PDF Drive is a PDF search engine with over 79 million ebooks that you can download for free. The site is ad-free, has no download limits, and thus allows you to read all the books you want.
There are many PDF Drive alternatives such as Bookboon, Europeana, Internet Archive, Booknet and several others. However, the best PDF Drive alternative is Kindle. It has one of the largest database of resources with something for everyone.
More About PDF Drive & Why Consider Alternatives
In PDF Drive, you are not required to create an account to download a book. But, if you are a frequent user, the site will give you book suggestions based on your previous search history. The site is also safe and has no malicious hidden links.
PDF Drive works like Google. It crawls through different websites, searching for free PDF files and availing them.
A limitation with PDF drive though is that not all the books available on the site are legal, which is why it comes with a copyright disclaimer that they do not hold any responsibility when you download books on their website.
You may also not find the book you are looking for on this platform since the search is limited to books available in PDF formats only.
To overcome these limitations, let’s look at the best PDF Drive alternatives you can use to access ebooks.
Here we go.
Best PDF Drive Alternatives
1. Kindle
Kindle is our first PDF Drive alternative, and it is an official store for Amazon. Kindle has millions of books, some of which are offered for free while you can purchase others.
The books available on Kindle are from several genres, and because of its expansive collection, you will most likely get the book you want.
Kindle has impressive features that help you select the best book if you want something other than a specific book. You can sort the books based on genre, language published, customer review, author, release date, and whether it has Audible narration.
You can also purchase the Kindle e-reader if you want the ultimate reading experience. There are different varieties of e-readers, and you can buy one that suits your needs. You can also download the mobile version if you wish to access the books on your mobile device.
2. Bookboon
Bookboon is an easy-to-use platform that provides access to high-quality personal development content. The content targets individuals, university students, companies, and organizations.
The books on Bookboon cover topics from Business and Economics to Engineering and IT. Bookboon also has audiobooks for people who prefer to listen to books rather than read them.
Bookboon also offers company solutions that you can use to create a company-wide learning culture within your organization. The package allows up to 250 users, and you can use this to offer learning opportunities that will increase the knowledge and skills of your employees.
The company solution gives Bookboon an advantage over PDF Drive, making it a great alternative if you are looking for group packages.
In addition to books, Bookboon also offers online courses, audio learning, and learning journeys. You can also track learning progress and outcomes using consumption analytics on Bookboon.
Bookboon has a free plan that lets students access academic books. The free plan can get customer support and includes multiple teams.
Suppose you are a professional or looking to access more features. In that case, you can purchase premium packages at a monthly fee of $5.99 for the Professional package, $8.99 for the Professional Plus package, and $6.99 for the Teams package (two users minimum).
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3. Europeana
Europeana is a site that the European Union funds, and it serves as a platform for sharing and storing Europe cultural heritage.
If you are a heritage enthusiast, student, researcher, professional, or teacher, Europeana offers digital access to cultural heritage material. You will discover free books, music, videos, artwork, archeology, fashion, newspaper, science, and sport.
The site has over 30 million images, 22 million texts, 300,000 videos, and 700,000 sounds. Europeana gets its contents from libraries, galleries, museums, and archives.
Europeana thus offers more. You get access to books, text content, and content from over 4000 institutions.
4. Internet Archive
Internet Archive lets you access free books, software, websites, movies, and music. The non-profit library allows you to access content from over 737 billion web pages, making it a rich resource.
You will access collections from famous libraries like American Libraries, LibriVox Audiobook Collection, Live Music Archive, and Canadian Libraries, among many others. If you do not find a book on PDF Drive, you will most likely get it on the Internet Archive because it has access to more libraries.
All you need to do to get the content you want is enter the URL or keywords on the search bar. You can also create an account to get a virtual library card that lets you borrow books, movies, images, and software.
The content is free to use and download. However, if you wish to support the Internet Archive, you can send your donation on their Donate page.
5. Booknet
Booknet is an online platform that lets you read or download books to your device. The site has free books and books that you can buy.
The site has popular books from all genres, including fantasy, romance, mystery, thrillers, short stories, fanfiction, contemporary fiction, and science fiction. You can read the book from your PC or the mobile app on your Android or iPhone.
PDF Drive has a mobile app for the Android operating system only. Still, Booknet, in addition to working on the Android operating system, can also work on the macOS and Windows operating systems. Booknet is also available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian.
If you love to write, you can publish your book on Booknet and start earning royalties.
6. Online Programming Books
Suppose you are looking for books related to programming, software engineering, computer science, web design, networking, mobile app development, AI graphics, information technology, and computer hardware. In that case, Online Programming Books is the site you should visit.
Online Programming Books has free books. The books are not pirated and have been legally provided by the authors or publishers.
