head to head · open source
readest vs epub-press-clients
readest has 25,874 GitHub stars, 1,805 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped yesterday. epub-press-clients has 618 stars, 88 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. readest leads on adoption by 4,087% (25,874 vs 618 stars). readest is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; epub-press-clients is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. readest has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, epub-press-clients 14%. readest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ebook, epub, kindle), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| readest | epub-press-clients | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 618 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-06-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 88 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick readest if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick epub-press-clients if
- You want the epub-press-clients feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and epub-press-clients fits your workflow better
About readest
Readest [Readest][link website] is an open source ebook reader designed for immersive and deep reading experiences. Built as a modern rewrite of Foliate, it leverages Next.js 16 and Tauri v2 to deliver a smooth, cross platform experience across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the Web. [![Website][badge website]][link website] [![Web App][badge web app]][link web readest] [![OS][badge platforms]][link website] [![Discord][badge discord]][link discord] [![Reddit][badge reddit]][link reddit] [![AGPL Licence][badge license]](LICENSE) [![Language Coverage][badge language coverage]][link locales]…
read the full readest overview →
About epub-press-clients
epub press clients Easy to use clients for building ebooks with EpubPress. Backend code can be found in haroldtreen/epub press. Follow us on Twitter. Overview EpubPress is a service for stitching articles/blogs/webpages into a customized ebook. 🌟 Benefits 🌟 EpubPress makes reading the web more enjoyable! Downloads your articles for offline reading. Books are compatible with all your iPhone, Android, Kindle, Nook, etc. Removes website boilerplate and ads. Just. Clean. Content. Lets you group information together (eg. "News from this week", "Top 10 travel articles"). Easy to sharing with friends. Packages 📦…
read the full epub-press-clients overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is readest or epub-press-clients more popular?
readest has 25,874 GitHub stars and epub-press-clients has 618. readest has the larger community by that measure.
Are readest and epub-press-clients free?
Both are open source. readest is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and epub-press-clients under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between readest and epub-press-clients?
readest is written in TypeScript and epub-press-clients 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, readest or epub-press-clients?
Choose readest if you want the larger community (25,874 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose epub-press-clients if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.