OpenReader Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Deploy OpenReader hosting and give yourself a private library that reads PDF, EPUB, DOCX and text files aloud with synchronized highlighting. xCloud runs the pinned OpenReader v5.2.0 image next to a private Kokoro text-to-speech container, generates the administrator password and storage keys, mounts a persistent volume and publishes the reader over HTTPS — no external text-to-speech account or API key needed.

Deploy your OpenReader

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is OpenReader?

OpenReader is an open-source, self-host-friendly text-to-speech document reader built with Next.js. It reads EPUB, PDF, TXT, Markdown and DOCX files aloud with multilingual, synchronized read-along playback, and can also export audiobooks as M4B or MP3.

Upstream supports several text-to-speech providers, including self-hosted OpenAI-compatible servers such as Kokoro-FastAPI and cloud APIs. This template ships with a bundled Kokoro engine pre-selected, so it works without any external account.

From Sign-Up to Listening In Just 3 Easy Steps

A read-aloud server normally means an app container, a text-to-speech engine, document storage, an audio address, generated secrets and a certificate before the first page is read. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick OpenReader from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and enter the administrator email — that is the only field in the install form.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the official OpenReader image and a private Kokoro text-to-speech container, both pinned by immutable digest, mount the openreader_docstore volume, generate the administrator password, session secret and storage keys, and publish the reader over HTTPS on your domain. Allow a few minutes for the first start.
Step 03
Sign In And Add A Domain For Audio
Sign in with your administrator email and the generated password, then change the password in Settings, Account. Map the Audio playback domain on the site's Domain page — the browser loads spoken audio from it — then upload a document and press play.

Everything OpenReader Does, On Your Own Server

OpenReader runs in full here: a read-aloud document library on your own domain, with the speech engine on the same server.

Five Document Formats
Read EPUB, PDF, TXT and Markdown, plus DOCX converted by the worker, with synchronized read-along playback.
Word-By-Word Highlighting
Upstream aligns speech to text with an ONNX Whisper model, so the highlight follows the voice as you listen.
Bundled Kokoro Text-To-Speech
A private CPU Kokoro-FastAPI container is included, so no paid API key is needed. It reads slower than real time on a small server.
Layout-Aware PDF Parsing
PDFs are parsed with the PP-DocLayoutV3 ONNX model, which detects structured blocks and stitches text across pages for accurate highlighting.
Approval Before Anyone Joins
New sign-ups wait for administrator approval by default, and anonymous sessions are off.
Storage And Database Built In
S3-compatible document storage and the database run inside one container, so there are no extra services to run.

Everything You Need To Run Your Read-Aloud Library 24/7

Managed hosting for OpenReader, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

OpenReader v5.2.0 deployed instantly
Official image pinned by digest
Admin password and secrets generated for you
Kept behind xCloud nginx
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With OpenReader

Listen to your reading pile
Upload articles, papers and ebooks once and have them read to you while you follow the highlighted words.
A private read-aloud library for a team
Let colleagues sign up, approve them in Settings, Admin, Users, and keep every document on a server you control.
Text-to-speech without a paid API
Use the bundled Kokoro engine on the server's CPU instead of paying per character to a cloud voice service.
Turn documents into audio files
Upstream can export a document as an M4B or MP3 audiobook assembled from the same playback cache.

OpenReader Screenshots

An uploaded document in the OpenReader library

OpenReader reader with synchronized highlighting

OpenReader vs Alternatives

Speechify: A hosted text-to-speech reading service run by its vendor. OpenReader is open source and runs on your own server, with the speech engine on the same machine.
NaturalReader: A hosted text-to-speech reader operated by its vendor. OpenReader keeps your documents and the library on infrastructure you own.
ElevenReader: ElevenLabs' hosted reading app. OpenReader instead pairs with a self-hosted Kokoro engine, with cloud voice APIs optional rather than required.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for OpenReader hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if OpenReader sits alongside other media and document apps.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. OpenReader is licensed by its maintainers under MIT; the bundled Kokoro-FastAPI is Apache-2.0.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy OpenReader on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

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1 server
10 sites

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The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

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Unlimited sites
All features included
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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Read-Aloud Reader?

OpenReader on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

What makes OpenReader different?

It reads your own documents aloud with synchronized highlighting and ships its own text-to-speech engine, so no external TTS account is required.

How do I sign in the first time?

Use the administrator email from the install form and the generated password in the protected installation credentials, then change the password in Settings, Account. The Admin tab appears only after that change.

What runs alongside OpenReader?

A private Kokoro text-to-speech container, plus the app's built-in storage, queue and audio worker. Kokoro is reachable only from the app.

Why is there a second domain?

The browser loads short-lived signed audio links from the Audio playback domain. Without it, reading works but audio does not play. Map it on the site's Domain page.

How fast is the bundled text-to-speech?

Kokoro runs on the server's CPU only and reads slower than real time on a small server — about 18 seconds to prepare a first short passage in QA. Word-timing and PDF layout models also download from Hugging Face on first use, so the server needs outbound internet.

Who can sign up?

Sign-ups wait for administrator approval by default, and anonymous sessions are off. Account email is not configured, so approval is not proof that an address belongs to the person who registered it.

How large can an uploaded document be?

The app's default limit is 200 MB per document. Cloudflare-managed SSL rejects uploads above about 100 MB.

What should I back up?

The openreader_docstore volume, which holds the database, document storage and settings, plus the generated values in the environment file. AUTH_SECRET and the storage keys must stay stable: changing AUTH_SECRET signs everyone out and makes saved provider keys unreadable.

Backups in xCloud

Does xCloud automatically back up or update OpenReader?

No. The template pins OpenReader v5.2.0 and Kokoro-FastAPI v0.2.4 by immutable digest; new installations use the pinned release, existing sites are not automatically upgraded. Back up first, read the upstream release notes, then bump the readable tag and digest together on your own schedule. Server-level backups and snapshots are available on every Cloud VPS.

What are the server requirements, and why does this page sell 6 GB?

The template's baseline asks for 2 CPU cores, 2048 MB of RAM and 10 GB of disk; measured idle use in QA was about 1.5 GiB for the app plus Kokoro. This page sells the 6 GB tier as the entry rung, with real headroom above that baseline.

What survives a restart?

Documents, the account and the library survived an xCloud Restart in QA, because they live on the persistent openreader_docstore volume.

Is xCloud officially partnered with OpenReader?

No. No official partnership or endorsement between xCloud and the OpenReader project has been verified. This is a deployment and server-management option for the open-source OpenReader project.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.