head to head · open source
koreader vs rentry
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars, 2,019 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rentry has 592 stars, 33 forks, 13 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. koreader leads on adoption by 5,106% (30,818 vs 592 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; rentry is written in Python under MIT. koreader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, rentry 6%. 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
| koreader | rentry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 592 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 33 |
| 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 rentry if
- You want the rentry feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and rentry 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 rentry
rentry Rentry.co is a markdown powered paste/publishing service with preview, custom urls and editing. This repo holds the official Python clients for the rentry API. rentry.py is a command line tool in a single file with no dependencies. rentry client is an installable library. examples/ has one runnable script per API use case. If you'd rather write your own client, skip to the API reference. Installation That gives you both the rentry command line tool and the rentry client library, with no dependencies. Single file CLI (no pip) The CLI also works as a single self contained file: From source The scripts in…
read the full rentry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or rentry more popular?
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars and rentry has 592. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and rentry free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and rentry under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and rentry?
koreader is written in Lua and rentry 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 rentry?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (30,818 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose rentry if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.