head to head · open source
so-novel vs WritingTools
so-novel has 8,911 GitHub stars, 754 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. WritingTools has 2,480 stars, 165 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. so-novel leads on adoption by 259% (8,911 vs 2,480 stars). so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0; WritingTools is written in Swift under GPL-3.0. so-novel has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, WritingTools 7%. 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 | WritingTools | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 754 | ⑂ 165 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick so-novel if
- You weight community size — 8.9K 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 WritingTools if
- You want the WritingTools feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and WritingTools fits your workflow better
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 →
About WritingTools
Writing Tools 🍎 Using a Mac? Jump to the macOS (Native Swift Port) section → macOS Instantly proofread and optimize your writing system wide with AI: Summarize content (webpages, YouTube videos, documents...) in a click: Add your own buttons for unlimited potential! ✨ What is Writing Tools? Writing Tools is an Apple Intelligence inspired application for Windows, Linux, and macOS that supercharges your writing with an AI LLM (cloud based or local). With one hotkey press system wide, it lets you fix grammar, optimize text according to your instructions, summarize content (webpages, YouTube videos, etc.), and…
read the full WritingTools overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is so-novel or WritingTools more popular?
so-novel has 8,911 GitHub stars and WritingTools has 2,480. so-novel has the larger community by that measure.
Are so-novel and WritingTools free?
Both are open source. so-novel is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and WritingTools under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between so-novel and WritingTools?
so-novel is written in Java and WritingTools in Swift. 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 WritingTools?
Choose so-novel if you want the larger community (8,911 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose WritingTools if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.