head to head · open source
koreader vs ebook2audiobook
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ebook2audiobook has 20,198 stars, 1,728 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koreader leads on adoption by 47% (29,761 vs 20,198 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; ebook2audiobook is written in Python under Apache-2.0. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ebook2audiobook 9%. koreader 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
| koreader | ebook2audiobook | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 20K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick koreader if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ebook2audiobook if
- You want the ebook2audiobook feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ebook2audiobook fits your workflow better
About koreader
KOReader is a free, AGPL 3.0 licensed document viewer written in Lua that runs on e ink readers from Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo and PocketBook, on reMarkable, and on Android and desktop Linux, aimed at readers who want broader format support, finer typesetting control and better performance than the reading software shipped with their device.
read the full koreader overview →
About ebook2audiobook
ebook2audiobook (E2A) is an open source Python tool that converts e books into audiobooks with chapters and metadata, using advanced text to speech engines. It supports voice cloning and 1158 languages, and runs on CPU or GPU. The project lives in the Python ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and carries topics covering audiobook, TTS, voice cloning, multilingual output, Gradio, Docker, and XTTS. It has been on GitHub for three years and holds roughly 20,175 stars and 1,727 forks.
read the full ebook2audiobook overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or ebook2audiobook more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and ebook2audiobook has 20,198. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and ebook2audiobook free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ebook2audiobook under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and ebook2audiobook?
koreader is written in Lua and ebook2audiobook 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, koreader or ebook2audiobook?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ebook2audiobook if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.