head to head · open source
lerna vs foliate-js
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. foliate-js has 1,112 stars, 265 forks, 61 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. lerna leads on adoption by 3,142% (36,053 vs 1,112 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; foliate-js is written in JavaScript under MIT. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, foliate-js 24%. lerna 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
| lerna | foliate-js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 265 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lerna if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick foliate-js if
- You want the foliate-js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and foliate-js fits your workflow better
About lerna
Lerna is a fast, modern build system for managing and publishing multiple JavaScript/TypeScript packages from the same repository, aimed at teams that maintain monorepos and publish packages to npm.
read the full lerna overview →
About foliate-js
foliate js is a pure JavaScript library for rendering e books directly in the browser, built for developers who want to embed a reader in a web application without a backend conversion step or a native rendering stack.
read the full foliate-js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or foliate-js more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and foliate-js has 1,112. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and foliate-js free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and foliate-js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and foliate-js?
lerna is written in TypeScript and foliate-js in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lerna or foliate-js?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose foliate-js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.