head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs so-novel
LibreTranslate has 17,269 GitHub stars, 1,794 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. so-novel has 8,911 stars, 754 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 94% (17,269 vs 8,911 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 8%. so-novel 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 | ★ 8.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 754 |
| 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 Try it online! API Docs Community Forum Bluesky Free and Open Source Machine Translation API, entirely self hosted. Unlike other APIs, it doesn't rely on proprietary software such as Google or Azure to perform translations. Instead, its translation engine is powered by the open source Argos Translate library. Getting Started Quickstart Usage Instructions Community Resources Credits This work is largely possible thanks to Argos Translate, which powers the translation engine. License GNU Affero General Public License v3 Trademark See Trademark Guidelines
read the full LibreTranslate overview →
About so-novel
So Novel 概述 So Novel 是一款通用的网页内容处理与导出工具，它致力于帮助用户高效地从网页中提取结构化信息，并将其灵活导出为 EPUB、TXT、PDF 等多种标准电子文档格式。适用于学习采集、格式转换、电子书制作等场景。 预览 点击查看图片 TUI 预览 (Text based User Interface) WebUI 预览 (网页版) CLI 预览 (Command Line Interface) 安装 📦 手动下载压缩包 🪟 Windows 1. PowerShell 2. CMD (命令提示符) 🐧 Linux cmd REM REM 高级用户使用自定义 JRE 启动程序 REM 将 "your path\java.exe" 替换为你的 JRE 路径，例如： REM "C:\Java\jdk 21\bin\java.exe" REM @echo off your path\java.exe ^ XX:+UseZGC ^ XX:+ZGenerational ^ Dconfig.file=config.ini ^ Dmode=tui ^ Dfile.encoding=GBK Big5 ^ jar app.jar Linux / macOS：run linux.sh / run macos.sh 修改 java 路径 常见问题 讨论 支持 & 赞助
read the full so-novel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or so-novel more popular?
LibreTranslate has 17,269 GitHub stars and so-novel has 8,911. 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 (17,269 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.