While there are dedicated ebook readers like Kindle to read ebooks, 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Modern UI | None as such |
| Feature-packed, Built-in dictionary | |
| Dark mode support, offer many layout options | |
| Text-to-speech for reading aloud books | |
| Bookmark and highlight notes | |
| Get Insights |
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 and makes 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 from Feedbooks, 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good reading experience with modern UI | Sometimes the app lags |
| Text to speech reading support | Doesn’t support older Windows operating systems |
| Support for annotations and bookmarks | |
| Fully customizable reading mode |
Download: Free with 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 like downloading 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 also magazines, 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Feature packed | Outdated UI |
| Allows you to fix the book metadata | Slow loading speed |
| Keyboard shortcut for looking up words | |
| Supports custom reading themes using CSS |
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 that feature 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good reading experience | Geared more towards comic book readers |
| Excellent library management | |
| Reading mode is fully customizable |
Download: Free with 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 the best PDF editors and readers out there. It’s an extremely lightweight Epub reader that 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Clutter-free user interface | Doesn’t support annotations on EPUBs |
| Good reading experience | Doesn’t have advanced features like metadata editing |
| Light application (comes under 5 MB) | |
| Super-fast loading time | |
| Supports comic book formats (CBZ and CBR) |
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 features including 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, including Mobi, FB2, and, more.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Supports multiple file formats and languages | Frequently asks you to upgrade to the pro version |
| Supports bookmarks and annotations | Make a search on Google and Wikipedia for selected text |
| Search Google and Wikipedia for selected text | |
| Good search feature |
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.
| Pros | Cons |
| User interface is easy to use | Text highlighting feature not available |
| Special features for people with print disability and dyslexia |
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 to browse and buy from 5+ million free 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Excellent reading modes which are easier on the eyes | Makes it harder to manage imported books |
| Modern UI | No dictionary and note-taking features |
| Makes it easy to access the bookmark | |
| Built-in store to buy ebooks |
Download: Free
9. Adobe Digital Editions
If there is one company that makes software for almost all forms of creating 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 standard which 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 like exceptional 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easily sync books across devices | The reading mode is not user customizable |
| Good book organization features | Slow to load if you have a large library |
| Good reading experience with support for EPUB 3 standard | Need an Adobe account to use it |
| Support for bookmarks, highlights, and notes | Does not sync across devices |
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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good reading experience with support for themes | Needs more customization features for fonts, spacing, etc. |
| Good organization features | |
| Support for book metadata editing | |
| Groups books in a series |
Download: Free
11. Bookviser
Bookviser is an Epub reader for Windows that 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 to download free classics from 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Simple and clean user interface | Doesn’t allow you to edit book metadata |
| Lets you adjust the margin, font type, spacing, and more | |
| Support for book downloads from the integrated public catalog | |
| Lets you adjust the margin, font-type, spacing, and more |
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 almost every EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 standard out 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 including 10GB cloud storage to 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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free to use | Free version has ads |
| Support for annotations, bookmarks, and more | Data synchronization only available in paid version |
| Supports EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 formats | |
| Search feature is useful |
Download: Free; paid version starts at $19.99/year or $49.99 for a lifetime
In simple terms, a PC Epub Reader is a program that can open and process e-books (a digital version of a physical book). It’s a file format just like PDF, but XML-based so it has wide compatibility with programs from different platforms.
The process to open Epub files on Windows 11/Windows 10 is similar to opening a PDF file. The older Edge browser supported the Epub files but the new Edge Browser that’s based on Chromium cannot open it. So, you will need to install an app to open the Epub files.
