head to head · open source
readest vs openreader
readest has 24,425 GitHub stars, 1,587 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped today. openreader has 509 stars, 70 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. readest leads on adoption by 4,699% (24,425 vs 509 stars). readest is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; openreader is written in TypeScript under MIT. readest has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, openreader 14%. readest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | openreader | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 509 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 70 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick readest if
- You weight community size — 24K 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 openreader if
- You want the openreader feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and openreader fits your workflow better
About readest
Readest is an open source, cross platform ebook reader built with Next.js 16 and Tauri v2 for readers who want one modern library across macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the web.
read the full readest overview →
About openreader
📄🔊 OpenReader OpenReader is an open source, self host friendly text to speech document reader built with Next.js for EPUB, PDF, TXT, MD, and DOCX with multilingual, synchronized read along playback. Previously named OpenReader WebUI . Get started in the docs . ✨ Highlights ▶️ Progressive background generation and playback — begin listening as soon as the first segment is ready while the worker continues generating ahead into one durable document timeline; cached audio is reused across seeks, reloads, and exports. 🧱 Layout aware PDF parsing with PP DocLayoutV3 (ONNX) — structured block detection, cross page sti…
read the full openreader overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is readest or openreader more popular?
readest has 24,425 GitHub stars and openreader has 509. readest has the larger community by that measure.
Are readest and openreader free?
Both are open source. readest is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and openreader under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between readest and openreader?
readest is written in TypeScript and openreader in TypeScript. 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 openreader?
Choose readest if you want the larger community (24,425 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose openreader if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.