head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs PyMuPDF
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars, 1,707 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. PyMuPDF has 10,744 stars, 800 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 55% (16,674 vs 10,744 stars). LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; PyMuPDF is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. LibreTranslate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, PyMuPDF 7%. PyMuPDF 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
| LibreTranslate | PyMuPDF | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 11K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-03 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 800 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LibreTranslate if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick PyMuPDF if
- You want the PyMuPDF 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 PyMuPDF fits your workflow better
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 →
About PyMuPDF
PyMuPDF is a high performance Python library, built on the MuPDF C engine, for extracting, analysing, converting, rendering and manipulating PDF and other documents, aimed at Python developers building data extraction, document processing and AI retrieval pipelines.
read the full PyMuPDF overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or PyMuPDF more popular?
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars and PyMuPDF has 10,744. LibreTranslate has the larger community by that measure.
Are LibreTranslate and PyMuPDF free?
Both are open source. LibreTranslate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and PyMuPDF under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LibreTranslate and PyMuPDF?
LibreTranslate is written in Python and PyMuPDF 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, LibreTranslate or PyMuPDF?
Choose LibreTranslate if you want the larger community (16,674 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose PyMuPDF if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.