head to head · open source
koreader vs ebooklib
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ebooklib has 1,809 stars, 259 forks, 110 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. koreader leads on adoption by 1,545% (29,761 vs 1,809 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; ebooklib is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ebooklib 14%. 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 | ebooklib | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 259 |
| 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 ebooklib if
- You want the ebooklib feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ebooklib 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 ebooklib
EbookLib is a Python library for EPUB2/EPUB3 manipulation and processing. It reads and writes EPUB files programmatically. It lives in the Python content publishing ecosystem. It solves the problem of handling EPUB2/EPUB3 files in Python code without manually building and reading each component.
read the full ebooklib overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or ebooklib more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and ebooklib has 1,809. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and ebooklib free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ebooklib under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and ebooklib?
koreader is written in Lua and ebooklib 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 ebooklib?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ebooklib if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.