head to head · open source
koreader vs sile
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars, 2,019 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sile has 1,791 stars, 109 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. koreader leads on adoption by 1,621% (30,818 vs 1,791 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; sile is written in Lua under MIT. koreader has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, sile 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 | sile | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Lua | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 109 |
| 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 sile if
- You want the sile feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and sile 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 sile
What is SILE? SILE is a [typesetting][typesetting] system; its job is to produce beautiful printed documents. Conceptually, SILE is similar to [TeX][tex]—from which it borrows some concepts and algorithms—but the similarities end there. Rather than being a derivative of the TeX family SILE is a new typesetting and layout engine written from the ground up using modern technologies and borrowing some ideas from graphical systems such as [InDesign][indesign]. Where does it run? SILE can be downloaded & installed to your system or run remotely as a CI job. What can I do with SILE (that I can’t do with TeX)? First…
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or sile more popular?
koreader has 30,818 GitHub stars and sile has 1,791. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and sile free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and sile under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and sile?
koreader is written in Lua and sile 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, koreader or sile?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (30,818 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sile if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.