13ft vs Ladder
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-books & media library options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | 13ft | Ladder |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 91 · Excellent |
| Category | E-books & Media Library | E-books & Media Library |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0-only |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 20 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,289 | ★ 9,122 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | 12ft | 12ft, 13ft |
What are 13ft and Ladder?
13ft
My own custom 12ft.io replacement. Contribute to wasi-master/13ft development by creating an account on GitHub.
Ladder
Selfhosted alternative to 12ft.io. and 1ft.io. Proxy to remove CORS headers and modify HTML
13ft vs Ladder: key differences
13ft is written in Python, while Ladder is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for 13ft versus GPL-3.0-only for Ladder. Ladder is the lighter option, starting around 20 MB of RAM against 50 MB for 13ft. Ladder has the considerably larger community, at 9,122 GitHub stars versus 4,289.
Why pick each one
Choose 13ft if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Choose Ladder if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is 13ft or Ladder better?
Neither is universally better. Ladder has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are 13ft and Ladder free and open-source?
Yes. 13ft is licensed under MIT and Ladder under GPL-3.0-only. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run 13ft and Ladder with Docker?
13ft: check the project docs for container support. Ladder: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, 13ft or Ladder?
Ladder has the smaller minimum footprint at 20 MB of RAM, compared to about 50 MB for 13ft. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.