SHSelfHostIndex

Calibre vs COPS

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

Not the right match-up?
CA Calibre Powerful ebook library manager with a built-in server VS CO COPS Calibre OPDS and HTML PHP server
FeatureCalibreCOPS
CategoryE-books & Media LibraryE-books & Media Library
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePythonPHP
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, binarydocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 25,578★ 130
First released20062013
ReplacesKindle, Apple BooksKindle

Why pick each one

Choose Calibre if…

  • Industry-standard ebook tool
  • Huge feature set
Calibre details

Choose COPS if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Easy to host
  • Good OPDS support
COPS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Calibre or COPS better?

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

Are Calibre and COPS free and open-source?

Yes. Calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and COPS under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Calibre and COPS with Docker?

Calibre: yes. COPS: yes.

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