Online Programming Books is a site you should consider if you are looking for computer or science-based books and do not find them on PDF Drive.
You will not be required to create an account on Online Programming Books, just type in the book title on the search bar or select the book from the specific category.
7. Smashwords
Smashwords is an online book library with over 90,000 free books and over 8000 books on sale. In addition to books, the site also has plays, essays, poetry, and screenplays.
The platform considers itself the largest distributor of indie ebooks. Smashwords also invites book authors to publish books on the site, which makes it different from PDF Drive.
Book authors get free publishing tools when they publish with Smashwords. The tools include free ISBNs, ebook conversions, and unlimited updates to metadata and books.
You must create an account to access the books on the site for free.
8. Open Library
Open Library is a site that lets you read free library books and keep track of your reads by organizing them by reading logs and lists.
You will first sign up on Open Library and create an account to get the books. You can then borrow books on the site through the eBook Lending library. After that, you may read them online on your browser or download them in a BookReader format.
Borrowable books are in BookReader, ePub, and PDF formats. You are only allowed to borrow up to 10 books at a time.
You can access books that are fully borrowable for 14 days, and the rest are accessible for only one hour, after which they get disabled on your device. Having borrowable books is what makes Open Library different from PDF Drive.
Books are also available in audio form for people who prefer audiobooks to ebooks.
9. Freda
Freda is an ebook reader developed by Turnipsoft limited. It is an ebook reader only available as an app for Android and Microsoft devices.
You can read your downloaded books for free on Freda. The app also lets you access over 50,000 classic books from Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and other online catalogs for free. The apps support books in the following formats: TXT, HTML, FB2, MOBI, and EPUB.
The app also comes with customizable controls, colors, fonts, annotation, and bookmarks, and this feature is not available on PDF Drive. Also, Freda has a text-to-speech feature dictionary to look up definitions and translations.
Freda lets you read books from online catalogs, and you can also read your existing book collections on Dropbox, OneDrive, or Caliber.
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10. Free-Ebooks.net
Free-Ebooks.net is a site that lets members read up to five free books every month with free membership. You can select books from different categories, including fiction, non-fiction, academic, textbooks, classics, and children’s books.
The site has both ebooks and audiobooks. To download a book, you will create an account, and then you can type in the author’s name or the book title on the search bar to find a book.
Free-Ebooks.net has categorized its collections into best books, featured lists, latest arrivals, and audiobooks to make getting a book easier if you are looking for something other than a specific one.
Authors are also welcome to publish their ebooks on Free-Ebooks.net, which claims to have over 10.4 million unique visitors yearly.
If you wish to read more books, you can upgrade your free membership plan to VIP unlimited, which lets you download unlimited books.
You can access Free-Ebooks.net on your mobile device, whether Android or iOS.
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11. Manybooks
Manybooks is a site that lets you access over 50,000 free and discounted books. The site has books from different genres, including romance, action and adventure, mystery and thriller, biographies and history, children’s, young adult, fantasy, fiction, and non-fiction.
You can access the books by searching them by title, author, or keyword. You can also select a book from different categories, including editors’ choices, trending books, free ebooks, and deals.
You can access Manybooks on your Android or Apple device, unlike PDF Drive, which you can only access on Android devices.
12. PDFCOFFEE
PDFCOFFEE is an excellent source for ebooks and PDF material. The site also lets users publish unlimited files in any format for display on iPhones, iPad, and Android devices.
The kind of content published on PDFCOFFEE includes tutorials, business papers, guides, articles from scientific research, and creative content. This feature makes it unique from PDF Drive.
The site has a simple interface that lets you click on any category to see its content. The menu lists top categories: Career & Money, Entertainment, Science & Tech, Health & Fitness, Personal Growth, Biographies & History, and more.
The site is ideal for students who are preparing for examinations. You will be required to create an account on their website to access the books on the platform.
When you access the site, you will see featured stories displaying the PDF material’s title, number of views, downloads, and file size. If a title interests you, then you can click on read more.
Besides, the website displays the latest stories that you scroll and click on those you like.
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13. Scribd
Scribd is a site that will give you access to millions of ebooks, magazines, audiobooks, and podcasts, meaning you will most likely get the book you want.
Scribd, however, is not a free app, but first-time users get free access for the first 30 days and then pay a monthly fee of $9.99.
One advantage Scribd has over PDF Drive is that it gives you access to documents, sheet music, audiobooks, podcasts, government reports, academic dissertations, and magazines, whereas the latter only offers ebooks.
You can access Scribd on your mobile devices.
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14. Perlego
Perlego is a platform that lets you access over 900,000 textbooks and read them anywhere on your computer or mobile device.
