head to head · open source
koreader vs feather
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. feather has 607 stars, 54 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koreader leads on adoption by 4,803% (29,761 vs 607 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; feather is written in Swift under MIT. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, feather 9%. feather was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | feather | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 607 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 54 |
| 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 feather if
- You want the feather feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and feather 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 feather
Feather is a Swift based content management system for developers and publishing teams who want to run a blog or content site on their own infrastructure rather than through a hosted service.
read the full feather overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or feather more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and feather has 607. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and feather free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and feather under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and feather?
koreader is written in Lua and feather in Swift. 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 feather?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose feather if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.