Spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks for college is a burden in and of itself. Students pay huge amounts of money for these books annually or even borrow books from their friends. Choosing free online textbooks over traditional books is a suitable option for students who can’t afford these books.
Almost all the books you need are available digitally on the internet for free and come with easy sharability and various genres like science fiction, literature, and dark academia.
In this article, we will discuss some of the best websites that offer online textbooks for free, how to choose between them, and why e-books should be preferred over paper books.
Top 13 Websites to Find Free Textbooks Online
There are many free websites on the internet, but not all are safe and secure. Here, we have provided you with a list of the 13 best free textbook websites that prioritize the safety of user data.
Openstax is a free college textbooks website that provides books for business, college success, math, science, social science, and humanities in different languages like Spanish, Polish, and English.
| Major Book Types | Business |
| College Success |
| Math |
| Science |
| Social science |
| Humanities |
| Number of Books | Unknown |
| Why Choose? | It’s “K-12 teachers” section |
The “K-12 teachers” includes kindergarten to 12th-grade books to help the students succeed in their academic journey.
It is not just a free textbook website; the Internet Archive provides an enormous collection of images, videos, textbooks, and software programs. It has unique genres, including a specialized section for Empowering Communities like LGBTQ and Blacks.
| Major Book Types | STEM |
| Business and Finance |
| Language |
| Health and Wellness |
| Number of Books | 7,176,760 |
| Why Choose? | Diverse Collection |
It even provides books published before 1928. You can also share audio recordings and download books in various formats like PDF, Plain text, ePub, MOBI, and DAISY.
Library Genesis is a website for free college textbooks online that provides precise search results with its classified search categories. Users can find their preferred books with their titles, authors, years, publishers, and ISBNs.
| Major Book Types | Scholarly journal articles |
| Academic and general-interest books |
| Audiobooks |
| Comics and magazines |
| Number of Books | Unknown |
| Why Choose? | Advanced search bar |
You do not need to register before reading and downloading books. You can also consider some LibGen alternatives if you get frustrated by the popups and redirects.
Another free online website to access textbooks is Manybooks. This platform holds genres along with a collection of classics. The easy-to-navigate and friendly interface make it one of the best free online textbook websites.
| Major Book Types | Art and literature |
| Action & Adventure |
| Romance |
| Mystery & Thriller |
| Science Fiction |
| Number of Books | Unknown |
| Why Choose? | Collection of classics |
Moreover, Manybooks also provides various formats like txt, PDF, ePub, and MOBI to download the books.
Z Library is one of the largest free online textbook libraries, with millions of articles and books. It even allows you to download academic, fiction and nonfiction books.
| Major Book Types | STEM |
| Humanities |
| Language |
| Art and nature |
| Education and many more |
| Number of Books | 22,525,200 |
| Why Choose? | Huge Collection |
Due to the ban in the US, the website has multiple domains with different URLs. However, if you are finding it difficult to access the site, you must take a look at Z-library alternatives.
Project Gutenberg is one of the oldest free textbook websites that provides public-domain literature. If you are a fan of dark academic fiction, this is your site.
| Major Book Types | Art |
| Language |
| Humanities |
| Number of Books | 70,000 |
| Why Choose? | Huge Library in the Public Domain. |
It also provides over 5,000+ audiobook collections, which is helpful for physically challenged individuals.
Remember: Project Gutenberg doesn’t add any new audiobooks to its collection.
Open Textbook Library is a free textbooks online website that mainly provides post-secondary education books with open licenses, which means anyone can get access to its books via digital sources or printing.
| Major Book Types | STEM |
| Business |
| Humanities |
| Law |
| Social Science |
| Number of Books | 1403 open textbooks |
| Why Choose? | Books can be freely shared and edited. |
It also provides a rating feature where its users can rate it out of 5 points so that you can choose the best among the provided.
Just like the Open Textbook Library, IntechOpen is an open-access publisher of books. It has books in multiple domains and over 3 million monthly visitors.
| Major Book Types | Physical Sciences |
| Engineering |
| Technology |
| Life Sciences |
| Health Sciences |
| Social Sciences and Humanities |
| Number of Books | 6,800 open-access books |
| Why Choose? | 183,000 open authors and academic editors |
All the scientific books and projects of IntechOpen are reviewed by peers before publishing.
ScholarWorks is Grand Valley State University’s open-access repository that maintains the works of scholars. The material includes textbooks, project materials, master theses, dissertations, and articles that are prepared by faculty, staff, and students.
| Major Book Types | Social and Behavioral Science |
| Education |
| Life Science |
| Business |
| Arts and Humanities |
| STEM |
| Health Science |
| Number of Books | 20,000 Plus |
| Why Choose? | All the work is done by alumni and staff |
Its Discipline Wheel feature is a pie chart that provides a collection of the work of students and alumni in a visually appealing manner.
