head to head · open source
koreader vs swift-toolkit
koreader has 29,766 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped today. swift-toolkit has 552 stars, 246 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. koreader leads on adoption by 5,292% (29,766 vs 552 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; swift-toolkit is written in Swift under BSD-3-Clause. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, swift-toolkit 45%. koreader was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (cbz, ebook-reader, 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 | swift-toolkit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 552 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Lua | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 246 |
| 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 swift-toolkit if
- You want the swift-toolkit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and swift-toolkit 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 swift-toolkit
Readium Swift Toolkit Readium Mobile is a toolkit for ebooks, audiobooks and comics written in Swift & Kotlin. [!TIP] Take a look at the guide to quickly get started. A Test App demonstrates how to integrate the Readium Swift toolkit in your own reading app. Features ✅ Implemented 🚧 Partially implemented 📆 Planned 👀 Want to do ❌ Not planned Formats Ebook and Document Formats Audiobook Formats Comic Formats Features A number of features are implemented only for some publication formats. OPDS Support DRM Support User Guides Guides are available to help you make the most of the toolkit. Publication Opening a publ…
read the full swift-toolkit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or swift-toolkit more popular?
koreader has 29,766 GitHub stars and swift-toolkit has 552. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and swift-toolkit free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and swift-toolkit under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and swift-toolkit?
koreader is written in Lua and swift-toolkit in Swift. 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 swift-toolkit?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,766 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose swift-toolkit if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.