head to head · open source
koreader vs thorium-reader
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. thorium-reader has 2,872 stars, 237 forks, 206 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koreader leads on adoption by 936% (29,761 vs 2,872 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; thorium-reader is written in TypeScript under BSD-3-Clause. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, thorium-reader 8%. 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 | thorium-reader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Lua | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 237 |
| 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 thorium-reader if
- You want the thorium-reader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and thorium-reader 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 thorium-reader
Thorium Reader is a cross platform desktop reading application for Windows 10/10S, macOS, and Linux, based on the open source Readium Desktop toolkit. It lives in the content and publishing ecosystem, is categorized as Content & Publishing / Publishing, and is released under the BSD 3 Clause license. The repository reports 2,871 stars, 237 forks, and a last push on 2026 09 14.
read the full thorium-reader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or thorium-reader more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and thorium-reader has 2,872. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and thorium-reader free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and thorium-reader under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and thorium-reader?
koreader is written in Lua and thorium-reader in TypeScript. 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 thorium-reader?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose thorium-reader if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.