oh duh
https://github.com/wasi-master/13ft/blob/main/docker-compose.yaml - this is the 12ft.io replacement i use. there are a few clones but this is the one I like, it’s real barebones and uses very little overhead
https://komga.org/ - komga library https://github.com/Snd-R/komf - komf - this isn’t strictly necessary but it fetches metadata for your komga library from sites like manga updates. can be a bit of a pain to configure https://github.com/Snd-R/komf-userscript - this is a tampermonkey script that makes komf MUCH easier to use https://github.com/dazedcat19/FMD2 - this is an app that rips manga from most of the “free manga” indexer sites like mangadex, bato, etc. docker and kubernetes version at https://github.com/ElryGH/docker-FMD2
you can read directly via komga web but frankly it kind of sucks for that. i prefer using an app. tachiyomi was the gold standard but companies threatened it and they stopped development. there are several forks now that are all good in various ways. i prefer mihon https://mihon.app/ but there are alternatives that have different feature sets
On device isn’t always ideal. I don’t use immich because i don’t have a large photo library. But I do use komga. Nextcloud can sort and manage epub/pdf like komga but as poVoq said, the specialized solution is superior
This point is where on device app is not the ideal situation, for me at least. These apps exist. Tachiyomi and the resultant forks can import a local library. And frankly even a somewhat massive local library can fit on a cheap SD card
The point of the server is portability. With this I have portability across my devices. My library, reading status, metadata, etc is available on all devices. I can read a book on my ereader, close it, the status is synced. I can pick up from my laptop and the same thing occurs. I can pick up from my phone, download the book to my device, and keep reading while I’m away from home. If I wanted to I could open remote access to my server and avoid the need for downloading the books but that’s a whole thing
I don’t think it would make sense to run a server solely for this but it’s a service that doesn’t take much in terms of resources and I read a lot.