this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Thinking about self-hosting an ebook library? Here are the open source software you can consider.

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[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 40 points 5 months ago (3 children)

The one I've enjoyed the most is https://www.audiobookshelf.org/, it may be "focused" on audio books, but works really well for everything. It also supports offline mode (meaning downloading local copies in the app).

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

it may be “focused” on audio books, but works really well for everything

Huh....didn't know that. It has a great looking UI.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

The only real downside I've run into is it's very opinionated about folder structures around authors.

[–] hoppolito@mander.xyz 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wait you use it also for epub/pdf? How does that work, can you connect a client and grab it from there? Can you have both an audiobook and text version of the same book?

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can read using the web client or dedicated apps (android and ios). I feel like the clients work just as good if not better than similar software.

I haven't tested how it handles two versions (audio/ebook) of the same book, but I have ebooks and audio books and it works well for me.

[–] hoppolito@mander.xyz 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That’s really cool. After I replied I also remembered you can have multiple libraries in audiobookshelf so even if side-by-side doesn’t work it shouldn’t be an issue.

Unfortunately I love my Readest reading app too much to switch away but it’s nevertheless good to know for other family members.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Oh yeah, the multiple libraries is a good point!

[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I do the same. It is not perfect for it but it works and it is already running. I'm not sure I would recommend it for anyone not looking for audiobooks

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I tried Calibre web and Kogma.

Calibre is just bad software at this point, it's clunky and not really designed as a server.

Kogma was fine, but a web only interface made it hit or miss. The big selling point for me with audio bookshelf was the ability to download local copies.

[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

Thx! We coulf call it an ebook library then and not a reader.