How to Self-Host Komga: Comic and Manga Server 2026

TL;DR

Komga (MIT, ~3K GitHub stars, Kotlin) is a self-hosted server for comics, manga, and webtoons. It reads CBZ, CBR, CB7, ZIP, and PDF files, automatically groups them into series, fetches metadata from ComicVine and MangaDex, and provides a clean OPDS feed for any reading app. ComiXology Unlimited charges $5.99/month for a rotating library. Komga serves your own permanent collection for free.

Key Takeaways

Komga: MIT, ~3K stars, Kotlin — comics/manga/webtoon server with OPDS and REST API
OPDS: Connect any OPDS-compatible reading app (Moon+ Reader, Chunky, Panels, etc.)
Series detection: Auto-groups by folder structure and filename patterns
Read in browser: Built-in web reader with webtoon (vertical scroll) mode
REST API: Full API — automate downloads, metadata, reading status
vs Kavita: Komga focuses on comics/manga; Kavita also handles EPUB ebooks

Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  komga:
    image: gotson/komga:latest
    container_name: komga
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:25600"
    volumes:
      - komga_config:/config
      - /path/to/comics:/comics:ro    # Your comics folder (read-only)
      - /path/to/manga:/manga:ro      # Your manga folder
    environment:
      TZ: America/Los_Angeles
      # Optional: Set initial admin credentials:
      KOMGA_LIBRARIES_SCAN_CRON: "0 0 * * *"  # Daily auto-scan

volumes:
  komga_config:

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8080 → create admin account on first visit.

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

comics.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Part 3: Library Structure

Komga reads folder structure and filenames to auto-group series:

Comics

/comics/
├── Batman/
│   ├── Batman 001 (1940).cbz
│   ├── Batman 002 (1940).cbz
│   └── Batman Annual 001 (1961).cbz
├── X-Men/
│   ├── Uncanny X-Men 001 (1963).cbz
│   └── X-Men v2 001 (1991).cbz
└── Spider-Man/
    ├── Amazing Spider-Man 001 (1963).cbz
    └── Amazing Spider-Man 002 (1963).cbz

Manga

/manga/
├── Chainsaw Man/
│   ├── Chainsaw Man v01 (2018).cbz
│   └── Chainsaw Man v02 (2018).cbz
├── Jujutsu Kaisen/
│   ├── Jujutsu Kaisen v01.cbz
│   └── Jujutsu Kaisen v02.cbz
└── Webtoons/
    └── Solo Leveling/
        ├── Solo Leveling ch001.cbz
        └── Solo Leveling ch002.cbz

Part 4: Add Libraries

Admin → Libraries → + Add library
Name: Comics or Manga
Root folder: /comics or /manga
Scanner settings:
- Scan for new files: Every day
- Analyze new books: Yes (extracts page count)
Save and scan

Part 5: OPDS Feed

OPDS URL: https://comics.yourdomain.com/opds/v1.2/catalog

Compatible apps

App	Platform	Best For
Chunky Comic Reader	iPad	Full-featured, great panel zoom
Panels	iOS/macOS	Beautiful UI, OPDS support
Moon+ Reader Pro	Android	Excellent CBZ/EPUB reader
Tachiyomi/Mihon	Android	Best manga UX with OPDS extension
KOReader	E-Ink	Kobo/Kindle sideloaded reader
YACReader	Mac/PC	Desktop reading with library

Tachiyomi setup (Android)

Install Mihon (Tachiyomi successor)
Browse → Sources → Browse extensions
Install OPDS extension
Add source → URL: https://comics.yourdomain.com/opds/v1.2/catalog
Username/password for Komga authentication

Part 6: Web Reader

Click any series → chapter → opens the built-in reader:

Reading modes

Mode	Best For
Page by page (left→right)	Western comics
Page by page (right→left)	Japanese manga
Webtoon (vertical scroll)	Korean webtoons
Double page spread	Oversized comics

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
→ or Space	Next page
←	Previous page
F	Fullscreen
S	Settings

Part 7: REST API

BASE="https://comics.yourdomain.com/api/v1"
CREDS="admin:password"

# List libraries:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/libraries" | jq '.[].name'

# List series in a library:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/series?libraryId=LIBRARY_ID" | jq '.[].metadata.title'

# Get a series by ID:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/series/SERIES_ID" | jq '.metadata'

# Search:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/series?search=batman" | jq '.[].metadata.title'

# Mark a book as read:
curl -u "$CREDS" -X PATCH "$BASE/books/BOOK_ID/read-progress" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"completed": true}'

# Get reading progress:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/books/BOOK_ID/read-progress" | jq '.completed'

# Get thumbnail:
curl -u "$CREDS" "$BASE/series/SERIES_ID/thumbnail" --output cover.jpg

Part 8: Metadata Fetching

Komga can fetch metadata automatically:

Admin → Settings → Metadata
Enable: ComicInfo.xml (embedded in CBZ files)
Providers: ComicVine (Western comics), MangaDex (manga)

Manual metadata edit

Right-click series → Edit metadata:

Title, summary, publisher
Genres, tags
Publication year, status

ComicInfo.xml

Embed metadata inside CBZ files:

<!-- ComicInfo.xml inside CBZ/ZIP -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ComicInfo>
  <Title>Batman #001</Title>
  <Series>Batman</Series>
  <Number>1</Number>
  <Year>1940</Year>
  <Publisher>DC Comics</Publisher>
  <Genre>Superhero</Genre>
  <Summary>The first appearance of Batman...</Summary>
</ComicInfo>

Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Force library scan:
# Admin → Libraries → Scan all

# Backup (config + database only — your files stay in place):
tar -czf komga-config-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect komga_komga_config --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f komga

Why Self-Host Komga?

The case for self-hosting Komga comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting Komga means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying Komga, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives Komga headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent Komga data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running Komga without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing Komga's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your Komga backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for Komga's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose Komga's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep Komga's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to Komga's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f komga

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change Komga's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats komga. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping Komga Updated

Komga follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm Komga is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

See also: Kavita — also handles EPUB ebooks alongside comics

See all open source media library tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/media.

The SaaS-to-Self-Hosted Migration Guide (Free PDF)