12 Best Epub Readers for Windows (2024)

While there arededicatedebook readers like Kindleto readebooks, it doesn’t mean that you need to spend hundreds of dollars on a tablet to enjoy reading. In fact, reading books on your Windows machine can give you a similar reading experience. It is even better if you own a convertible or a 2-in-1 Windows machine, as you can hold them in one hand and read Epubs just like you would read them on a dedicated tablet. The only thing that you need for reading is a good Epub reader app. While there are a number of Epub apps available for Windows, not all of them are made equally. That’s why we are bringing you a list of the top 12 best Epub readers that you can use on your Windows laptop or PC.

1. Aquile Reader

Aquile Reader is not just the best EPUB book reader, it’s one of the best Windows 11 apps in the market. Unlike Calibre (more on it below), it has a modern interface with support for many powerful features for eBooks management. You can add your own library of eBook files or explore its wide selection of 50,000 free eBooks.

The app has a book-style two-column layout and supports other layout configurations as well. You can check the meaning of words, create notes, highlight portions of text, and create bookmarks, all within one app.

Aquile Reader also comes with built-in text-to-speech capability which means you can listen to books just like an audiobook. Apart from that, you can customize the appearance including dark mode, colors, font, spacing, and more. Best of all, you can get insights into your reading habits as well. Simply put, there is no Epub reader on Windows that works as good as the Aquile Reader.

Download: Free

2. Freda

Freda is one of my favorite Epub readers just because of its looks.The app looks like a native Windows 11 app andmakes Epubs really stand out when you read them on this app. One of my favorite features here is its theming capabilities which allow users to customize the look and feel of the app to make it exactly how they like it.

Apart from supporting Epub, the app also supports a ton of other formats including Mobi, FB2, HTML, and TXT. The app also gives you access to more than 50,000 public domain classic books free of charge fromFeedbooks, Gutenberg, and other online catalogs. You can also connect your cloud drives like OneDrive or Google Drive to download books stored there. If looks matter to you, do give Freda a try.

Download:Freewith in-app purchases

3. Calibre

Calibre is one of the oldest and the best Epub readers for your Windows 11 machine. The app is packed with features allowing you to do things likedownloading epubs, managing metadata, downloading covers for books, transferring books from one device to another, and even converting books from one format to another.

Calibre is not only good for reading normal Epub novels but alsomagazines, comics, and more. If you are looking for a good ebook reader app for your Windows PC, Calibre is certainly the topmost contender for the job.

Download:Free

4. Cover

Cover is primarily an app made for reading comic books on your Windows 11 PC, but since the app also supports Epub format, it has made its way on the list. The main reason why Cover is on the list is that since the app is made for comics,it is great for reading books that are image-heavy.

While all the other apps on the list can handle images, they can’t do it as well as Cover can. So, if you are into books thatfeature a ton of images, Cover will be good for you. On the other hand, if you are into comics and manga, there is no better app that you can get.

Download:Freewith in-app purchases

5. Sumatra PDF Reader

While Calibre is pretty great and works for most, some have reported that book opening is a little slow on Calibre and it has been a long-standing issue. So if you want an alternative like Calibre, but with faster performance and modern features, the Sumatra PDF Reader has you covered as one of thebest PDF editors and readers out there. It’s anextremely lightweight Epub readerthat just works out of the box.

It supports bookmarks,background color change, automatic text scaling, tab support, and much more. The best part is that it can even open large Epub files without breaking a sweat with correct indentation, tree-like chapters, and more. I would say, if you are looking for an Epub reader that just works without any frills, then Sumatra PDF Reader is the best pick.

Download:Free

6. Icecream Epub Reader

Icecream App is an app studio that has developed some really fine apps for Windows and of all the apps that come from the studio, their Epub reader is my favorite.Not only does their Epub reader app look good but it also brings a ton of featuresincluding full-screen mode support, exceptional search capabilities, easy page-turning mechanics, reading progress tracking, support for multiple languages, and more.

Apart from the above features, I also love the fact that the reader not only supports the Epub format but also other major ebook formats, includingMobi, FB2, and, more.

