head to head · open source
lux vs pdf_oxide
lux has 31,818 GitHub stars, 3,329 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. pdf_oxide has 1,156 stars, 147 forks, 322 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lux leads on adoption by 2,652% (31,818 vs 1,156 stars). lux is written in Go under MIT; pdf_oxide is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. lux has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pdf_oxide 13%. pdf_oxide 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
| lux | pdf_oxide | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-03-29 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 147 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lux if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pdf_oxide if
- You want the pdf_oxide feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and pdf_oxide fits your workflow better
About lux
Lux Let there be Lux! 👾 Lux is a fast and simple video downloader built with Go. Installation Prerequisites Install via go install Homebrew (macOS only) Arch Linux Void Linux Scoop on Windows Chocolatey on Windows Cask on Windows/macOS/Linux Getting Started Download a video Download anything else Download playlist Multiple inputs Resume a download Auto retry Cookies Proxy Multi Thread Short link bilibili Use specified Referrer Specify the output path and name Debug Mode Reuse extracted data Options Download: Network: Playlist: Filesystem: Subtitle: Youku: aria2: Supported Sites Known issues 优酷 西瓜/头条视频…
About pdf_oxide
PDFOxide The Fastest PDF Toolkit for 20 Languages — Python, Rust, Go, JS/TS, C , Java, Kotlin, Swift, C++ & more, plus CLI & AI New in v0.3.69 — eleven new language bindings. PDFOxide now ships idiomatic bindings for C++, Swift, Kotlin, Dart, R, Julia, Zig, Scala, Clojure, Objective C, and Elixir , each built over the stable C ABI with its own CI workflow, api coverage tests, and runnable examples. That brings the toolkit to 20 languages (Rust core + 19 bindings). Want another language? Open an issue and tell us. The fastest PDF library for text extraction, image extraction, and markdown conversion. A Rust core…
read the full pdf_oxide overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lux or pdf_oxide more popular?
lux has 31,818 GitHub stars and pdf_oxide has 1,156. lux has the larger community by that measure.
Are lux and pdf_oxide free?
Both are open source. lux is licensed under MIT and pdf_oxide under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lux and pdf_oxide?
lux is written in Go and pdf_oxide in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lux or pdf_oxide?
Choose lux if you want the larger community (31,818 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pdf_oxide if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.