# KOReader 193 Hacker News commenters recommended KOReader and 32 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (7 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** An open-source e-reader app for Kindle, Kobo and Android with deep customization, strong PDF and EPUB handling, and plugins; expect a confusing, cluttered interface and some setup effort. ## Why people recommend it - Customize almost everything (6 comments): "It's very configurable and extensible. As some have mentioned, the interface can be a bit confusing at times but once you're used to it it's mostly out of your way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49094981)) "Koreader is far and away the best. Definitely suffers from the top many knobs problem but if you spend a little time to go through the settings" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49839657)) "Love all the options, especially the ability to use folders on the device storage as the primary way to organize my books" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49100509)) - Excellent PDF reflow and cropping (4 comments): "With its reflow for PDFs, I've used it on my Kindle Oasis 2 to read everything for my undergrad and graduate degree." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096388)) "The main benefits for me is dealing with poorly formatted epub and sensible viewing of pdf on small screen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096580)) "sane PDF scaling/reflowing, the ability to handle large PDFs, and multiple export formats for annotations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45853676)) - Handles EPUBs stock readers reject (3 comments): "Every Kobo reader is capable of running KoReader, that's the first, and probably last, step I'd take to render a book that the default reader takes issue with." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48534826)) "Being able to put epubs bought elsewhere and reading them without needing to convert the files is a huge plus" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096565)) "The main benefits for me is dealing with poorly formatted epub and sensible viewing of pdf on small screen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096580)) - Open source, own your data (5 comments): "it is the superior piece of software, the freedom it offers by dissociating the choice of hardware from the choice of software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096506)) "If you want open source software that builds on proprietary hardware, KOReader is what you want. (I use it, it's great.)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49000987)) "Now that I know my highlights aren't locked up in Amazon/Kindle's ecosystem I'm more likely to highlight something." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49425914)) ## What people warn about - Confusing, unfriendly interface (7 comments): "It's very configurable and extensible. As some have mentioned, the interface can be a bit confusing at times but once you're used to it it's mostly out of your way." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49094981)) "Koreader interface with syncthing is not that user friendly to non techs, very powerful can do anything but i don't think i would advise that to non techie" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49833706)) "I'm a heavy KOReader user and absolutely adore it, but I think it definitely trades user-friendliness for power and flexibility." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096753)) - Cumbersome setup process (3 comments): "It's a bit cumbersome to setup but once you're done it pays back in how pleasant it makes the device to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49095296)) "I tried to set up KOReader multiple times and always got stuck figuring out where all the settings are and how exactly they work." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49099105)) "they whole process is a miserable experience between the stale blog posts and the dead links" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096744)) - No Japanese vertical text support (2 comments): "It's a great reader app, but as a reader of Japanese light novels it's sadly not fit for my personal purposes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49097567)) "KOReader doesn’t support Japanese vertical rtl layout without a hack (e.g., rotating the fonts) is the single reason I don’t use it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49107038)) - Lacks DRM and store integration (2 comments): "I've tried KOreader, but never switched to it because I like my Overdrive library books and Kobo Store." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48534877)) "KoReader doesn’t work with drm protected books which means I can’t use it with most books I buy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48535382)) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "KOReader", https://hackerapproved.com/p/koreader/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).