head to head · open source
readest vs kepubify
readest has 25,874 GitHub stars, 1,805 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kepubify has 899 stars, 59 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. readest leads on adoption by 2,778% (25,874 vs 899 stars). readest is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; kepubify is written in Go under MIT. readest has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, kepubify 7%. readest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ebook, epub), 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 | kepubify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 899 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-12-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 59 |
| 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 kepubify if
- You want the kepubify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kepubify 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 kepubify
kepubify Kepubify converts EPUBs to Kobo EPUBs. Website Download Documentation Web Version pkg.go.dev About Kepubify is standalone (it also works as a library or a webapp), converts most books in a fraction of a second (40 80x faster than Calibre), handles malformed HTML/XHTML without causing further issues, has multiple optional conversion options (punctuation smartening, custom CSS, text replacement, and more), has a full test suite, is interoperable with other applications, and is safe to use with untrusted books. Two additional standalone utilities are included with kepubify. covergen pre generates cover…
read the full kepubify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is readest or kepubify more popular?
readest has 25,874 GitHub stars and kepubify has 899. readest has the larger community by that measure.
Are readest and kepubify free?
Both are open source. readest is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kepubify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between readest and kepubify?
readest is written in TypeScript and kepubify in Go. 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 kepubify?
Choose readest if you want the larger community (25,874 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kepubify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.