Jelu review 2026: self-hosted book tracking features, Docker setup, metadata import, pros, cons and alternatives to Goodreads and StoryGraph.
Jelu is a free, open-source book tracking application designed to be self-hosted, giving readers a private, ad-free alternative to commercial services like Goodreads for logging what they have read, are reading, and plan to read next. It is maintained by a developer known as bayang and distributed openly for anyone to deploy on their own server.
Built with a Kotlin/Spring Boot backend and a Vue.js frontend, Jelu is most commonly deployed via Docker on a home server, NAS, or small VPS, fitting naturally alongside other self-hosted services like media servers or RSS readers that privacy-conscious users already run.
Jelu lets users track books across reading statuses (to-read, reading, read, dropped), attach personal ratings and notes, organize titles into series and by custom tags, and log reading events over time to visualize reading pace and habits. Metadata import pulls in book details like cover art, author, and description from external sources so users don't have to enter every field by hand.
A documented REST API exposes the underlying data, letting technically inclined users build custom dashboards, scripts, or integrations on top of their reading library, and Jelu supports importing existing collections from common export formats to ease migration away from other tracking tools.
Jelu is completely free and open source, with no license fee, subscription, or paid tier of any kind; the software itself costs nothing to download, run, and modify.
Because it is self-hosted, the only real cost is the infrastructure a user chooses to run it on, whether that is a spare home server, a NAS, or a low-cost VPS, making total ownership cost minimal and fully within the user's control.
Yes, Jelu is completely free and open source; the only cost is whatever server infrastructure you self-host it on.
Jelu is most commonly deployed via Docker on a home server, NAS, or small VPS, following the setup instructions in its documentation.
Yes, Jelu exposes a documented REST API that lets users programmatically add, update, and query their book data.
Yes, Jelu supports importing collections from common export formats used by other book-tracking tools.
Jelu is self-hosted, open source, ad-free, and API-accessible, while Goodreads is a centralized, Amazon-owned commercial service with a large social community but no self-hosting option.
Jelu is maintained by a developer known as bayang, with its source code published openly for self-hosting and contribution.