Compare
Bookleaf vs. Koha
Koha is the most capable library system a school can get for free, and it is genuinely better than Bookleaf at almost everything on the feature list. The question is not which is more powerful. It is whether your library can keep a server alive.
| Capability | Bookleaf | Koha |
|---|---|---|
| Licence cost | ₱1,499, one-time software license | Free — it is open source |
| What you must run it on | One ordinary Windows PC. Install and open it. | A Linux server with a database and a web server, either on-site or hosted. |
| Who has to maintain it | Nobody. Updates are an installer, like any other program. | Somebody who is comfortable with Linux, backups, upgrades and security patches — in-house or paid. |
| Realistic total cost | The licence, and the PC you already own. | Zero licence, plus hosting or hardware, plus the person maintaining it. Often the largest line. |
| MARC21 cataloging | Import and export MARCXML. No Z39.50 yet. | Full MARC, Z39.50/SRU copy cataloging, and more of the standard. |
| Authority control | Names, publishers, subjects, auto-linked on import. | Full authority framework, more complete than ours. |
| Loan policy | Matrix by patron category × material type, with wildcards. | The same model, with more dimensions and more edge cases covered. |
| Works with no internet | Yes, entirely. It was designed for that first. | Yes on a local server, if someone set it up that way and keeps it running. |
| Access from home | No. Same Wi-Fi only. | Yes, if hosted publicly. |
| Multiple branches | No. One institution, one building. | Yes. Built for consortia and branch libraries. |
| Patron mobile app | Yes, an Android app for students. | A web OPAC, which works on phones. No dedicated app. |
| Time to first catalog record | An afternoon. | Days to weeks, depending on who is doing the install. |
The real difference
Free software is not the same as free
Koha's licence costs nothing. Running Koha costs something, and the cost is not usually money — it is a person. Somebody has to install it, keep the operating system patched, notice when backups stop, and handle the upgrade every time a new version lands.
In a university with an IT department, that person exists and this is a non-issue. Koha is the right answer, and we would tell you so.
In a public high school where the "IT department" is a teacher with a full class load, that person does not exist. What happens next is well documented and repeats everywhere: Koha gets installed during a project, works beautifully for a year, and then the teacher who set it up transfers to another school.
Bookleaf is designed so there is nothing for that person to maintain in the first place.
Ask these four questions
- Who installs it? If the answer is a name, ask the next question.
- Who maintains it after they leave? Staff move. A system that depends on one person is a system with a countdown on it.
- What happens when it breaks in October? Not whether it will — what the plan is when it does, mid-term, with a queue at the desk.
- Who verifies the backups? An unverified backup is a belief, not a backup. This is the question that catches most installations out.
Not a lock-in
You can move to Koha later, and we mean that
Bookleaf exports your catalog as MARCXML — the same standard Koha imports. If your school grows into a real IT department, or joins a consortium that runs Koha centrally, the cataloging work you did in Bookleaf comes with you.
We would rather be the system that got a library off paper and then handed it on cleanly than the system that trapped it. A one-time ₱1,499 software license does not need you to stay forever.
Try it on your own catalog this week.
Download Bookleaf and run the full system free for 7 days — every feature, no card, no account needed. If it fits, the software license is ₱1,499, one time.