In-depth review of popular Epub viewer software with features, pricing, and comparison. Select the best Epub reader platform for reading eBooks:
Even in the advent of the digital age, books have still held a stronghold over entertainment, knowledge, and infotainment.
The fact that the books have still been relevant today despite facing tough competition from visual mediums still behooves many skeptics who prematurely pronounced their extinction all those years ago when the Internet was in its infancy.
Digitization has only made books more ubiquitous and accessible than they have ever been, and platforms like Google Books and Kindle are cashing in lucratively on this trend. Although digital e-reading devices make for convenient reading experiences, not all can afford them.
Suggested reading =>> Convert PDF Files to Kindle Format
Thankfully, there is a plethora of Epub reader software available out there that doesn't require avid book worms to spend 100s and 1000s of dollars on expensive hardware just to read their favorite books. This article will focus on some of the best epub readers available online that offer an intuitive and convenient reading experience.
What You Will Learn:
- What Are Epub Readers
- Frequently Asked Questions
- List Of Best Epub Reader Software
- Comparison Of Top 5 EPUB Viewer
- #1) Calibre
- #2) Epubor Reader
- #3) Sumatra PDF Reader
- #4) Freda
- #5) Icecream E-book Reader
- #6) Neat Reader
- #7) BookViser
- #8) Kobo
- #9) FBReader
- #10) Adobe Digital Editions
- Conclusion
- Recommended Reading
What Are Epub Readers
These are file reading software that enables the reading of files usually stored in the epub format, hence the name. Google Books and Apple Books are prominent examples of epub readers as they widely employ the format to display books in their library.
No matter what the genre of the book is, whether it is a classic piece of literature, or an important academic work, the epub readers mentioned here possess the ability to host them all and make them available in formats that are both legible and ingenious.
Pro–Tip: The Epub reader should mandatorily possess a clean and comprehensive interface to hold and make books available to their users. Some intuitive features like an in-built dictionary, text highlighters, and animated page flipping are huge pluses. The epub reader should possess a vast library of books from many authors.
They should be accessible in multiple languages. Last, make sure the books available on such platforms are legible and maintain their original quality before transitioning into digital format. User reviews should help you corroborate this fact easily.
Fact Check: The ongoing pandemic has played a major role in increasing overall reader engagement pertaining to e-books. You can see a sharp growth in click rate right after February, wherein most sovereign countries went into lockdown. This indicates an increase in interest for e-books, as physical stores were forced to shut down.
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Sale for Kindle and other e-readers grew by 15% since March and has maintained a 25% lead above the January 2020 sales numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q #1) What is better, a physical book or ebook?
Answer: It really depends on one's preference. Most readers today still prefer the much more tangible experience of using physical books. On the other hand, ebooks are considerably better due to their affordability. They are eco-friendly and are powered by software that enhances the reading experience with complementary features like an in-built dictionary, dark mode, and text highlighter.
Q #2) Are Books on an Epub viewer free?
Answer: There are some books that come under the public domain and are free for readers to access and read in their epub reader. Books can also be offered for free if the author or the publisher of a book decides to make it available for free in the concerned software's library.
Q #3) Are Epub readers free?
Answer: Yes, most Epub readers are absolutely free to use. However, you will have to shell out some cash to purchase a book you would like to read in the software.
=> Contact us to suggest your listing here.
List Of Best Epub Reader Software
Here is the list of popular Epub Viewer:
- Calibre
- Epubor Reader
- Sumatra PDF Reader
- Freda
- Icecream Ebook Reader
- Neat Reader
- BookViser
- Kobo
- FBReader
- Adobe Digital Editions
Comparison Of Top 5 EPUB Viewer
Let's review the above-listed software for reading eBooks in detail:
#1) Calibre
Best for being open source and free Epub reader.
Calibre is the oldest, the most popular, and perhaps the best free epub reader still in demand today. In many ways, this software has laid down the foundation for more advanced tools to come in the future.
It is a powerful e-book manager that not only allows you to access thousands of digital books but also provides a comprehensive interface to store and manage them in an immaculate digital library.
You can easily share your library with other users, while also backing it up efficiently to avoid losing your content. Calibre's vast galley of e-books includes works of literature, educational books, self-help books, magazines, and news articles among so much more.
Of course, Calibre also offers users the opportunity to edit or convert their e-book formats to enable compatibility with other e-reader software.
Features:
- Easy to use and comprehensive interface
- Open source and free
- Share and backup library
- Edit and convert e-books
Verdict: Calibre is extremely powerful and intuitive for free software. Readers get an immaculate experience wherein they can easily access the books they like and curate their own library of some of the most sought after pieces of work ever published.
Price: Free
Website: Calibre
#2) Epubor Reader
Best for comprehensive ebook reader for Mac and Windows.
