Audiobook Self-Hosting

The FOSS audiobook story is essentially Audiobookshelf + a small constellation of companion tools. ABS is the server; AudioBookRequest is the requests UI for friends / family; LazyLibrarian is the *arr-shape automation; Storyteller is the read-along sync layer. All free, all open source, all dockerized, all with mobile apps. Pair with Audiobooks, Self-Host Libraries, KOReader, Self-Host Photos & Media, and Transcription.

Self-host first

Plex audiobooks works, but it's paid + closed source. Audiobookshelf is the default in 2024-26 — better mobile apps, better chapter parsing, faster, native CarPlay / Android Auto, and a polished requests / *arr ecosystem around it.

Audiobookshelf — the default

• ★ ★ Audiobookshelf (ABS) — free OSS (MIT-ish); Node + Vue; multi-user; podcasts + audiobooks; iOS + Android apps with offline downloads; sleep timer; chapter parsing from M4B / MP3 / OGG; cover art scraping; Sonos / CarPlay / Android Auto. The single best argument for an audiobook homelab.
  • https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf
• Apps: Audiobookshelf (official iOS/Android, free OSS), Plappa (third-party iOS, free), Lissen (third-party Android, free), Bound (paid iOS, ABS-compatible), Prologue (paid iOS, ABS-compatible).

Companion tools (FOSS)

• ★ ★ AudioBookRequest (ABR) — Overseerr-shape requests UI for ABS; users browse, request, admin approves, ABR fetches and drops into ABS. The missing piece for sharing your ABS instance with family / friends.
  • https://github.com/markbeep/AudioBookRequest
• ★ LazyLibrarian — long-running Python-based ebook + audiobook automation; "Sonarr for books"; subscribe by author, watch for releases, fetch via NZB / torrent / direct.
  • https://gitlab.com/LazyLibrarian/LazyLibrarian
• ★ Readarr — *arr-stack books; less mature than Sonarr / Radarr, project drama 2024-25; community forks active. Try LazyLibrarian first.
• ★ Storyteller — pairs your EPUB with audiobook narration so highlights / position sync between text and audio. Works alongside ABS.
  • https://gitlab.com/smoores/storyteller
• Bookshelf-Traefik / ABS-Tools — community helper scripts for batch tagging, cover repair, duplicate detection.

Alternatives

• Booksonic — Subsonic fork for audiobooks; older; less active. Mostly historical now.
• gerbera / Jellyfin Audiobooks — Jellyfin can serve audiobooks but isn't optimised; ABS is better.
• Plex audiobooks (paid + closed) — works via Plexamp / Prologue / custom agents; community has largely moved to Audiobookshelf. Listed for completeness only.
• Lyrion Music Server (formerly Logitech Media Server) — Squeezebox folks sometimes serve audiobooks here; niche.

Acquisition / formatting (FOSS tools)

• ★ M4B is the universal audiobook format — single file, chapter markers, embedded cover.
• AAX → M4B — see OpenAudible / inAudible / AAXtoMP3 in Audiobooks.
• ★ m4b-tool — free OSS; merge per-chapter MP3s into a tagged M4B. Essential.
  • https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool
• Mp3tag / MusicBrainz Picard — free; tag audiobook files.
• abs-tools — community ABS-specific tagging utilities.

Whisper / TTS overlap (FOSS)

• ★ Whisper / Whisper.cpp / faster-whisper — free OSS; transcribe self-recorded audio for searchable / book-club audiobooks. See Transcription.
• Storyteller + Whisper — synthesise read-along ebook+audiobook pairs from your library.
• ★ Piper — free OSS; lightweight neural TTS; the recommended pick for "render an EPUB to audiobook" in 2026 (good quality, runs on a Pi).
• Coqui-TTS / Bark / XTTS / Kokoro — free OSS TTS for generating your own audiobooks from EPUBs. See Transcription and Self-Host AI / LLM.

Sync, OPDS, integration

• ABS native sync — position + bookmarks across devices; built-in.
• OPDS — ABS exposes podcasts via RSS but ebook-shape OPDS lives on Calibre Web Automated / Komga; see OPDS Protocol.
• Home Assistant ABS integration — community integration; surfaces "now playing".

Patterns

• ★ Library layout: /audiobooks/<author>/<series>/<series-num> - <title>/<title>.m4b is the convention Audiobookshelf parses cleanly.
• Backup the cover art + tags — re-tagging is the most painful migration.
• Sleep timer + smart-pause — every modern audiobook app has this; ABS too.
• Sync progress between devices — ABS does this natively; Plex needs Plexamp / Prologue.
• Pair ABS + ABR — turns your homelab into a "family audiobook service" with Overseerr-shape ergonomics.

Pick this if…

• Default FOSS audiobook server: Audiobookshelf.
• Family / friends requests UI: AudioBookRequest on top of ABS.
• *arr-shape author subscriptions: LazyLibrarian (or Readarr).
• Read-along audio + ebook: Storyteller.
• TTS your own audiobooks: Piper / XTTS / Bark; push to ABS.
• Already on Plex (paid, secondary): Prologue + Plex audiobooks library.