There's no shortage of the best free ebook readers available for PC and Mac in 2025 that can easily transform your Apple or Windows computer into a bona fide reading machine.
After all, a high-quality productivity monitor can make going through anything from a brisk novella to a feature-length novel substantially easier, especially if you've got a comfy chair and a wireless mouse in tow, which can be far better than being sat crooked, squinting into the pages of a book.
We've compiled our picks for the top five best free ebook readers available in 2025, and each come with their own strengths and weaknesses for both Mac and PC. They vary in functionality, style, software support, and user interface, so you'll want to keep your options open to find the best level of compatibility for the titles you have available. Every single entry in our list can read PDF (the most common file type), but you may want to opt for more advanced zoom, text, highlighting, and text-to-speech functionality that one may have over the other.
This is just the start of our coverage of reading electronically. For more, we recommend browsing our top options of the best Kindles as well as the best free software for writers that can help to kickstart your writing journey. While you'll find Kindle on PC in our roundup, we've also highlighted some third-party offerings that can offer a little more, provided you're willing to download/upload your current library into a "lesser-known" software.
Below you'll find all our top picks, backed by our own thorough reviews and testing to help you make an informed choice.
Best free ebook readers in 2025
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Calibre is an open source ebook reader and manager that’s lightweight and lightning-fast. Unlike many free ebook readers, Calibre supports Amazon’s AWZ format (though it won’t open DRM-protected files) as well as all the other popular ebook file types, and if any metadata is missing (such as genre or cover art), you can add it yourself using the bookshelf’s options menu.
One of Calibre’s best features is Reference Mode, which displays the current chapter and paragraph number in the top left – ideal if you need to cite references in an essay. We also like Flow Mode, where text is shown as a continuous scrolling stream without page breaks; not as pleasant as simulated page-turning for recreational reading, but a handy time-saver to avoid flicking backwards and forwards through a textbook.
- Read our full Calibre review
Freda (from the delightfully-named Turnipsoft) is a superb ebook reader that integrates with Project Gutenberg, giving you access to thousands of free ebooks, and Smashwords, where you can find works from independent authors and publishers. Importing your own ebooks is a piece of cake too, with support for all the most popular formats. You can even connect Freda to your Dropbox account enabling you to access books from multiple devices.
Freda supports bookmarks, annotations and highlighting, making it a good choice for students. There’s also text-to-speech for anyone who has trouble with text on screens, as well as auto-scroll and speed-read – a tool that works much like Spritz, displaying words in quick succession so you can read without moving your eyes.
Freda is funded by ads, but these are discreet and are only visible on the bookshelf screen; they won’t interrupt your reading.
Amazon’s official Kindle app for Windows (as well as Mac and mobile devices) is smart and stylish, and although it tempts you with reading suggestions from the Kindle store, the sales pitch isn’t too in-your-face.
There’s no setup necessary if you already have an Amazon account. Just log in with your usual username and password and your virtual shelves will be populated automatically (though you’ll have to click a book’s cover to download it, so bear this in mind if you’re planning some offline reading). Notes and bookmarks are synced across devices automatically, as are flashcards – an extremely useful addition for students using digital textbooks for revision.
Kindle for Windows also includes text-to-speech function, and changing font sizes and color schemes is as simple as clicking or tapping a button.
- Read our full Kindle for PC review
Despite its name, Sumatra PDF is a great little ebook reader, capable of displaying books in EPUB and MOBI format, as well as comic books in CBZ and CBR comic books.
Sumatra PDF is a portable app, so you can save it to a USB stick or cloud storage service and use it on any PC. You can save your ebooks in the same place too, eliminating the need to sync your library.
It’s easy to adjust basic settings like font size, but Sumatra PDF’s advanced options can only be edited by opening a text file and typing in new values. If you want to change the page color, for example, you’ll need to find the hex code for your preferred shade and enter it on the appropriate line. It’s not difficult, but we’d prefer a graphical interface.
There’s no way to add notes or highlights, but the convenience of carrying your ebook library and reader anywhere might outweigh those drawbacks for you.
- Read our full Sumatra PDF review
Icecream specializes in smart, no-frills software, and Icecream Ebook Reader is no exception. It supports EPUB, MOBI, PDF and FB2 ebook formats, and once you’ve imported your books they’re arranged in a neat bookshelf with a choice of viewing options. One particularly handy feature is the ability to archive and export your ebooks; ideal if you use more than one PC and don’t want the hassle of importing your books twice. There’s no cloud syncing though.
The reader itself is similar to the Kindle app in appearance, with one-click (or tap) buttons for changing font size, color theme (day, night, or sepia), and viewing the table of contents.
Unfortunately, some of the options you can see in the menus are only available if you pay for the Pro version. Premium features include importing multiple ebooks simultaneously, adding notes, editing metadata, and copying text.
The free version of Icecream Ebook Reader is quick and very easy to use, but only really suitable for recreational reading. Students will find the lack of note-taking and copying frustrating.
- Read our full Icecream Ebook Reader review
Best free ebook reader: FAQs
Is there a better alternative to Kindle?
While Kindle on PC is a straightforward and powerful tool for most people, we're more fond of the likes of Calibre and Freda, that can do a little more with an increased capacity of file formats and sizes than Amazon's champion.
