Does anyone know of a self hosting option for hosting ebooks? I keep hoping there is an open source library type app where I could add my ebooks and host them for myself and others.
Calibre is great but it’s not a server based program, it’s just a desktop client. There is Calibre-web which you can host which kinda turns it into a server but it does that by exposing a website you connect to that shows you the Calibre interface via VNC, so it’s a bit hackey.
I haven’t tried it but https://www.kavitareader.com/ might be a good alternative if you end up not liking Calibre.
That’s not what calibre-web does. As per the GitHub page:
Calibre-Web is a web app that offers a clean and intuitive interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks using a valid Calibre database.
There is no VNC involved.
There’s a Calibre container, I believe by LinuxServer.io, that comes with this VNC setup for serving calibre in a browser window. Probably what was meant here.
Calibre-web is basically a nice UI for a file server over the calibre library.
Labors reader looks really great. Just wish it had an iOS/android app. I’ll definitely keep it in mind.
Caliber is great, but if you have audiobooks, auidiobookshelf has gotten pretty decent at hosting ebooks too
I use Kavita to host ebooks and manga for myself. It’s still work in progress, so do expect changes, though I haven’t had huge issues on the stable releases so far. Besides Tachiyomi for comics/manga there aren’t any native reading apps yet, so you will have to use the webinterface for the time being.
Another option often mentioned is Calibre Web, though I haven’t used that myself.
I’ll throw in my vote for Kavita. Works great. I read a lot on my phone so I just saved the app shortcut to my home screen from Firefox.
I honestly prefer Kavita even though I do not download comics or manga. Their reader is so nice, specially with the themes. 0 issues on my end except for indexing, which the dev promptly fixed after I reported the issue.
I use Moon+ Reader pro on my android, and on my iOS I simply make a “webapp” of the website.
Audiobookshelf is quite nice too. The ebook reader isn’t quite there yet, but it develops very fast. Also apps for Android and iOS
I use Komga (https://github.com/gotson/komga) and it’s pretty cool
Check out the docker version of calibre if you’re into that https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/calibre-web
To clarify, calibre-web is not “the docker version of calibre”, it’s a separate project that provides a nice web frontend for an existing calibre database.
So if I understand correctly, I would spin up a Calibre docker (a la https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/calibre) and then spin up a separate Calibre-web docker and point it to the first one?
I believe you can, but I just copied the calibre books and database from my PC and run it from calibre-web without maintaining any link to calibre.
It’s not perfect but it works well enough.
Take a look at Calibre-Web (github.com/janeczku/calibre-we…) which I’ve been using for what you ask for quite a while now. As the name suggests it can also take advantage of a pre-existing Calibre eBook Database.
Takes advantage of = requires.