Perlego was created to help students who cannot afford to buy textbooks. So with a flexible monthly subscription, you get unlimited access to books and learning resources.
You can access over 950 topics, including business, architecture, art, biological sciences, computer sciences, and much more. It is estimated that students who use Perlego save over $1375 per year on textbooks.
Perlego is unique from PDF Drive because it has built-in tools to make reading easier. Perlego comes with a personalized reader, referencing tool, highlight and save notes feature, and a keyword search bar that lets you search within books.
Perlego gives you a seven-day free trial, after which you must pay for a monthly subscription at $5 or $3.33 per month, billed annually.
15. BookFusion
BookFusion is a platform that revolutionizes how you read and interact with books. You get access to more than 70,000 free ebooks or purchase them. In addition to obtaining books, BookFusion lets you read, share, and organize your books.
The website supports popular formats, such as PDF, MOBI, and EPUB. BookFusion marks where you left off, so you keep your reading progress.
You can also share the book or interesting quotes with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. The ultimate social reading experience on BookFusion allows you to discover what your friends and family are currently reading.
PDF Drive, on the other hand, does not have the share feature or the ultimate social reading experience feature.
BookFusion has a free plan that allows you to store up to 10 books. If you wish to get more books, you must delete the ones you have in your library.
If you want more features, you can purchase the premium plans at a monthly fee of $2.99 for the Casual plan, $7.99 for the Advanced plan, and $14.99 for the Power plan. Check their pricing page for regular discounts on their premium plans.
You can access BookFusion across iOS, Android, and desktop.
16. Rakuten Kobo
Rakuten Kobo is a site that lets you access free and premium books. The site has over five million titles from different genres.
The site is an online bookshop where you get a book, place it in your cart, then buy it. Rakuten Kobo also has an e-reader that you can purchase on their website.
The e-reader makes it comfortable and convenient for you to read books. You can also buy a waterproof e-reader if you love to read by the pool or in the bath. PDF Drive, however, does not come with an e-reader.
You can still access Rakuten Kobo on your mobile device.
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16. Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is an online library with over 60,000 free ebooks. If you are looking for classical and recent books from various genres, then Project Gutenberg is the perfect site.
You will get access to many books whose US copyright has expired, unlike PDF Drive, which does not guarantee legal downloads.
Besides, you will not be required to pay any fee or sign up to access the books on the site. Also, you will not need any special app to access the books on the app.
You can search the website by title, author, subject, language, and popularity to get a specific book. You can also select the most frequently downloaded book if you need help deciding what book to read.
17. Authorama
Authorama is a site that features completely free books from different authors. The books are in the public domain or licensed by Authorama, meaning that you will download legal books, unlike in PDF Drive, where you are unsure.
The books are arranged on the website alphabetically, making it easy to find what you want. You can also search for the book on the search bar on the website.
18. LibriVox
LibriVox is a site for free public domain audiobooks. The content is free because volunteers support Librivox by recording chapters of books available in the public domain.
Unlike PDF Drive, you are sure of not breaching any copyright law when accessing books through their site.
Interestingly, you are not required to sign up to access the audiobooks available on Librivox. Simply visit the site and find a book by the author, title, or reader on the website.
Also, if you wish to support LibriVox, you can do so by volunteering as a reader. The platform accepts volunteers with all types of accents and languages.
LibriVox operates through internet communications and has a friendly community where you can ask questions and find answers.
LibriVox has been featured in press articles published in Los Angeles Times, Montreal Gazette, The World – BBC Radio, New York Times, IT Conversations (audio), red hat magazine, and more.
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19. Feedbooks
Feedbooks is an online store that lets you buy ebooks and audiobooks from a collection of over 1.2 million titles. Feedbooks enable you to access books from indie publishing houses and the most prominent publishers globally.
Books are available in different languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, German, and French.
Feedbooks also comes with an app called Aldiko that grants you access to a virtual library card that lets you borrow books from local libraries. This feature is not available on PDF Drive.
Aldiko also lets you customize your reading experience by changing fonts, colors, line spacing, margins, and text alignment, giving you a great user experience.
Additionally, Aldiko lets you take notes, highlight texts, and create bookmarks. The audio function lets you skip back or forward, get speed control, and select background play.
Feedbooks has an interesting section that includes books removed or banned from the school curriculum. You can also select books based on genre, popularity, and featured picks.
There is also a category of free books if you do not wish to purchase something other than any book.
Final Thoughts
Our best PDF Drive alternative is Kindle which contains millions of books from different genres. All the books available on Kindle are legal. You can purchase them or download free copies without fear of breaching copyright laws.
Kindle also lets you store your books on the Kindle Cloud Reader, which ensures that you will always access them across devices.
Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.