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Calibre-Web vs Kavita: catalog facts
Calibre-Web	Kavita
Free Free to use, with source code published on GitHub.	Freemium The server is free and open source. An optional Kavita+ subscription adds external…
Web, Self-hosted	Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted, Web
Uses an existing Calibre database directly Read books in the browser or download them	Purpose-built readers for EPUB, PDF and image-based comics, including webtoon mode Multi-user with per-library and age restrictions, through built-in logins or OIDC
Depends on a library created with Calibre Requires running a server	You have to run and maintain a server, and expose it safely if you want remote access Some metadata enrichment is only available through the paid Kavita+ add-on
Self-hosted	Self-hosted, Web application
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-3.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.