head to head · open source
koreader vs WritingTools
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WritingTools has 2,451 stars, 159 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. koreader leads on adoption by 1,114% (29,761 vs 2,451 stars). koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0; WritingTools is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. koreader has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WritingTools 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 | WritingTools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Lua | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 159 |
| 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 WritingTools if
- You want the WritingTools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and WritingTools 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 WritingTools
WritingTools is an open source, system wide writing assistant for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It is inspired by Apple Intelligence Writing Tools and uses cloud based or local large language models to proofread, rewrite, summarize, and transform selected text across applications. The project is written in Swift and released under the GPL 3.0 license. The README states it works in nearly any language.
read the full WritingTools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is koreader or WritingTools more popular?
koreader has 29,761 GitHub stars and WritingTools has 2,451. koreader has the larger community by that measure.
Are koreader and WritingTools free?
Both are open source. koreader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and WritingTools under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between koreader and WritingTools?
koreader is written in Lua and WritingTools 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 WritingTools?
Choose koreader if you want the larger community (29,761 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose WritingTools if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.