head to head · open source
so-novel vs yomiyasu
so-novel has 8,334 GitHub stars, 744 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. yomiyasu has 1,589 stars, 36 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. so-novel leads on adoption by 424% (8,334 vs 1,589 stars). so-novel is written in Java under AGPL-3.0; yomiyasu is written in Python under MIT. so-novel has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, yomiyasu 2%. yomiyasu 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| so-novel | yomiyasu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.3K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-26 | 2026-10-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 744 | ⑂ 36 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick so-novel if
- You weight community size — 8.3K 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 yomiyasu if
- You want the yomiyasu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and yomiyasu 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 yomiyasu
yomiyasu is an Agent Skill that rewrites AI generated Japanese into natural, readable prose, for writers, engineers and editors who draft technical articles, design documents, pull request descriptions and internal reports with LLMs.
read the full yomiyasu overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Publishing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Publishing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is so-novel or yomiyasu more popular?
so-novel has 8,334 GitHub stars and yomiyasu has 1,589. so-novel has the larger community by that measure.
Are so-novel and yomiyasu free?
Both are open source. so-novel is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and yomiyasu under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between so-novel and yomiyasu?
so-novel is written in Java and yomiyasu in Python. 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 yomiyasu?
Choose so-novel if you want the larger community (8,334 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose yomiyasu if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.