SHSelfHostIndex

13ft vs Calibre-Web

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-books & media library options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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13 13ft Bypass paywall by acting as GoogleBot VS CA Calibre-Web Web app to browse and read your Calibre library
Feature13ftCalibre-Web
CategoryE-books & Media LibraryE-books & Media Library
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonHTML
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM50 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker
GitHub stars★ 4,250★ 17,830
First released20232017
Replaces12ftKindle, Goodreads

Why pick each one

Choose 13ft if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (4.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
13ft details

Choose Calibre-Web if…

  • Great companion to Calibre
  • Multi-user access
  • Lightweight
Calibre-Web details

Frequently asked questions

Is 13ft or Calibre-Web better?

Neither is universally better. Calibre-Web has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are 13ft and Calibre-Web free and open-source?

Yes. 13ft is licensed under MIT and Calibre-Web under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run 13ft and Calibre-Web with Docker?

13ft: check the project docs for container support. Calibre-Web: yes.

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