Free Programming Books
E-books & Media LibraryCurated catalog of free programming ebooks and resources
Replaces Paid technical book subscriptions
Best Lightweight E-books & Media Library for self-hosting
The 23 best Lightweight e-books & media library you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Calibre-Web
E-books & Media LibraryWeb app to browse and read your Calibre library
Replaces Kindle, Goodreads
Kavita
E-books & Media LibraryFast self-hosted digital library for all reading
Replaces Kindle, ComiXology
Sigil
E-books & Media LibraryMulti-platform EPUB ebook editor
Replaces Adobe InDesign EPUB export
epub.js
E-books & Media LibraryJavaScript library for rendering EPUB books in the browser
Komga
E-books & Media LibraryMedia server for comics, manga and e-books
Replaces ComiXology, Kindle
Papra
E-books & Media LibraryMinimalistic self-hosted document archiving platform
Replaces Evernote, Dropbox
Calibre-Web Automated Book Downloader
E-books & Media LibraryWeb tool to search and download ebooks into your library
Replaces Kindle Store
LANraragi
E-books & Media LibrarySelf-hosted archival manga and comic reader
Replaces ComiXology
Stump
E-books & Media LibraryFast, low-resource comic and ebook media server
Replaces Kindle, ComiXology
OpenBooks
E-books & Media LibrarySearch and download ebooks from IRC Highway
Replaces Kindle Store
Plato
E-books & Media LibraryDocument reader for Kobo e-readers
Replaces Kobo reader app, Kindle
BookLore
E-books & Media LibrarySelf-hosted web app for organizing and reading ebooks and PDFs
Replaces Kindle, Goodreads
ttu Ebook Reader
E-books & Media LibraryBrowser-based ebook reader with progress tracking
Replaces Kindle
kepubify
E-books & Media LibraryFast EPUB to Kobo KEPUB converter in a single binary
Komf
E-books & Media LibraryMetadata fetcher for Komga and Kavita libraries
Replaces Goodreads
kobodl
E-books & Media LibraryDownload and de-DRM books from your Kobo account
Replaces Kobo
KOHighlights
E-books & Media LibraryViewer and exporter for KOReader book highlights
Replaces Kindle Notebook export
Bragibooks
E-books & Media LibraryWeb app that organizes and tags audiobook files via Audible metadata
Manga-Tagger
E-books & Media LibraryAutomated metadata tagging tool for manga archives
Replaces ComiXology
Kthoom
E-books & Media LibraryIn-browser comic book and archive reader
Replaces ComiXology
COPS
E-books & Media LibraryCalibre OPDS and HTML PHP server
Replaces Kindle
dir2opds
E-books & Media LibraryMinimal OPDS server for personal ebook collections
Replaces Calibre Content Server
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Programming Books | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 64 MB | CC-BY-4.0 | 398,998 |
| Calibre-Web | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | GPL-3.0 | 18,382 |
| Kavita | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 512 MB | GPL-3.0 | 11,850 |
| Sigil | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 256 MB | GPL-3.0 | 6,992 |
| epub.js | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 128 MB | BSD-3-Clause | 6,962 |
| Komga | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 512 MB | MIT | 6,740 |
| Papra | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 512 MB | AGPL-3.0 | 5,559 |
| Calibre-Web Automated Book Downloader | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | GPL-3.0 | 4,013 |
| LANraragi | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | MIT | 3,124 |
| Stump | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | MIT | 2,745 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Free Programming Books (398,998 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Free Programming Books (from 64 MB RAM, against 512 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 12 of 23 use MIT; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Lightweight within the e-books & media library category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.