head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs substance
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars, 1,707 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. substance has 2,733 stars, 121 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 510% (16,674 vs 2,733 stars). LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; substance is written in JavaScript under MIT. LibreTranslate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, substance 4%. LibreTranslate 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 | substance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-03 | 2026-04-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 121 |
| 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 substance if
- You want the substance feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and substance 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 substance
Substance is a JavaScript library for web based content editing. It lives in the JavaScript and Content & Publishing / Publishing ecosystem, and it is distributed under the MIT license. The README describes it as a library that provides building blocks for realizing custom text editors and web based publishing systems, and it was developed to power the online editing platform Substance.
read the full substance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or substance more popular?
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars and substance has 2,733. LibreTranslate has the larger community by that measure.
Are LibreTranslate and substance free?
Both are open source. LibreTranslate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and substance under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LibreTranslate and substance?
LibreTranslate is written in Python and substance 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, LibreTranslate or substance?
Choose LibreTranslate if you want the larger community (16,674 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose substance if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.