Kavita
Manga, comics, ebooks, and light novels get a streaming-service-style home in Kavita - a fast, cross-platform reading server for the DRM-free collection you share with family and friends. It natively serves CBZ, CBR, CB7, ZIP/RAR/7z archives, raw images, EPUB, and PDF, with hand-crafted web readers per format: webtoon scrolling, single and dual-page spreads with advanced caching for the comic reader, and a book reader with adjustable fonts, spacing, margins, color themes, and column modes. Reading progress tracks per user, so everyone resumes exactly where they stopped on any device. Metadata parses from filenames, ComicInfo.xml, and EPUB fields, feeding index-backed search, smart filters, collections, reading lists with CBL import, and Want to Read queues. Role-based user management covers age restrictions, per-library access, and OIDC authentication. An OPDS feed connects third-party clients - Panels on iOS, Librera on Android, KOReader on e-ink devices - and a comprehensive REST API supports custom integrations. EPUB annotation and highlight support, custom theming, and full localization round it out. Built with .NET and Angular, it handles 50,000+ file libraries without strain; optional Kavita+ adds AniList scrobbling, recommendations, and external metadata.
BookOrbit
Consolidate your entire digital library into a self-hosted reading sanctuary with BookOrbit, an open-source media platform that organizes ebooks, audiobooks, comic archives, and research PDFs within a personal private cloud. Readers can enjoy multi-format media directly through responsive browser readers that support EPUB, CBZ, and M4B formats without external browser extensions. The platform synchronizes reading bookmarks, highlights, and completion statuses across web interfaces, Kobo ereaders, and KOReader devices. An automated metadata enrichment engine queries fourteen upstream bibliographic indexes, downloading cover artwork, chapter breakdowns, author biographies, and series taxonomies. The staging workspace allows librarians to inspect incoming files, review suggested metadata revisions, and embed updated tags directly into physical storage archives before shelving. Custom reading dashboards track annual book goals, calculate daily streaks, and plot reading habit radar charts. Multi-user configurations support distinct per-user collections, granular content permissions, and single sign-on authentication through OpenID Connect providers. Power users can export private OPDS feeds to external mobile reading applications or push books directly to connected Kindle hardware. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GNU AGPL v3.0 licensed.
Calibre-Web
With over 17,700 GitHub stars and continuous development since 2015, Calibre-Web has become the definitive self-hosted digital library solution for book enthusiasts who want beautiful web access to their Calibre collections. The responsive Bootstrap 3 interface delivers instant browsing, searching, and filtering across titles, authors, tags, series, book formats, and languages, with custom shelves for organizing personal reading collections. In-browser reading supports EPUB, PDF, TXT, CBR, CBT, CBZ, and DJVU formats with a configurable EPUB reader featuring multiple themes and page location tracking, while one-click email delivery sends books directly to Kindle, Kobo, and other E-Readers without leaving the interface. Native Kobo sync lets Kobo device owners synchronize their entire Calibre library wirelessly, maintaining reading progress and bookmarks across devices. Metadata management includes editing capabilities with automatic metadata downloading from Google Books, Amazon, and other configurable sources, plus eBook format conversion through Calibre binaries for on-the-fly EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, and PDF conversion. User management provides fine-grained per-user permissions controlling download access, upload rights, editing capabilities, and content visibility based on categories or Custom Column values. Authentication supports local accounts, LDAP directory integration, Google and GitHub OAuth, proxy authentication, and Magic Link login for easy E-Reader access. The OPDS catalog feed enables any compliant E-Reader app to browse and download from the library. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GPL-3.0 licensed.
Grimmory
Consolidate fragmented collections of digital novels, graphic novels, manga, and audiobooks into Grimmory, an open-source media library server that combines automated file sorting with rich in-browser reading environments. The server indexes diverse media formats including EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, PDF, CBZ, CBR, CB7, M4B, and MP3 files across isolated storage directories. Readers explore literature through specialized browser viewports that provide customizable typography, CFI highlight annotations, two-page comic spreads with right-to-left manga modes, and chapter-based audiobook playback with sleep timers. Automated BookDrop watch folders ingest incoming files, retrieving book covers, author biographies, and community ratings from Google Books, Open Library, and Amazon APIs. Dynamic Magic Shelves organize catalogs automatically using nested boolean rule trees that filter books by page counts, genres, release dates, or narrator identities without server reload overhead. External e-readers access media catalogs through standard OPDS feeds or native Kobo and KOReader synchronization endpoints that match documents by binary content hashes. Built-in email delivery sends formatted books directly to Kindle devices with a single click, while OpenID Connect authentication enforces granular multi-user library permissions. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GNU AGPLv3 licensed.
Calibre-Web Automated
Turn any chaotic digital book archive into an autonomous, self-organizing reading portal using Calibre-Web Automated, a digital library manager featuring hands-free format conversions, metadata fetching, and e-reader synchronization. Readers can drop raw ebook files into the automated intake directory and watch the system instantly convert between twenty-eight distinct file types, repair malformed EPUB internal markup, and fetch enriched metadata from Hardcover, Kobo, and ISBN databases. The responsive web reader lets you browse collections, read directly in any desktop or mobile browser, and organize titles into dynamic rules-based Magic Shelves that update automatically. Built-in KOReader sync harmonizes reading progress and bookmarks across mobile devices and e-ink readers, while native OPDS feeds connect seamlessly to your favorite external reader applications. Administrative tools empower you to run hybrid SQL and fuzzy duplicate detection scans, perform batch metadata editing across entire series, enforce cover art changes directly into source files, and auto-dispatch newly ingested books to Kindle or Kobo devices via scheduled email delivery. Granular multi-user controls allow administrators to assign folder permissions, restrict downloads, enforce dark mode themes, and authenticate readers securely through OAuth and OpenID Connect identity providers. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GNU General Public License v3.0 licensed.
