head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs so-novel
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars, 1,707 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. so-novel has 8,157 stars, 726 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 104% (16,674 vs 8,157 stars). LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. LibreTranslate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, so-novel 9%. 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 | so-novel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-03 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 726 |
| 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 so-novel if
- You want the so-novel feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and so-novel 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 so-novel
So Novel is an AGPL 3.0 Java tool that extracts structured content from web pages and exports it as standard ebook and document formats including EPUB, TXT, and PDF, built for people who want offline copies of web fiction and for anyone turning web content into readable documents.
read the full so-novel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or so-novel more popular?
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,157. LibreTranslate has the larger community by that measure.
Are LibreTranslate and so-novel free?
Both are open source. LibreTranslate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and so-novel under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LibreTranslate and so-novel?
LibreTranslate is written in Python and so-novel in Java. 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 so-novel?
Choose LibreTranslate if you want the larger community (16,674 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose so-novel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.