head to head · open source
lerna vs readest
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. readest has 24,413 stars, 1,586 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lerna leads on adoption by 48% (36,053 vs 24,413 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; readest is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, readest 6%. readest 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 | readest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 24K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 readest if
- You want the readest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and readest 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 readest
Readest is an open source, cross platform ebook reader built with Next.js 16 and Tauri v2 for readers who want one modern library across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the web.
read the full readest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or readest more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and readest has 24,413. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and readest free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and readest under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and readest?
lerna is written in TypeScript and readest 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, lerna or readest?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose readest if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.