Download:Free, $19.95

7. Thorium Reader

Thorium Reader is a fantastic free epub reader app for Windows that brings a user-friendly interface with some highly intuitive features to make ebook reading on PC a delightful experience. With support for formats like epub3, Daisy, and audiobooks, Thorium Reader is an open-source app that allows you to organize ebooks conveniently in the library.

You can reach the favorite section of your ebook or audiobook by navigating through the table of contents or by using the powerful search functionality. The interface is vibrant and you can choose between sepia and night themes as per your liking.

The epub reader for Windows devices can read DRM-locked content, which is a great feature. Also, you get other important features such as bookmarks, editing metatags, customizing content layout, annotations, bookmarks, and that too without ads! While being a fairly new epub reader in the market, Thorium has an impressive set of features and its simple-to-use interface is its USP.

Download:Free

8. Kobo

Like Kindle, Kobo is not only an ebook reader app but a service that allows you to buy books from its store. However, unlike Kindle, which doesn’t support Epub formats, Kobo does support both Epub and Epub 3 formats. The app brings all the usual features that we have come to expect from an Epub reader including,search, bookmarks, progress tracking, theming, and more.

However, the biggest reason to get Kobo over other Epub readers is its store which allows you tobrowse and buy from 5+ millionfree and affordable eBooks, comics, and children’s books. So, if you want to be able to access and buy all the new ebooks that are released, this is one of the best epub readers for Windows that you can get.

Download:Free

9. Adobe Digital Editions

If there is one company that makes software for almost all forms ofcreating and consuming creative content, it’s Adobe, and its Adobe Digital Editions is a great Epub reader for Windows PC which allows users to consume their favorite titles.

One of the best reasons for using Adobe Digital Editions is its support for the EPUB 3 standardwhich gives users a richer reading experience by bringing support for right-to-left reading, dynamic image resizing without loss in clarity, interactive quizzes, better rendering of math formulas, and more.

Adobe Digital Editions also brings a ton of other convenient features likeexceptional search capabilities, the ability to rent or borrow Epub versions of books from your local and public libraries, multi-lingual support, bookmarking, highlighting, notes, and more. If you are looking for a full-fledged, Epub reading experience, Adobe Digital Edition is the right app to do that.

Download:Free

10. Bibliovore

Bibliovore is yet another great free Epub reader for your Windows machine. The app can be easily downloaded from the Windows app store and is completely free to download and use.I love this app because it brings fantastic organizational features allowing you to manage even a large library of books with ease.

The app also allows you to easily adjust font parameters, manage reading themes,edit book metadata, use day/night reading mode, and more. One of my favorite features of this app is that despite being free, it syncs all your books across devices using OneDrive.

Download:Free

11. Bookviser

Bookviser is an Epub reader for Windowsthat wants to give you a reading experience that is similar to reading physical books. It does that by designing its UI in such a way that it looks like a real book. That said, if you are not fond of such a UI, you can easily get into the settings to get a more traditional Epub reader experience.

Just like Freda, Bookviser also allows you todownload free classicsfrom public catalogs including Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, and Smashwords. The rest of the Epub reader features like progress tracking, theming, dictionary support and more can also be found here.

Download:Free

12. Neat Reader

Neat Reader is an aptly named app because this definitely is one of the best-looking ePub readers for Windows (or Mac, for that matter) that I have found thus far. The app has a clean, intuitive interface that makes it much easier to use. Moreover, it supports almostevery EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 standardout there, which means most of your books should be easily readable in the app.

Neat Reader also brings support for annotations, so if you like taking notes or highlighting important parts of a book, you can do so with it. You can also place bookmarks to mark important pages or things you want to come back to, and obviously, there’s a search feature as well.

Best of all, the app is completely free to use, forever. However, if you feel up to paying for it, you can get additional features including10GB cloud storageto store your ebooks across devices, export notes, and an ad-free experience while reading your book — which, by the way, is important.

I do not like the fact that there are ads in the free version of the app because it takes away attention from the book, and that’s why this app is at the bottom of our list. Apart from that particular issue, Neat Reader is definitely an ePub reader that I’d recommend you to try.

Download:Free; paid version starts at $19.99/year or $49.99 for a lifetime