Calibre vs Paperless-ngx
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?
Compare Calibre with
choose an app… Free Programming Books Jellyfin qBittorrent SRS KOReader Koodo Reader Readest Navidrome Kodi Ebook2audiobook Calibre-Web Koel Jackett Beets DeDRM Tools PeerTube Transmission Sonarr MeTube Kavita Ladder Wikidpad Notes Suwayomi-Server OPDS-PSE Reader Hub Sigil Open Library Komga Calibre-Web Automated Libation PDF Arranger pdf2htmlEX Librum Papra 13ft Calibre-Web Automated Book Downloader Readarr LANraragi Thorium Reader BookWyrm Stump Teedy OpenBooks Docspell Mango Plato Standard Ebooks Tools Whisparr Audiobook Storyteller Mylar3 Kapowarr ttu Ebook Reader mangadex-downloader Librivox Mirror Zimit ComicTagger Audiobookshelf-tools Komf kobodl BookLogr Koha Suwayomi manga-py Upvote RSS Buchhaltung Books BicBucStriim Tranga Tinyfeed EpubPress KOHighlights Booksonic-Air ProsePub Manga-Tagger Atsumeru Evergreen Kthoom COPS dir2opds RERO ILS MangAdventure MyMangaDB Readflow Inkheart Petrolette Ubooquity Vore
Compare Paperless-ngx with
choose an app… Free Programming Books AppFlowy Joplin Jellyfin SiYuan qBittorrent Trilium Notes Khoj SRS KOReader Koodo Reader Notable Readest Navidrome Kodi Obsidian Ebook2audiobook Calibre-Web Koel Jackett Beets DeDRM Tools PeerTube Transmission Sonarr Notesnook MeTube VNote Kavita Laverna Ladder Wikidpad Notes Reor nb Notes Suwayomi-Server OPDS-PSE Reader Hub Sigil Open Library Komga Calibre-Web Automated Libation Markor Sync QOwnNotes PDF Arranger pdf2htmlEX Librum TagSpaces Papra 13ft Mindforger Web CherryTree Calibre-Web Automated Book Downloader Readarr Archivy Flatnotes LANraragi Dnote Thorium Reader BookWyrm Stump Teedy OpenBooks Docspell Mango Plato Standard Ebooks Tools Whisparr Audiobook Storyteller Mylar3 Kapowarr ttu Ebook Reader mangadex-downloader Librivox Mirror Zimit ComicTagger Audiobookshelf-tools Komf kobodl BookLogr Koha Suwayomi manga-py Papermerge Upvote RSS Buchhaltung Books BicBucStriim Tranga Tinyfeed EpubPress KOHighlights PDFKeeper Booksonic-Air ProsePub Manga-Tagger Atsumeru Evergreen Kthoom COPS dir2opds RERO ILS MangAdventure MyMangaDB Readflow Inkheart Petrolette Ubooquity Vore
Feature Calibre Paperless-ngx Category E-books & Media Library E-books & Media Library License GPL-3.0 GPL-3.0 Language Python Python Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 2,048 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, binary docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 25,578 ★ 44,077 First released 2006 2022 Replaces Kindle, Apple Books Evernote, DEVONthink
Why pick each one
Choose Calibre if… Industry-standard ebook tool Huge feature set Calibre details
Frequently asked questions Is Calibre or Paperless-ngx better? Neither is universally better. Paperless-ngx has the larger community, while Calibre is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Calibre and Paperless-ngx free and open-source? Yes. Calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Paperless-ngx under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Calibre and Paperless-ngx with Docker? Calibre: yes. Paperless-ngx: yes.