I received an email out of the blue asking me if I'd like to try Glimshelf, an iOS/iPadOS comic book reader currently in Beta. It can read comics books from a server or local files. For server it mentions Komga, Kavita, or generic OPDS.


Komga - "A media server for your comics, mangas, BDs, magazines and eBooks"

It's been around for six years. UI is basic but workable. The demo does have a link to try the new UI which is a little more modern.

Kavita - "Lightning fast and privacy-friendly, Kavita is a self‑hosted digital library for EPUB, PDF, comics and manga — with built‑in readers (single, double page, and webtoon mode), OPDS, and rich metadata. Install and share your server in minutes."

Seems more feature rich and slicker UI. Requires SSE4.2 (for rendering I guess) so newer Intel/AMD CPUs and not Mac (Komga is Java and has a macOS application so just download and run). Does have a subscription add-on though the added stuff seems very optional and I guess the money helps support active development.

Both can run on QNAP (I checked that my QNAP has a CPU with SSE4.2). Both are available on My QNAP (a third party repository). Komga is a one-click install. Kavita has several installs since it needs to run on Apache, Qbase or QMultimedia Q6) and there's a manual step.


So if I wanted to run a server I can run it on my Mac mini with Komga or the QNAP still with Komga as that seems easier to install. And if I use a third party reader then a cool UI is less important.