head to head · open source
so-novel vs substance
so-novel has 8,157 GitHub stars, 726 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. substance has 2,733 stars, 121 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. so-novel leads on adoption by 198% (8,157 vs 2,733 stars). so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0; substance is written in JavaScript under MIT. so-novel has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, substance 4%. 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
| so-novel | substance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.2K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-26 | 2026-04-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 726 | ⑂ 121 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick so-novel if
- You weight community size — 8.2K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick substance if
- You want the substance feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and substance fits your workflow better
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 →
About substance
Substance is a JavaScript library for web based content editing. It lives in the JavaScript and Content & Publishing / Publishing ecosystem, and it is distributed under the MIT license. The README describes it as a library that provides building blocks for realizing custom text editors and web based publishing systems, and it was developed to power the online editing platform Substance.
read the full substance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is so-novel or substance more popular?
so-novel has 8,157 GitHub stars and substance has 2,733. so-novel has the larger community by that measure.
Are so-novel and substance free?
Both are open source. so-novel is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and substance under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between so-novel and substance?
so-novel is written in Java and substance 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, so-novel or substance?
Choose so-novel if you want the larger community (8,157 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose substance if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.