Self-Hosting Calibre-Web: Your Personal Ebook Library in the Cloud

You bought an ebook on Amazon five years ago. Try reading it on a Kobo. Try reading it on your phone without the Kindle app. Try sharing it with your partner. You can't — not really. The book you "bought" lives inside Amazon's ecosystem, and if your account ever gets closed, your entire library disappears with it.

The same applies to Kobo, Apple Books, and Google Play Books. You're renting access, not owning books. Calibre-Web is a self-hosted solution that gives you a real library: DRM-free ebooks you own, accessible from any device with a web browser, synced to e-readers via OPDS, and shareable with anyone in your household.

Calibre-Web vs. Calibre Desktop vs. Kavita vs. Komga

If you've looked into self-hosted ebook management, you've probably encountered several options. Here's how they compare:

When to pick each one

• Calibre Desktop if you want the most powerful metadata editing, format conversion, and plugin ecosystem — but don't need web access or multi-user support.
• Calibre-Web if you already use Calibre and want a clean web interface for browsing, reading, and sharing your library across devices.
• Kavita if your library is primarily manga, comics, or light novels and you want a polished reading experience without any Calibre dependency.
• Komga if you're focused on comics and manga and want strong metadata scraping from ComicVine and AniList.

What Calibre-Web Does

Calibre-Web sits on top of a Calibre library database and provides a modern, responsive web interface. Out of the box, you get:

• Browse and search your entire ebook library from any device
• Read in the browser with a built-in EPUB and PDF reader
• Download books in any format stored in your library
• OPDS catalog so e-reader apps (KOReader, Moon+ Reader, Librera) can browse and download books directly
• Send-to-Kindle via email — push any book to your Kindle with one click
• Multi-user accounts with configurable permissions (download, upload, edit, admin)
• Metadata editing — fix titles, authors, covers, and descriptions through the web interface
• Fetch metadata from Google Books, Amazon, and other sources
• Kobo sync — connect a Kobo e-reader and sync books over the network
• Upload new books through the web interface without touching the server filesystem
• Shelf system — users can organize books into custom shelves, similar to Goodreads

What You Need Before Starting

Here's the important caveat: Calibre-Web requires an existing Calibre database. It doesn't create its own library from scratch. You need a metadata.db file, which Calibre Desktop generates when you create a library.

If you don't already use Calibre:

1. Install Calibre Desktop on any computer
2. Create a new library (it generates the metadata.db automatically)
3. Optionally import some ebooks into it
4. Copy the entire library folder (including metadata.db) to your server

If you already have a Calibre library, you're ready to go — just make the library folder accessible to your Docker container.

Docker Compose Setup

services:
  calibre-web:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/calibre-web:latest
    container_name: calibre-web
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      # Uncomment to enable ebook conversion (installs Calibre binaries)
      # - DOCKER_MODS=linuxserver/mods:universal-calibre
    ports:
      - "8083:8083"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - /path/to/calibre/library:/books
    restart: unless-stopped

docker compose up -d

Open http://your-server:8083 and log in with the default credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin123

On first login, set the Calibre library location to /books (or wherever you mounted your library) and change the admin password immediately.

Enabling format conversion

Calibre-Web can convert between ebook formats (EPUB to MOBI, PDF to EPUB, etc.), but only if the Calibre command-line tools are installed alongside it. The LinuxServer.io image makes this easy with a Docker mod:

environment:
  - DOCKER_MODS=linuxserver/mods:universal-calibre

This installs ebook-convert inside the container. After restarting, go to Admin → Basic Configuration → External Binaries and set the Calibre binaries path to /usr/bin. Conversion then becomes available throughout the interface.

Be aware: this mod adds roughly 500 MB to the container image and increases startup time. If you only store EPUB files and never need conversion, skip it.

Enabling Kepubify for Kobo

If you use a Kobo e-reader, Calibre-Web can convert EPUBs to Kobo's optimized KEPUB format on the fly. The LinuxServer image bundles Kepubify automatically. In Admin → Basic Configuration → External Binaries, confirm the Kepubify path is set (usually /usr/bin/kepubify).

Setting Up OPDS for E-Reader Apps

OPDS (Open Publication Distribution System) is a catalog format that lets e-reader apps browse and download from your library directly, like a personal bookstore.

To enable it:

1. In Calibre-Web, go to Admin → Basic Configuration → Feature Configuration
2. Enable OPDS feed

Your OPDS feed URL will be:

http://your-server:8083/opds

Connecting e-reader apps

Most serious e-reader apps support OPDS:

• KOReader (Kindle, Kobo, Android): Add OPDS catalog in the search menu
• Moon+ Reader (Android): Net Library → Add OPDS catalog
• Librera Reader (Android): OPDS Catalogs → Add
• Cantook (iOS): Add OPDS feed in library settings
• Panels (iOS): Supports OPDS for comics and ebooks

Enter your Calibre-Web URL, username, and password. You'll be able to browse categories, search, and download books directly to your device.