Shelfmark
When household readers want a single web portal to search, request, and deliver ebooks and audiobooks without juggling separate indexers or download clients, Shelfmark unifies the entire acquisition pipeline in one self-hosted hub. Universal search mode queries Hardcover, Open Library, and Google Books for rich cover art, series order, and edition metadata before aggregating matching releases across every configured source. Direct search mode queries individual providers immediately for rapid title lookups. You can connect Prowlarr torrent and Usenet indexers, direct web download mirrors, IRC book channels, and Soulseek peers through slskd inside one unified interface. Multi-user accounts support granular request policies where family members or friends submit book or release requests for admin approval, complete with per-user language preferences and custom delivery targets. Completed downloads automatically rename and route files into Calibre, Calibre-Web, Grimmory, BookLore, or Audiobookshelf watch folders, or dispatch directly to e-readers over SMTP email. Built-in authentication supports local credentials, reverse proxy headers, OpenID Connect single sign-on, and existing Calibre-Web user databases. Optional WireGuard VPN with a fail-closed kill switch and Tor routing keep external indexer queries private. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.
Calibre
Serious readers organize, convert, edit, and serve their e-book libraries with Calibre - the definitive open-source e-book manager. This deployment runs the full Calibre desktop application on your server, accessible from any browser, so your library lives in one authoritative place instead of scattered across devices. Its conversion engine is the best in the business, translating between every major format - EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, PDF, DOCX, and dozens more - with fine control over fonts, margins, metadata, and structure detection. Metadata management downloads covers, descriptions, series info, and identifiers from online sources, and every field is editable in bulk. Beyond cataloging, Calibre includes a full e-book editor for EPUB and AZW3 internals, a news engine that fetches newspapers and magazines from the web on schedule and converts them into e-books, book comparison tools, and device syncing that sends the right format to each connected reader. The built-in content server exposes your library over HTTP so phones, tablets, and e-readers can browse and download remotely. A deep plugin ecosystem extends everything - metadata sources, format support, store integrations. For power users, the complete CLI (calibredb, ebook-convert) enables scripted library automation. Your books, your metadata, your server - permanent and DRM-free storage under your control.
Komga
What Jellyfin is for video, Komga is for comics, manga, BDs, magazines, and eBooks: point it at folders of CBZ, CBR, CBT, PDF, and EPUB files and it becomes a proper library with cover art, embedded metadata import, and per-user reading progress. The responsive web reader handles multiple reading modes - left-to-right for western comics, right-to-left for manga, webtoon scrolling - while collections and read lists organize crossovers and story arcs, with ComicRack .cbl read list import for existing curation. Its openness is the real differentiator: OPDS v1.2 and v2.0 feeds serve virtually every reader app (Panels, Moon+ Reader, Mihon/Tachiyomi, KyBook), with OpenSearch and page-streaming extensions so mobile apps fetch pages on demand instead of whole archives. E-ink support is built in, not bolted on - Kobo devices sync directly against Komga instead of Kobo's servers, with two-way read progress, on-the-fly KEPUB conversion via Kepubify, and optional proxying so official Kobo purchases still work; KOReader sync covers everything else. Multi-user management brings per-library access control, age restrictions, and label restrictions for family setups. Housekeeping tools detect duplicate files and duplicate pages, and a REST API feeds a healthy ecosystem of community scripts. Runs from a single Docker container with embedded SQLite.
Stump
Curating digital comic archives, serialized manga, and electronic book libraries becomes effortless with Stump, a high-performance reading server that streams media collections over OPDS protocols directly to web browsers and e-reader hardware. Readers can organize extensive collections across CBZ, CBR, PDF, and EPUB formats, utilizing automated scanners that extract embedded ComicInfo XML and Calibre metadata tags. The built-in web reader renders high-resolution comic spreads, continuous vertical webtoon scrolls, and reflowable text with customizable color themes, font scaling, and reading direction toggles. Users can highlight passages, create persistent notes inside EPUB editions, and organize complex franchises into custom reading lists, oneshots, and smart filter collections. Bi-directional synchronization integrates with Kobo and KOReader hardware devices, maintaining page progression and bookmark states across handhelds and desktop sessions. Server administrators can configure multi-user access rules, enforce age restriction thresholds, and provision user-scoped API tokens for automated script pipelines and third-party companion tools. GraphQL and REST endpoints expose the entire catalog structure, allowing media collectors to integrate external metadata scrapers and trigger background library indexing tasks. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.
BookLore
BookLore centralizes personal electronic book, audiobook, and comic collections into an organized private media server equipped with automated metadata scrapers and e-reader synchronization. Users can drop EPUB, PDF, CBZ, and MOBI files into a watched BookDrop directory to trigger automated format parsing, background cover retrieval, and staged queue imports. Integrated metadata scrapers query Google Books, Open Library, Goodreads, and Amazon to automatically fill synopsis summaries, author records, publishing dates, and review scores. Dynamic Magic Shelves categorize volumes through custom rule-based filters, author collections, and full-text search indexes across your complete literature catalog. The browser-based reader renders documents with adjustable typography, night modes, audio playback controls, text annotations, and persistent bookmarking. Hardware e-readers and mobile devices connect through native Kobo Store emulation APIs, bidirectional KOReader progress synchronization, and OPDS catalog feeds. Multi-tenant permissions provide each household member with private reading statistics, personalized shelves, email book delivery, and direct send-to-Kindle dispatch. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GNU AGPLv3 licensed.