PDF Drive is a free online textbook website for college textbooks, novels, literature books, and even the best mangas to read in PDF format.
| Major Book Types | Academic & Education Biography |
| Business & Career |
| Environment |
| Fiction & Literature |
| Health & Fitness |
| Science & Research |
| Technology |
| Number of Books | 85,349,253 |
| Why Choose? | Downloadable PDF format |
This site also has an advanced filtering feature. It allows users to filter PDF files by their page number, file size, popularity, and publication date. If you want to write on different persuasive essay topics, then this feature can help you easily search for the ideal content for them.
LibreTexts is one of the free online textbooks free websites with more than 6000 authors and educators that provide open-source college textbooks.
| Major Book Types | Mathematics |
| Social Science |
| Humanities |
| Medicine |
| Biology |
| Chemistry |
| Number of Books | Unknown |
| Why Choose? | Highly Interactive User Interface |
On the night before your exam, you can easily search for good books here for that urgent rote learning session.
If you are searching for the best online textbooks free websites, go to Bookboon. Most of the books on this website are written by top experts and university professors, making it the pinnacle of the industry.
| Major Book Types | STEM |
| Management and communication |
| Finance |
| Microsoft Programs |
| Number of Books | 3000+ business skills |
| 1700+ soft skills |
| Why Choose? | Personalized recommendations through AI engines |
Major categories that Bookboon includes are – Remote Working, Tech Engineering, Microsoft Office Programs, Science, and Mathematics. Bookboon also has a specialized section for personal development, making it the best choice for personal training books.
What’s more? Well, this site can also provide you with some of the best audiobooks in several niches.
Note: Bookboon is not completely free. It provides a free trial for 30 days and then charges for its subscription.
Check Out: Master the Fundamentals of Math
Previously called Wikimedia Textbooks, Wikibooks is another website to download textbooks online for free. What’s unique about it is the availability of books in 77 languages.
| Major Book Types | Mathematics |
| Music Theory |
| History |
| Geology |
| Number of Books | 3,581 books |
| Why Choose? | Books in all languages |
These are some websites that provide free textbooks online. If you have been searching for the best free textbooks online websites in 2024, then the above list can guide you in choosing the best one.
How to Choose the Best Website For Textbooks?
Now the question arises, which website should you choose for your needs? Let’s see the areas to focus on while picking websites for free textbooks.
- Check if it is free: Some websites provide paid books with just a few free books. So picking them won’t be an ideal choice if you want free books.
- Quantity and diversity of books: If you are a college student who is into your personal reading interests along with academics, then try to find a website with a huge and diverse collection.
- Download feature: Some websites have multiple steps in the downloading process, so always check how easy it is to download books before switching and choosing a free textbook online website.
- Availability in your Country: Always do research before picking and switching between free online textbook websites because it may happen that the website is not available in your country.
- User Interface: If you are not tech-savvy, then you should not go for sites with a complex and confusing user interface.
These factors can help you shortlist your favorite websites as per your preferences.
Why Choose eBooks Over Printed Books?
It has become a debate to pick eBooks over printed books. Let’s see the benefits of using electronic books in 2024:
- You don’t have to carry heavy books with you all the time.
- It is very easy to help a friend with your eBook or even share audible books.
- Using eBooks also saves trees.
- eBooks are a cheaper option than paper books.
- It is even easier and quicker to learn how to annotate a book in a digital version.
What’s more? You can also add bionic reading apps to your eBooks to improve your reading comprehension and average reading speed.
Wrapping Up
Hence, free textbooks online are great for reading and downloading books, without any financial burden. You should go with Internet Archive, Z Library, Project Gutenberg, Library Genesis, Wikibooks, and PDF Drive for their huge and diverse collection.
You can also pick Openstax, IntechOpen, and ScholarWorks if you are searching for books written by experts and professors.
LibreText, and Open Textbook Library are apt for books in specific niches.
However, choose Bookboon if you want a site that can provide voice books, even better than the best audiobook subscription service platforms.
FAQs
Ans: Although its users have not reported any malware or security threat issues, it was banned in November 2022 in the USA due to a violation of the Copyright Act.
Ans: Yes, reading online books is legal as long as they come from a reputable retailer and are free of copyright. In the United States, copyrighting an available online book can result in up to 5 years in prison or a $2,50,000 fine.
Ans: Some books on Google Play Books are free. You can choose the filter “Full View” to get access to free books.
Ans: Using PDF Drive is completely safe. The website pdfdrive.com has HTTPS in its URL, which means it has an SSL certificate for securing the network.
Ans: Wikibooks is a textbooks-free online website whose projects are managed by the same people who manage Wikipedia.
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