SHSelfHostIndex

COPS vs Free Programming Books

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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CO COPS Calibre OPDS and HTML PHP server VS FR Free Programming Books Curated catalog of free programming ebooks and resources
FeatureCOPSFree Programming Books
CategoryE-books & Media LibraryE-books & Media Library
LicenseGPL-2.0CC-BY-4.0
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 130★ 393,952
First released20132013
ReplacesKindlePaid technical book subscriptions

Why pick each one

Choose COPS if…

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

Choose Free Programming Books if…

  • Enormous free resource
  • Very active
Free Programming Books details

Frequently asked questions

Is COPS or Free Programming Books better?

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

Are COPS and Free Programming Books free and open-source?

Yes. COPS is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Free Programming Books under CC-BY-4.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run COPS and Free Programming Books with Docker?

COPS: yes. Free Programming Books: check the project docs for container support.

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