Calibre vs Readest
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 Paperless-ngx qBittorrent SRS KOReader Koodo Reader 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 Readest with
choose an app… Free Programming Books Jellyfin Paperless-ngx qBittorrent SRS KOReader Koodo Reader 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
Feature Calibre Readest Category E-books & Media Library E-books & Media Library License GPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0 Language Python TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, binary docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 25,578 ★ 23,192 First released 2006 2024 Replaces Kindle, Apple Books Kindle, Apple Books
Why pick each one
Choose Calibre if… Industry-standard ebook tool Huge feature set Calibre details Choose Readest if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license First-class Docker support for quick deployment Mature project with 23.2k GitHub stars Written in TypeScript Readest details
Frequently asked questions Is Calibre or Readest better? Calibre is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Readest if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Calibre and Readest free and open-source? Yes. Calibre is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Readest under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Calibre and Readest with Docker? Calibre: yes. Readest: yes.