head to head · open source
lerna vs koreader
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars, 2,269 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. koreader has 30,818 stars, 2,019 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lerna leads on adoption by 17% (36,041 vs 30,818 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, koreader 7%. koreader 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
| lerna | koreader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 31K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lerna if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick koreader if
- You want the koreader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and koreader fits your workflow better
About lerna
Important note: this project changed stewardship to Nx! Your favorite tool is alive and well: Lerna is a fast, modern build system for managing and publishing multiple JavaScript/TypeScript packages from the same repository. A few links to help you get started: lerna.js.org: Documentation, Guides, Interactive Tutorials Getting Started Features Official Nx and Lerna YouTube Channel Blog Posts About Lerna and Nx Engage with the Core Team and the Community Follow Lerna on Twitter Community Discord, forum channel Want to help? If you want to file a bug or submit a PR, read up on our guidelines for contributing Core…
read the full lerna overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or koreader more popular?
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars and koreader has 30,818. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and koreader free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and koreader under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and koreader?
lerna is written in TypeScript and koreader in Lua. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lerna or koreader?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,041 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose koreader if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.