head to head · open source
lerna vs koreader
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. koreader has 29,761 stars, 1,908 forks, 1,345 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lerna leads on adoption by 21% (36,053 vs 29,761 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; koreader is written in Lua under AGPL-3.0. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, koreader 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
| lerna | koreader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 30K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 koreader if
- You want the koreader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and koreader 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or koreader more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and koreader has 29,761. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and koreader free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and koreader under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and koreader?
lerna is written in TypeScript and koreader 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, lerna or koreader?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose koreader if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.