Recommendations on self hosting ebooks

I run Calibre-Web in Docker (linuxserver.io image) and read on a Kobo. My desktop Calibre library on my laptop is the source of truth; Syncthing replicates it to the server where Calibre-Web serves it, and the Kobo pulls books over Kobo Sync

Going a bit against the common suggestions here but my “workflow” is like this:

• I download books through Z-Library, I tried in the past lazylibrarian and readarr/bookshelf, but I always ended up spending a lot of time on refining the search for non-english books, which was just way easier in Z-Library.
• I tag/update metadata of books using Calibre of my laptop. I prefer to manually do that because while it took a few days to do it for my whole library, I don’t really add books in such a high number that I can justify automating it or having a Calibre container on my homeserver. (I know Calibre Web Automated will do this, but see below). I use Hardcover to track my readings, so Calibre with the hardcover plugin makes it easy to find ids or HC editions for integrations with other apps I use.
• After moving between Kavita, CWA and Booklore, I set up on Komga for library management. I found Komga’s koreader sync way more stable and mature than the other options. I am a bit annoyed by the fact that (as in Kavita) each book/series folder is a series, but at the end of the day the pros outweighs the cons for me. I can manage custom reading lists or series, so it’s not really an issue personally.

Calibre Web Automated is what I use. Works well.

I’ve got BookOrbit and Audiobookshelf both going. They both can be hosted securely (locked down compose file with read-only, non-root user, etc.) and use Postgres as their DBs, both key features.

I added in BookOrbit to try since it has kobo sync and koreader sync that Audiobookshelf lacks.

I moved books from Audiobookshelf to get BookOrbit going and there was a learning curve to get the UI to do it optimally for me, but I eventually got it to work for me. BookOrbit has the ability to write metadata to the files themselves, which most things lack. Very nice for portability.

There’s a folder BookOrbit imports from and you can set it to populate metadata automatically - seems strongly built for an automated library system.

Both have been very stable. I’d say BookOrbit is the better one - and it supports audiobooks too. Audiobookshelf handles multiple libraries (like books and comics) in a clunky way (have to switch between them like they’re completely different silo’d libraries - much like how Calibre handles them). BookOrbit has them separated but easy to see they exist and you can mix and match them in a collection or something. Better way to handle it.

I use the desktop application Calibre to convert books as needed, but BookOrbit will automatically generate kobo epubs from epubs when syncing so I need not worry about kepub prep.

Lastly, I chose BookOrbit to try over others because Grimmory needs a ton of RAM, Kavita had features behind a paywall, some other one is comic-focused, and the Calibre web iterations give off the vibe of a lot of tapes the inside to make them work; I had big doubts Calibre Web Auto would be able to be run non-root and read-only. Chose Audiobookshelf originally because of the Calibre mess and other options didn’t exist or were much less established.

Edit: lore drop: BookOrbit is a feature copy of Booklore but written not in Java (I think JS), and Grimmory is a community fork of Booklore after its creator fell into AI psychosis.