123 forks, 271 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zlib has 524 stars, 38 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 26 days ago. koodo-reader leads on adoption by 5,315% (28,373 vs 524 stars). koodo-reader is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; zlib is written in Go under MIT. koodo-reader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, zlib 7%. koodo-reader was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (book, 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 | zlib | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 524 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 38 |
| 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 zlib if
- You want the zlib feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and zlib 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 zlib
zlib is a command line interface for Z Library that lets readers search the catalogue, download ebooks, send them to a Kindle device, and drive the whole workflow from AI coding agents.
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Frequently asked questions
Is koodo-reader or zlib more popular?
koodo-reader has 28,373 GitHub stars and zlib has 524. koodo-reader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koodo-reader and zlib free?
Both are open source. koodo-reader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and zlib under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koodo-reader and zlib?
koodo-reader is written in JavaScript and zlib in Go. 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 zlib?
Choose koodo-reader if you want the larger community (28,373 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose zlib if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.