Send-to-Kindle Setup

One of Calibre-Web's best features is one-click delivery to your Kindle. Here's how to configure it:

1. Set up an email account for sending — In Admin → Basic Configuration → Email Server (SMTP), configure an SMTP server. Gmail, Fastmail, or any SMTP provider works.

   Example for Gmail:

   SMTP hostname: smtp.gmail.com
   SMTP port: 587
   Encryption: STARTTLS
   Username: [email protected]
   Password: app-specific password
   

2. Add your Kindle email — In each user's profile, set their Kindle email address (found in Amazon account settings under "Send to Kindle").

3. Approve the sender — In your Amazon account, add the SMTP sender address to the "Approved Personal Document Email List."

Now when browsing your library, each book has a "Send to Kindle" button. Calibre-Web emails the book file directly to your Kindle. If format conversion is enabled, it can auto-convert EPUB to MOBI/AZW3 before sending.

Note: Amazon now accepts EPUB files sent to Kindle via email as of 2023, so conversion is less critical than it used to be.

Kobo Sync

Calibre-Web has built-in Kobo sync support, letting your Kobo e-reader pull books directly from your server as though it were the Kobo Store:

1. Enable Kobo sync in Admin → Basic Configuration → Feature Configuration
2. Each user gets a unique Kobo sync URL from their profile page
3. On your Kobo, modify the Kobo Store API URL to point to your Calibre-Web instance (this requires editing a config file on the device or using a proxy)

Once configured, books you add to specific shelves in Calibre-Web automatically appear on your Kobo. Reading progress syncs both ways.

This is one of Calibre-Web's most unique features — neither Kavita nor Komga offer anything like it.

User Management

Calibre-Web supports multiple user accounts, each with configurable permissions:

• Admin — Full control over the server and all settings
• Download — Can download book files
• Upload — Can add new books to the library
• Edit — Can modify metadata and covers
• View — Browse-only access

This makes it practical for household use. Give family members accounts with download access, and keep edit/upload permissions for yourself to maintain library quality.

Metadata Management

Fetching metadata automatically

Calibre-Web can pull book metadata from external sources:

• Google Books — Works out of the box, no API key needed
• Amazon — Cover images and descriptions
• ComicVine — For comics (requires free API key)

Select a book, click Edit Metadata, and hit the search button. Calibre-Web queries these sources and lets you pick the best match.

The honest truth about metadata

Metadata management is the most tedious part of maintaining an ebook library. Calibre Desktop is still the gold standard here — its bulk editing, regex-based find-and-replace, and plugin ecosystem (particularly the "Metadata Download" plugin) are far more powerful than what Calibre-Web offers through the browser.

A practical workflow: use Calibre Desktop for heavy metadata work (initial library setup, bulk imports, fixing inconsistencies), and use Calibre-Web for day-to-day edits and browsing. They share the same database, so changes in one appear in the other.

The Honest Trade-offs

Calibre-Web is great if:

• You already have a Calibre library and want to access it from anywhere
• You want to share your ebook collection with family members
• You use a Kindle and want one-click delivery from your own server
• You own a Kobo and want wireless sync without the official store
• You want OPDS access for mobile reading apps

Calibre-Web is not ideal if:

• You don't have an existing Calibre library and don't want to install Calibre Desktop to create one
• Your collection is primarily manga or comics (Kavita or Komga are much better for this)
• You want built-in format conversion without adding the Calibre binary mod (adds size and complexity)
• You want a standalone system with no external dependencies
• You expect Goodreads-level social features or recommendation engines

Ongoing maintenance considerations:

• The Calibre metadata.db file is SQLite and can occasionally get locked if both Calibre Desktop and Calibre-Web write to it simultaneously. Run one writer at a time, or use Calibre's content server instead of direct file access.
• Large libraries (10,000+ books) can make the web interface sluggish, especially search. The database isn't built for web-scale queries.
• Cover thumbnails are cached and can consume significant disk space for large libraries.

Should You Self-Host Calibre-Web?

If you maintain a personal ebook library — or you've been meaning to organize the pile of EPUBs scattered across your devices — Calibre-Web is the best way to make that collection accessible. The web reader is good enough for casual reading, OPDS support means any decent e-reader app can connect to your library, and the Kindle/Kobo integration is genuinely useful.

The main barrier is the Calibre database dependency. You can't just throw a folder of EPUBs at it and go. You need to set up a Calibre library first, which means installing Calibre Desktop at least once. After that initial setup, Calibre-Web handles the day-to-day experience well.

For ebooks specifically, nothing else in the self-hosted space matches Calibre-Web's combination of web reading, OPDS feeds, Kindle delivery, and Kobo sync. If those features matter to you, the setup is worth the effort.

Resources

• Calibre-Web GitHub
• Calibre-Web documentation (wiki)
• LinuxServer.io Calibre-Web image
• Calibre Desktop
• OPDS specification
• KOReader (open source e-reader)