In addition to self-hosting, I’ll throw out a few other alternatives:
Free:
Paid:
- For a user experience closer to Audible, I went with libro.fm. You can pick a local, independent bookstore that gets a portion of the sales. Their catalog is pretty extensive as well, have been able to find most books I’m interested in. Books are DRM-free and you can pause your membership.
- Downpour - DRM-free as well
DRM-free is important IMO because otherwise you’re at the mercy of the platform and if the company ever changes its Terms of Use or wipes your account, you lose your purchases. Amazon have remotely deleted books from users’ libraries in the past or replaced them with modified copies (e.g. Roald Dahl books). Kindle announced last month they won’t let you download your eBooks via USB so it’s possible Audible could see changes for the worse in the future as well.
For those on iOS looking for a companion app, check out plappa for a great app to access your Audiobookshelf/jellyfin instance. It works flawlessly for me, no data collection, and it allows downloading books in advance for on the go if you choose not to have external access to your server.
I knew it was gonna be Audiobookshelf as soon as I saw the headline. Great software. My wife has all her books hosted on it on our NAS, and it barely takes any resources. I have it hosted alongside Plex in a VM on a teeny tiny Ryzen 5500u Mini-PC.
Edit - I’m even more amused that I have almost the same configuration as the article author, Proxmox server hosting the guest, just mine’s an Ubuntu 24.04 server VM instead of LXC. That little server hosts Plex, Audiobookshelf, Lyrion, and AssetUPnP, pretty much handles all my media stuff, plus a separate Home Assistant VM, and has resources to spare.
Has anybody any experience with storyteller?
I use the Voice app on Fdriod but it doesnt do syncing that I know about. I fully recommend instead of using Audible.
If you dont own the files, then you dont really own the media.
Yes, I am aware of where this is posted and am prepared for my inevitable crucifixion as a result of this observation. But, like… is this really a problem that requires a self hosting solution? That seems like quite the overcomplication to me unless you absolutely require access to your entire selection on multiple devices that will have 24/7 network connections for some reason. I imagine most people actually don’t. And if you do, a simple file share is probably a less convoluted solution, and surely already exists on the server you already have.
MP3’s take up negligible amounts of storage space on modern devices and can be played on anything, and can be easily taken with you anywhere including out of network range.
I guess teaching people how to drag-and-drop audio files onto their phone and open them with VLC would be a much shorter article.
(Ed: Punctuation.)
Yeeeah, gonna have to disagree with that. Having dead simple access to your library on any device is amazing. ABS syncs your listening position between devices, has offline downloading, supports rich metadata, collections, customized sleep timers, and quite a bit more.
Yup. Audio books aren’t very big once converted to a reasonable format and with the amount of space these days, I can comfortably keep a dozen on me at all times.
I don’t want to “just” drag and drop anything, it’s 2025.
I want to have a service that keeps track of what books I have read/listened and what’s my location in them.
Then I can plug into that service on multiple different devices and the state is automatically shared between them. I can pick up any computer with a browser and keep listening where I left the book on my phone.
I just wish their official app would get out of beta already. It’s been stuck in limbo forever.
I love Audiobookshelf, my main complaint is the Android app crashes when killed by Android (so when I try to open it I get a message about it crashing and then have to reopen it). That might just be a me thing.
I used the tool Libation to download my Audible books. There was a Firefox extension to download audiobooks from Libby but it’s no longer working because Libby changed something and the dev didn’t have time to fight the battle, anyone have a good solution to that?
I love Audiobookshelf, my main complaint is the Android app crashes when killed by Android (so when I try to open it I get a message about it crashing and then have to reopen it). That might just be a me thing.
Hmm, I’ve been using Audiobookshelf on my Android phone(s) for at least the last year without issues like that. Are you using the F-droid or Play Store version? I’m using F-droid if that matters.
F-Droid. Might be relevant that I’m on GrapheneOS.
Shoutout to Libation, that allows you to download and deDRM your Audible library.
Oooooo, but there be dragons.
Documentation? Yer lookin’ at it This is a single-developer personal passion project. Support, response, updates, enhancements, bug fixes etc are as my free time allows I have a full-time job, a life, and a finite attention span. Therefore a lot of time can potentially go by with no improvements of any kind
It’s good they put it up front though. There can be a lot of entitlement with oss users sometimes and setting expectations can help alleviate that.
