Readest vs Thorium Reader
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-books & media library options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Readest | Thorium Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | E-books & Media Library | E-books & Media Library |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 24,565 | ★ 2,879 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Kindle, Apple Books | Adobe Digital Editions, Apple Books |
What are Readest and Thorium Reader?
Readest
Readest is an open-source ebook reader with a self-hostable sync server for keeping reading progress and annotations consistent across devices. It supports EPUB and other common formats.
- Cross-device progress sync
- EPUB and PDF support
- Annotations and highlights
- Self-hostable sync server
Thorium Reader
Thorium Reader is an open-source desktop ebook reader by EDRLab supporting EPUB, audiobooks, PDF, and DAISY formats. It emphasizes accessibility and standards compliance for offline reading.
- EPUB and audiobook support
- Strong accessibility features
- DAISY format support
- Cross-platform desktop app
Readest vs Thorium Reader: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Readest versus BSD-3-Clause for Thorium Reader. Thorium Reader is the more established project (first released 2019), while Readest arrived in 2024. Readest has the considerably larger community, at 24,565 GitHub stars versus 2,879. Readest lists first-class Docker deployment; Thorium Reader does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Readest if…
- Clean modern interface
- Cross-device sync
- Multiple format support
Watch out for
- Relatively young project
- Smaller community
Choose Thorium Reader if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Readest or Thorium Reader better?
Neither is universally better. Readest has the larger community, while Thorium Reader is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Readest and Thorium Reader free and open-source?
Yes. Readest is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Thorium Reader under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Readest and Thorium Reader with Docker?
Readest: yes. Thorium Reader: check the project docs for container support.