KOReader 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 KOReader with
choose an app… Free Programming Books Jellyfin qBittorrent SRS Koodo Reader Calibre 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 Koodo Reader Calibre 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 KOReader Paperless-ngx Category E-books & Media Library E-books & Media Library License AGPL-3.0 GPL-3.0 Language Lua Python Setup difficulty Medium Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 2,048 MB Deployment binary, source docker, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 28,800 ★ 44,077 First released 2012 2022 Replaces Kindle, Pocketbook reader Evernote, DEVONthink
Why pick each one
Choose KOReader if… Released under the AGPL-3.0 license Mature project with 28.8k GitHub stars Written in Lua Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM KOReader details
Frequently asked questions Is KOReader or Paperless-ngx better? Neither is universally better. Paperless-ngx has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are KOReader and Paperless-ngx free and open-source? Yes. KOReader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Paperless-ngx under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run KOReader and Paperless-ngx with Docker? KOReader: check the project docs for container support. Paperless-ngx: yes.