Alkyl glyceryl esters would be, from a theoretical/technical point of view rather than a practical one, easier to make DIY. However, you’d still need an inert atmosphere (such as equipment to work under a constant nitrogen flow to avoid acrolein formation -> acrolein is highly toxic!) and something for workup (chemical products are typically an ugly mess). Anyway, ester synthesis basically just requires heat (by preference also a catalyst) or enzymes, the new trend in green chemistry. Ethers on the other hand are harder to make (new catalysts have been published recently but can’t be obtained easily). All this isn’t public knowledge but are well kept company sectets. On the other hand, the chemistry behind can be found in scientific papers (which you only understand with a solid basis in chemistry and which most people could only put to good use when having advanced lab skills and/or more intimate knowledge in organic chemistry). HERE‘s a great review article. If you can’t access the paper, then that’s a sign that you’re not in a position where there’s much hope for you to ever be able to do that at home. Me, I could manage to DIY synthesise esters but honestly, ethers are out of my kitchens and budgets capabilities.