Epubor supports multiple e-book formats apart from the typical epub format. It is extremely easy to use, and robustly comprehensive in its navigation. The libraries are sorted automatically and you can find any book you desire by its ISBN number, author name, or title.
The interface itself is highly customizable. You can change the way your background looks, change the font, and page transition, or switch reading mode between horizontal and vertical viewing.
Perhaps the feature that wins us over every time is its ability to present a book in a single and dual page manner to keep the spirit of traditional reading alive.
Features:
- Import and organize a library of books easily
- Single and dual page viewing
- Highly customizable interface
- Access to millions of published digital books
Verdict: Epubor is a simple e-book reader that allows users to view, organize, and manage their favorite books in a single virtual library. With the help of some advanced features, Epubor truly excels as one of the finest epub readers in wide use today.
Price: Free trial with limited features, $4.99 onetime fee.
Website: Epubor Reader
#3) Sumatra PDF Reader
Best for lightweight PDF and epub reader.
Sumatra presents itself in a bare-bones manner. This gives the tool an amateur aesthetic, which may turn some people away from the tool. However, Sumatra's minimalistic look enables it to offer users an exceptionally lightweight tool that is super fast in its functioning.
Sumatra allows users to open, view, organize and manage multiple reading files such as PDF, Epub, Mobi, CBR, and CBZ, just to name a few. Although Sumatra is great for epub reading, we found it to be extremely efficient when it comes to processing a digital comic book file.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Superfast
- Comprehensive and organized book library
- Customizable
Verdict: If you want a simple epub reader, it doesn't get any more basic than Sumatra. Although branded as a PDF reader first, it shows robust compatibility with epub. You can easily view and maintain a library of epub files with Sumatra without any issue. Plus, its lightweight system is the cherry on top of the cake.
Price: Free
Website: Sumatra PDF Reader
#4) Freda
Best for reading free e-books for Windows and Android.
Freda is a free and quite pragmatic e-book reader for Windows and Android devices. Although the tool works phenomenally well with all Windows devices, it only functions with the most recent Android versions.
Freda is highly customizable, allowing users to transform the look of their interface with the help of interchangeable fonts and colors. It also integrates seamlessly with OneDrive and DropBox to allow users to download and backup books stored in their library.
The best part about Freda is its ability to ingrate with foreign e-readers like Smashwords and Calibre. This allows users to access their libraries on the above software via Freda. Apart from epub, users also get to open books available in formats such as HTML, TXT, and FB2 with the help of Freda.
Features:
- Free and easy to use
- Integrates with Dropbox and OneDrive
- Integrates with Smashwords, Calibre, and Gutenberg
- Highly customizable
Verdict: Freda is an exceptional tool, mainly because of its seamless integration with the cloud and other e-readers of its nature. This alone makes Freda a worthy e-book reader, in our opinion. However, Freda is also a competent epub reader that will satisfy readers who like a digital reading experience.
Price: Free
Website: Freda
#5) Icecream E-book Reader
Best Epub reader for Windows.
Icecream is a powerful, free epub reader that seems tailor-made for Windows devices. Apart from epub, the ebook reader supports a variety of other e-book formats ranging from MOBI, CBR to FB2. The tool is insanely clean with regards to its navigation and user interface, presenting all of its features on one page to avoid confusion.
Managing a digital book library is also fairly simple with this tool. In fact, you don't have to do anything. Your downloaded books will be organized in an exemplary manner for your reading pleasure.
As for reading itself, the software automatically saves and resumes your book reading from where you previously left off. You also get to add notes, translate the text as well as track your reading progress with this ingeniously designed software.
Features:
- Free and easy to use
- Highlight text
- Track progress
- Translate text
Verdict: Icecream E-book reader is a fairly simple Epub reader for people who use Windows devices. It is clean, smart, and incredibly easy to simply download and view any book you may desire. There is hardly anything concrete to complain about with this software other than the fact that it is only exclusive to Windows.
Price: Free, Pro version-$19.95
Website:Icecream E-book reader
#6) Neat Reader
Best for robust epub reader for PC users.
Although Neat reader is available on mobile devices for both iOS and Android, we still have to recommend it for its strong PC version alone. Neat Reader was first introduced in the market as a viable contender to fill the void that was left behind by Microsoft Edge.
Ever since that day, Neat Reader has come a long way and evolved enough to carve a deserving place of its own when it comes to epub viewers. The tool can perform almost all of the functions one has now come to expect from an epub reader.
It provides users with access to thousands of high-profile books coming from different authors and genres, allows them to curate their own library made from scratch of their favorite digital books, add text, use dictionary and add bookmarks and annotations for a hassle-free reading experience.
