head to head · open source
koreader vs kokoro-tts
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kokoro-tts has 1,883 stars, 177 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. koreader leads on adoption by 1,481% (29,761 vs 1,883 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; kokoro-tts is written in Python under MIT. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kokoro-tts 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 | kokoro-tts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 177 |
| 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 kokoro-tts if
- You want the kokoro-tts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and kokoro-tts 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 kokoro-tts
kokoro tts is a Python command line text to speech tool built around the Kokoro model, and it lives in the open source Python text to speech and publishing ecosystem. The project wraps model inference in a CLI workflow so users can convert written text into spoken audio without building a separate speech pipeline.
read the full kokoro-tts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or kokoro-tts more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and kokoro-tts has 1,883. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and kokoro-tts free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kokoro-tts under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and kokoro-tts?
koreader is written in Lua and kokoro-tts 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 kokoro-tts?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kokoro-tts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.