head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs substance
LibreTranslate has 17,269 GitHub stars, 1,794 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. substance has 2,737 stars, 121 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 531% (17,269 vs 2,737 stars). LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; substance is written in JavaScript under MIT. LibreTranslate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, substance 4%. 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 | substance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-04-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 121 |
| 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 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 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 substance
Substance.js Substance is a JavaScript library for web based content editing. It provides building blocks for realizing custom text editors and web based publishing system. It is developed to power our online editing platform Substance. Development Install the dev dependencies. Run the dev server. Navigate to for the running the browser test suite. The test suite is rebuilt as you make changes to the source files. To run the test suite headless.
read the full substance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or substance more popular?
LibreTranslate has 17,269 GitHub stars and substance has 2,737. LibreTranslate has the larger community by that measure.
Are LibreTranslate and substance free?
Both are open source. LibreTranslate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and substance under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LibreTranslate and substance?
LibreTranslate is written in Python 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, LibreTranslate or substance?
Choose LibreTranslate if you want the larger community (17,269 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose substance if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.