SHSelfHostIndex

13ft vs Koodo Reader

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 KO Koodo Reader Cross-platform ebook reader with annotations and sync
Feature13ftKoodo Reader
CategoryE-books & Media LibraryE-books & Media Library
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM50 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 4,250★ 27,803
First released20232020
Replaces12ftCalibre, Apple Books

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 Koodo Reader if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 27.8k GitHub stars
Koodo Reader details

Frequently asked questions

Is 13ft or Koodo Reader better?

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

Are 13ft and Koodo Reader free and open-source?

Yes. 13ft is licensed under MIT and Koodo Reader under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run 13ft and Koodo Reader with Docker?

13ft: check the project docs for container support. Koodo Reader: yes.

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