head to head · open source
koreader vs kepubify
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kepubify has 889 stars, 58 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. koreader leads on adoption by 3,248% (29,761 vs 889 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; kepubify is written in Go under MIT. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kepubify 7%. koreader was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ebook, epub, kobo), 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 | kepubify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 889 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-12-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 kepubify if
- You want the kepubify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kepubify 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 kepubify
Kepubify is a free, MIT licensed command line tool written in Go that converts standard EPUB files into the Kobo EPUB format, aimed at Kobo eReader owners, self hosters, and developers who need fast, scriptable, standalone conversion without installing a full e book management suite.
read the full kepubify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or kepubify more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and kepubify has 889. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and kepubify free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kepubify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and kepubify?
koreader is written in Lua and kepubify 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, koreader or kepubify?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kepubify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.