head to head · open source
calibre-web vs LibreTranslate
calibre-web has 18,216 GitHub stars, 1,863 forks, 409 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LibreTranslate has 16,674 stars, 1,707 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. calibre-web leads on adoption by 9% (18,216 vs 16,674 stars). calibre-web is written in Fluent under GPL-3.0; LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. calibre-web has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, LibreTranslate 10%. calibre-web 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
| calibre-web | LibreTranslate | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 17K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Fluent | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick calibre-web if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Fluent
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick LibreTranslate if
- You want the LibreTranslate feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and LibreTranslate fits your workflow better
About calibre-web
Calibre Web is a web application that provides a clean and intuitive interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks from a valid Calibre database. It is a fork of the library project (calibreserver) and is licensed under the GPL v3. The project lives in the Calibre ecosystem, and it is distributed through PyPI as the calibreweb package as well as through Docker images. It has been developed for over eleven years and carries roughly 18,183 stars and 1,856 forks on GitHub.
read the full calibre-web overview →
About LibreTranslate
LibreTranslate is a free and open source machine translation API written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the open source translation ecosystem and is positioned as a self hosted alternative to hosted translation services. The project does not rely on proprietary software such as Google or Azure for translation. Instead, it uses the open source Argos Translate library as its translation engine.
read the full LibreTranslate overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is calibre-web or LibreTranslate more popular?
calibre-web has 18,216 GitHub stars and LibreTranslate has 16,674. calibre-web has the larger community by that measure.
Are calibre-web and LibreTranslate free?
Both are open source. calibre-web is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LibreTranslate under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between calibre-web and LibreTranslate?
calibre-web is written in Fluent and LibreTranslate in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, calibre-web or LibreTranslate?
Choose calibre-web if you want the larger community (18,216 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose LibreTranslate if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.