Komga vs Stump: Comic & Manga Servers Compared

Quick Verdict

Komga is the better choice for most people. It has years of development behind it, a large community, polished metadata editing, and rock-solid stability. Stump is a promising Rust-based alternative that uses a fraction of the RAM and feels snappier, but it has no stable release yet and is missing features Komga already ships. Pick Komga if you want something that works today. Pick Stump if you want to bet on a faster, leaner future and can tolerate rough edges.

Overview

Both Komga and Stump are self-hosted comic and manga servers that organize your library, serve content over OPDS, and track reading progress through a web UI. They solve the same problem — managing a large collection of CBZ, CBR, PDF, and EPUB files without relying on cloud services or desktop-only readers.

Komga has been around since 2019. It is written in Kotlin on Spring Boot, backed by SQLite or H2, and has a mature ecosystem of compatible reading apps. The community is active, documentation is thorough, and the feature set is comprehensive.

Stump is a newer project written in Rust. It prioritizes performance and low resource usage. Development is active but there is no stable release — you run the nightly tag. The feature set is growing quickly but has gaps compared to Komga.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Komga	Stump
Language / Runtime	Kotlin (JVM / Spring Boot)	Rust
Supported Formats	CBZ, CBR, PDF, EPUB	CBZ, CBR, PDF, EPUB
OPDS Support	Yes (OPDS 1.2 + PSE)	Yes (OPDS 1.2)
Web Reader	Built-in, full-featured	Built-in, functional
Metadata Editing	Rich inline editing, ComicInfo.xml support	Basic metadata support
Reading Lists	Yes, manual and smart collections	Yes, with smart filters
Book Clubs	No	Yes
Multi-User Support	Yes, with per-library permissions	Yes, with library-level access control
Reading Progress Sync	Yes, syncs across OPDS clients	Yes
Database	SQLite or H2	SQLite
Docker Image Size	~250 MB	~80 MB
Idle RAM Usage	~200 MB	~50 MB
API	REST API, well-documented	REST API, evolving
License	MIT	MIT
Stable Release	Yes (v1.16.x)	No (nightly only)
Community Size	Large, active Discord and GitHub	Smaller, growing

Installation

Komga Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  komga:
    image: gotson/komga:1.16.1
    container_name: komga
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "25600:25600"
    environment:
      # JVM memory limit — adjust based on library size
      - JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-Xmx512m
    volumes:
      # Application config and database
      - komga-config:/config
      # Your comic/manga library — change the left side to your library path
      - /path/to/your/comics:/data:ro
    user: "1000:1000"

volumes:
  komga-config:

Start it:

docker compose up -d

Access the web UI at http://your-server:25600. Create your admin account on first launch, then add your library path (/data) through the settings.

Stump Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  stump:
    image: stumpapp/stump:nightly
    container_name: stump
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "10801:10801"
    environment:
      # Directory where Stump stores its config and database
      - STUMP_CONFIG_DIR=/config
    volumes:
      # Application config and database
      - stump-config:/config
      # Your comic/manga library — change the left side to your library path
      - /path/to/your/comics:/data:ro
    user: "1000:1000"

volumes:
  stump-config:

Start it:

docker compose up -d

Access the web UI at http://your-server:10801. Walk through the setup wizard to create your admin account and point it at /data.

Installation Complexity

Both are straightforward single-container deployments with no external database dependencies. Komga uses slightly more boilerplate because of the JVM memory flag, but neither requires more than a few minutes to get running.

Komga’s documentation is more mature, with detailed guides for every configuration option. Stump’s docs are adequate but thinner — expect to check GitHub issues for edge cases.

Performance and Resource Usage

This is where Stump pulls ahead decisively. Rust compiles to native code with no garbage collector overhead. Stump idles at around 50 MB of RAM. Komga runs on the JVM and idles at around 200 MB, often climbing higher during library scans on large collections.

Library scanning speed favors Stump as well. On a 10,000-file manga library, Stump completes an initial scan noticeably faster. Page rendering in the web reader feels snappier in Stump, particularly for high-resolution manga pages.

If you are running a comic server alongside a dozen other containers on a Raspberry Pi or a low-end mini PC, Stump’s resource efficiency matters. On a machine with 8 GB or more of RAM, the difference is less relevant.

Community and Support

Komga has a significant head start. The Discord is active with hundreds of users, GitHub issues get triaged regularly, and there is a broad ecosystem of compatible OPDS readers (Tachiyomi/Mihon, Panels, Chunky) that are tested against Komga specifically.

Stump’s community is smaller but enthusiastic. The developer is responsive on GitHub and Discord. Because Stump is still pre-release, you should expect breaking changes between nightly builds. The pace of development is fast — features land frequently — but stability is not guaranteed between updates.

Use Cases

Choose Komga If…

• You want a stable, production-ready server you can set up and forget
• Metadata management matters to you — editing ComicInfo.xml tags, organizing series, curating collections
• You rely on OPDS reader apps and want the widest compatibility
• You have a large library and need proven reliability at scale
• You prefer mature documentation and a large community for troubleshooting

Choose Stump If…

• You are running on constrained hardware and need minimal RAM usage
• You value raw performance and fast page loads over feature completeness
• You want book club features for sharing reading experiences with others
• You are comfortable running nightly builds and reporting bugs
• You want to support a promising open-source project early in its development

Final Verdict

Komga is the right choice for most self-hosters today. It is stable, feature-complete for the core use case, and has a proven track record with a large user base. The metadata editing alone sets it apart — if you care about organizing your library properly, Komga does it better.

Stump is the one to watch. The performance advantage is real, book clubs are a unique feature, and the Rust foundation gives it a strong technical future. But running nightly builds as your primary server means accepting risk. If you are the type who enjoys riding the bleeding edge and does not mind the occasional breakage, Stump rewards you with speed and efficiency.

For a primary, set-and-forget comic server: Komga. For a secondary server or a low-resource environment where you can tolerate instability: Stump.

Related

• How to Self-Host Komga
• How to Self-Host Stump
• Best Self-Hosted Ebook & Reading Servers
• How to Self-Host Kavita
• Docker Compose Basics