Features:
- Works on all Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices
- Easy to use interface
- Add bookmarks and annotations
- Organize and manage e-book library
Verdict: Neat Reader is a fun and intuitive app to enhance your digital book reading experience. It offers a number of fundamental features to provide users with a tool that makes accessing epub books convenient and robust.
Price: Free, $19.99/year, $49.99 lifelong plan.
Website: Neat Reader
#7) BookViser
Best for convenient importing of books from any device.
BookViser, apart from being a good-looking e-book reading software, is also an intuitive tool that allows users to import a book from any device for a mobile reading experience. It supports all the popular e-book formats known to mankind such as epub, TXT, CBR, and many more.
The interface is also highly customizable with options that enable you to set colors, increase margin size, or change font. You can also adjust the brightness to enhance your reading experience. For those who are conscious about what constant screen exposure can mean for their vision, BookViser offers a night-mode feature that darkens the screen.
BookViser is also home to one of the largest libraries of books that fall under the public domain, which means readers get the opportunity to read a number of globally recognized classics for absolutely free.
Features:
- Buy World Classics for free
- Highly customizable
- Nightmode for enhanced reading in the dark
- Fast and easy to use
Verdict: BookViser's huge library of public domain books alone makes it worth an install on your device, but the tool is also extremely competent, superfast, offers a number of great features, and is itself free to download and use.
Price: Free
Website: BookViser
#8) Kobo
Best for the digital library for traditional and self-published books.
The fascinating thing about Kobo is the reverence it gives to writers by offering a platform that allows aspiring writers to publish their own work and build a community of fans for themselves. Apart from this, Kobo is also a great online tool for the browsing and reading of digital books.
With Kobo, you curate your own library of digital books and engage in a reading experience that is enhanced with features like an in-built dictionary, annotation and bookmark adder, text highlighter and so much more.
For readers, the tool also offers a well-conjured review system for books wherein you can rate the books you read on a scale of 1 to 5.
Features:
- Clean and easy to use interface
- A vast library of classic and new books
- Self-publish a book
- Customize e-reader interface
Verdict: Kobo is a great app with a substantial fan base behind it. It is a highly pragmatic app for both readers and writers alike. It earns its existence on the premise of being one of the last bastions for the world of book publishing.
Price: Free
Website: Kobo
#9) FBReader
Best for fast E-book reading on Android.
FBReader is available and compatible with almost all operating systems, mobile and computer across the board. However, it is its android version that we would like to recommend here because of how fast it actually is.
With regards to features, you get a smooth interface that enables users to curate their own library of favorite books from a vast, expansive gallery of online books.
It is highly customizable with interchangeable font and color options. You get a preset 'table of content' for each book you open, thus allowing you to quickly access your desired page. You can add bookmarks and annotations, get an in-built dictionary, and resume right from where you left off with FBReader.
Features:
- Fast on Android
- Built-in dictionary
- Add bookmarks
- Preset features for an enhanced reading experience
Verdict: FBReader operates at an unparalleled speed on Android devices and thus qualifies as one of the best epub readers on Android available today. Its computer versions are also fine and deliver on what they offer.
Price: Free
Website: FBReader
#10) Adobe Digital Editions
Best for optimized digital reading experience.
Adobe Digital Editions works to optimize the reading experience across multiple digital devices by seamlessly integrating them under one umbrella. The result is one that is both advanced and extremely efficient for readers.
With ADE, you get to seamlessly transfer your digital books from one device to another. The books you purchase on one device will automatically appear on all of your devices that have ADE installed in them.
You get access to a huge library of e-books coming from different authors and in multiple languages from across the globe. Additional features like Text Highlighting, Library organization, and customized interface are all also accessible with ADE.
Features:
- Transfer books between devices
- Multilingual
- Search for E-books from across the world
- Compatible with multiple file formats.
Verdict: ADE is perhaps one of the more intuitive tools on this list, which should satisfy users who own multiple devices and like to have their e-books available in all of them without having to go through the trouble of actually transferring them from one device to another.
Price: Free
Website:Adobe Digital Editions
Conclusion
E-books are quickly becoming the new norm, and will eventually replace the physical medium of books in the near future. As epub happens to be a widely used format for reading e-books, all of the above tools have something or the other to offer for a fulfilling reading experience.
Suggested reading =>> How to open EPUB Files
As for our recommendation, for a clean, robust, and feature-heavy Epub reader, we suggest you go with either Calibre or Epubor Reader. For an even more advanced experience that involves cloud and additional software integration, we recommend using Freda.
Further reading =>> Ways to convert Kindle to PDF format
Research Process:
- We spent 10 hours researching and writing this article so you can have summarized and insightful information on what Epub reader will best suit you.
- Total Epub readers Researched – 20
- Total Epub readers Shortlisted – 10
=> Contact us to suggest your listing here.
Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-epub-reader/
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