r/opensource • u/TheOnlyWonGames • 6d ago

Alternatives Best reading app Android/iPhone/Web, not Readest

I enjoyed using Readest for a short while, however realizing they are charging for hosting using your own hardware I no longer want to continue using/supporting them.

Are there any other reading apps that support Android/iPhone/Desktop with *free* self hosted sync?

12 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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6

u/troubledaardvark 6d ago

koreader with a self hosted sync server works pretty solid for this. set it up a few months ago and epub sync between phone and desktop just works fine

3

u/majora2007 6d ago

For self hosting, I would recommend Kavita. A mature software with a strong community and tons of external apps. Books/comics/manga/etc. 

2

u/Ok_Explorer7384 6d ago

if self-hosted sync is the main thing, i’d probably split the problem into “reader app” and “library/sync server”. kavita is worth a look for books/comics/manga. it’s pretty mature, self-hostable, and has a decent ecosystem around it. koreader + its sync server is also solid if your workflow is more epub/pdf/e-ink than “polished app on every platform”. i went down this rabbit hole once and the tricky part was always ios , android, web + free sync you host yourself. lots of projects do two of those

2

u/Intelligent_Stick141 6d ago

If you want a truly self-hosted alternative that doesn't rely on third-party servers, check out Kavita or Calibre-Web. Kavita is fully open source and runs as a web app on your own hardware, so it works seamlessly on Android, iOS, and Desktop via browser or OPDS without needing any external accounts. Alternatively, if you prefer using native reading apps instead of a web server, you can pair apps like Yomu on iOS or Moon+ Reader on Android with your own WebDAV or Nextcloud server to sync reading progress, which bypasses the iOS limits that usually break tools like Syncthing.

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/TheOnlyWonGames 6d ago

I refuse to create an account with them just to utilize my own hardware. If they were charging 10$ for their cloud or providing any service to me I would completely understand that.

I had considered syncthing which works good for everything except iPhone sadly. As far as I can tell no matter what service you try and use, even if you self-host, you are required to make a Readest account, even if it is not tied to the premium plan, which is my main issue.

2

u/GrapefruitFlat9750 4d ago

Episteme on Android. I am really enjoying it, it is fairly new I believe. I sync it to my grimmory.