A self-hosted audiobook library for the whole family

The plan

1. Run the Berth server in Docker on a NAS, a Raspberry Pi or a VPS — installation.
2. Choose where audio lives: the server's disk, any S3 storage or Cloudflare R2.
3. Upload books in the web admin: drag a folder (one folder is one book) or a single m4b or mp3 file.
4. Create a listener for each family member and connect their phones by QR code.

Uploading books

Berth accepts mp3, m4b, m4a, aac, ogg, opus, flac and wav, with covers in JPEG, PNG or WebP. It reads tags, durations, chapters and covers; you check title, authors, narrators, series, language and age rating before adding the book. Embedded chapters are used; otherwise each file becomes a chapter.

Children's accounts

Enter a child's date of birth and they see only books rated for their age: 0+, 6+, 12+, 16+ or 18+. The limit grows by itself as the child gets older. You can also limit a listener to picked books or sections.

Listening at home, in the car and offline

• Background playback, lock screen and Bluetooth controls.
• Android Auto and CarPlay.
• Sleep timer, per-book speed and a short rewind when you resume.
• Offline downloads that are verified and resumable — for the plane or the countryside.
• Progress saved on the phone every few seconds, so a dead battery or a closed app never loses the place.

Questions