Maintained by BookShelves eBook Reader — a free EPUB reader for macOS and iOS.
A practical guide to OPDS (Open Publication Distribution System) — the open standard for discovering and downloading ebooks from any compatible reader app.
OPDS is like RSS for ebooks. It defines a standard way for ebook catalogs to publish their collections so that any OPDS-compatible ebook reader app can browse and download books directly.
Instead of visiting a website, finding a book, downloading the file, and importing it into your reader, OPDS lets you do everything from inside your app.
- An OPDS catalog publishes a feed (Atom XML) listing available books
- Your ebook reader app subscribes to the feed URL
- You browse, search, and download books without leaving the app
- The book lands in your library, ready to read
It's decentralized — anyone can host an OPDS catalog, and any reader can connect to it.
These libraries and publishers offer OPDS feeds you can add to your ebook reader:
| Catalog | OPDS Feed URL | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Ebooks | https://standardebooks.org/feeds/opds |
Beautifully formatted public domain books |
| Project Gutenberg | https://m.gutenberg.org/ebooks.opds/ |
70,000+ public domain titles |
| Feedbooks | https://catalog.feedbooks.com/catalog/index.atom |
Public domain and original ebooks |
| ManyBooks | https://manybooks.net/opds/index.php |
50,000+ free titles |
| Internet Archive | https://bookserver.archive.org/catalog/ |
Massive digital library |
| OAPEN | https://library.oapen.org/opds |
Open access academic books |
| App | Platform | OPDS Support |
|---|---|---|
| BookShelves | macOS, iOS | Built-in OPDS browser with Standard Ebooks catalog pre-configured |
| Calibre | Windows, macOS, Linux | Via "Get books" plugin and OPDS catalog browser |
| KOReader | Linux, Android, E-ink | Full OPDS support with search |
| Librera | Android | OPDS catalog browser built in |
| Thorium Reader | Windows, macOS, Linux | Full OPDS support from EDRLab |
| Aldiko | Android, iOS | OPDS catalog subscriptions |
- Based on Atom (XML)
- Widely supported by existing readers and catalogs
- Defines navigation feeds, acquisition feeds, and search
- Based on JSON (OPDS 2.0 uses Readium Web Publication Manifest)
- Better support for pagination and faceted search
- Still gaining adoption
Most catalogs and readers today use OPDS 1.2.
Want to share your personal ebook collection? You can host your own OPDS server:
| Tool | Language | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Calibre Content Server | Python | Built into Calibre — share your library over the network |
| COPS | PHP | Calibre OPDS PHP Server — lightweight web interface for Calibre libraries |
| Kavita | C# | Self-hosted digital library with OPDS support |
| Komga | Kotlin | Media server for comics and ebooks with OPDS feed |
- The Best Free eBook Sources Nobody Talks About — free ebook sources with OPDS feeds you can browse from your reader
- EPUB vs Kindle Format: What You're Actually Missing — why open formats like EPUB matter
This guide is released under CC0 1.0.