head to head · open source
koreader vs EpubReader
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars, 2,019 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. EpubReader has 552 stars, 106 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. koreader leads on adoption by 5,483% (30,818 vs 552 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; EpubReader is written in C# under Unlicense. koreader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, EpubReader 19%. 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 | EpubReader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 552 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | Lua | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 106 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick koreader if
- You weight community size — 31K 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 EpubReader if
- You want the EpubReader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and EpubReader fits your workflow better
About koreader
KOReader is a document viewer primarily aimed at e ink readers. [![AGPL Licence][badge license]](COPYING) [![Latest release][badge release]][link gh releases] [![Gitter][badge gitter]][link gitter] [![Mobileread][badge mobileread]][link forum] [![Build Status][badge circleci]][link circleci] [![Coverage Status][badge coverage]][link coverage] [![Weblate Status][badge weblate]][link weblate] Download • User guide • Wiki • Developer docs Main features portable : runs on embedded devices (Cervantes, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook, reMarkable), Android and Linux computers. Developers can run a KOReader emulator in Linux…
read the full koreader overview →
About EpubReader
.NET library for reading EPUB files. Supported EPUB standards: EPUB 2 (2.0, 2.0.1) EPUB 3 (3.0, 3.0.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3) Supported runtimes: .NET Standard = 1.3 (includes .NET Core = 1.0 and .NET = 5) .NET Framework = 4.6 Download Documentation WPF & .NET 10 console demo apps EpubReader in a nutshell Demo apps Download WPF demo app (WpfDemo.zip) This .NET Framework application demonstrates how to open EPUB books and extract their content using the library. HTML renderer used in this demo app may have difficulties while rendering content for some of the books if the HTML structure is too complicated. Download .NET…
read the full EpubReader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or EpubReader more popular?
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars and EpubReader has 552. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and EpubReader free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and EpubReader under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and EpubReader?
koreader is written in Lua and EpubReader in C#. 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 EpubReader?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (30,818 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose EpubReader if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.