Self-Hosted Audiobook Streaming Servers

Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted media server designed for the organization and streaming of personal audiobook and podcast collections. It functions as a digital library manager that provides centralized hosting, allowing users to stream audio content to various web and mobile clients while maintaining synchronized playback progress across all devices. The platform distinguishes itself through comprehensive library management and multi-user administration tools. It includes integrated metadata enrichment to automatically fetch cover art and descriptive information, alongside utilities for editing chapter markers and managing podcast RSS feeds for offline listening. Security is maintained through role-based access control, enabling administrators to define custom permissions for individual users across specific media libraries. Beyond core audio features, the system supports the hosting and display of digital reading materials. It incorporates administrative functions such as automated backup scheduling and background task processing to ensure data integrity and system reliability. The server is accessible via a standardized application programming interface, facilitating interaction with diverse client applications.

Kavita is a self-hosted digital library server designed for hosting, organizing, and sharing collections of digital books, comics, and magazines across multiple devices. It functions as a digital media metadata manager and an OPDS content server, enabling the distribution of publications to compatible reading applications. The system includes a cross-platform web-based reader that supports digital book annotations and highlights. It utilizes a role-based access control system to manage user permissions and enforce age restrictions for shared libraries. The platform provides comprehensive library management tools for indexing content metadata, organizing reading lists, and integrating external ratings and reviews. Users can also customize their experience through adjustable dashboard layouts and visual themes.

Talebook is a self-hosted personal ebook library server that allows you to import, organize, and host your ebook collection on the web. It provides a built-in browser-based EPUB reader so you can read books directly without downloading them, and it can push selected ebooks to a Kindle device via email for offline reading. The library catalog is exposed over OPDS, enabling mobile reading apps to browse and download titles. Talebook supports multiple user accounts with social login integration, making it suitable for shared library management among friends or family. It also includes a passcode access gate to restrict access to authorized visitors, and an administrative panel for configuring system settings, user accounts, and third-party service integrations such as SMTP for Kindle delivery. Automatic bulk import from a scanned directory helps keep the collection up to date without manual effort.

Jellyfin is a self-hosted media server that organizes digital media collections and streams content to various client devices over a local or remote network. It utilizes a client-server architecture that separates media processing and storage from user interfaces, communicating through a standardized web-based application programming interface. The platform is designed for cross-platform hosting, running consistently across Linux, Windows, and macOS through native binaries or containerized environments. It features a hardware-accelerated transcoding engine that offloads intensive video conversion tasks to dedicated graphics hardware, optimizing playback performance and reducing processor utilization. Additionally, the system includes a modular plugin architecture that allows for dynamic feature expansion by integrating third-party extensions. The software supports a range of administrative and deployment capabilities, including database-backed state management for user preferences and media metadata, as well as discovery-protocol-based networking for automatic client identification. It provides tools for monitoring server health, managing network port configurations, and organizing connected devices. Installation is supported through various methods, including pre-built container images, automated scripts for Linux distributions, and binary packages for Windows and macOS.