Best Free Textbook Websites Every Student Should Know

Bookboon started in 1988 as Ventus and transitioned online in 2005. Today, they offer online textbooks as well as audiobooks. I had to list Bookboon in the first place as it became the foremost publisher to offer textbooks online. I found this website when I was looking for leadership courses. It is an innovative online platform and one of the best free textbook websites. It focuses mainly on STEM textbooks for university students and offers business eBooks for professionals.

Apart from Leadership & Strategy, the website offers online textbooks for various other categories that help you enhance your soft skills. They’ve offered eBooks for Personal Productivity, Remote Working, AI, Digitization & IT, Communication & Presentation, Marketing & Sales, and many more. Students can also visit this website to master research paper writing, engineering Mathematics, contemporary Economics, etc.

The website offers more than 1,000 free textbooks and provides easy accessibility by allowing no-registration PDF downloads. Students who are looking for academic material can trust Bookboon as they get free access to a wide variety of books written by globally acclaimed university professors. On the other hand, professionals get to choose from a variety of ebooks prepared by industry leaders.

OpenStax is also a top choice for free textbooks. It offers high-quality, peer-reviewed books at no cost. Founded in 2012, this non-profit organization aims to provide online study material for K12 education, higher education, and research. While exploring the website, I learned that it is the world’s largest open educational resource (OER) publisher. This initiative has been taken by Rice University, which focuses on providing students with a wide range of college eBooks and helping professionals hone their business knowledge.

With a huge repository of more than 70 openly licensed resources, Openstax goes beyond free online textbooks. I believe that OpenStax Kinetic is a revolutionary step taken by the NPO. It provides us with the opportunity to become better learners and builds unshakable confidence. All I had to do was choose a subject of my interest, and with every step completed, I was given a chance to get an award. Finally, I was offered some useful, well-researched learning tips - a great way that encouraged me to do better.

Project Gutenberg is one of the trailblazing online textbook libraries. It offers free access to a vast eBook collection. The focus? Public domain works. Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it’s the oldest digital library, and its impact on eBooks and online publishing is immense. Being a literature enthusiast, I am always on the hunt for free textbook websites. That’s when I came across Project Gutenberg. The website lets me choose from a wide range of Kindle and epub books.

The best part is that I could enjoy these books both online and offline, as the website allows for free downloads. I was also overjoyed to learn that there’s no fee or registration required to access the plethora of books. They only expect some donation as per your own will - which, I believe, as literati, none of us should refrain from giving. The convenience provided by this website is unmatched - there’s no need to download special apps to read these books. The common eBook reader apps or web browsers will do. 

I also get to choose from a variety of audiobooks, including computer-generated books and human-read books with sound effects. A volunteer community, LibriVox also offers a huge collection of audiobooks that feature impeccable voices and sounds performed by various volunteers. I love how Project Gutenberg is making reading so accessible and widespread for all the book lovers out there.

Hosted by the University of Minnesota, the Open Textbook Library can be a go-to place for . It provides a wide range of free, openly licensed textbooks. The collection covers numerous academic disciplines - just what I was looking for. Whether you want to gain business expertise in various fields or learn the nuances of philosophy, languages, or any other discipline in humanities, you can trust this website. With books licensed by publishers and authors to be used freely, Open Textbook Library’s mission is clear: improve access to quality education.

The website is useful for both students as well as faculty, providing them with more than 1500 textbooks for free. The website keeps getting updated with new collections for you to choose from. I liked how easy it is for me to just come and download the books that I want to read, without needing to fill those long forms or pay any subscription fee. A wide range of books even has a Creative Commons license, allowing you to make edits.

This is also one of the best free textbook websites I found. Library Genesis, or LibGen, is a major digital shadow library. It provides free access to a massive collection of eBooks for people looking for something in categories like sci-tech, fiction, scientific articles, or magazines. Whether you’re a student, researcher, or professor, you can find everything at one place. The best part is that I was able to easily find what I was looking for by simply typing in the search box and selecting the preferred categories. 

I had access to the forum and was also able to get updates via the latest news - this, however, required me to create my account. Contributing to the website was a breeze. I could easily upload some of my books from the fiction collection. There’s a plethora of topics to discover from the branches of Technology, Literature, Art, Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences, Geology, etc.

I had to check this one out because a lot of my friends had been talking about it. InTechOpen is a top global publisher and is known for its dedication to open access to Science, Technology, and Medicine. Founded in 2004, it offers free online access to a vast array of 7000+ peer-reviewed books. InTechOpen plays a key role in spreading knowledge with its books worldwide. The website is a home to various disciplines like Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology and their sub-disciplines like Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering, etc. The Book Series also consists of texts related to Health Sciences as well as Social Sciences with their sub-disciplines.

What’s interesting is that you can also contribute to the website as an author. The platform can publish your book in three easy steps - all you have to do is choose your preferred series, your choice of topic, and submit it. With over 3.3 million new visitors per month, your work can get a lot of traction. With your contribution, you will be joining the community of more than 190,000 authors and academic editors. I must also mention that Intech Open drives responsible publishing which is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

ScholarWorks@GVSU is a key repository managed by Grand Valley State University Libraries. I was thrilled to know that the website has scholarly papers written by the faculty, students, and centers. With over 22,000 papers and 1.5 million downloads, it offers access to textbooks, dissertations, theses, and research articles. This is one of those textbook sites that boosts the visibility and impact of university research and makes educational online resources widely available.

I along with my team were highly impressed with the Discipline Wheel that lets you select the books of a particular subject. You can even select the sub-disciplines through this wheel - this is one of the most creative ways to search for the books you want to read! For instance, I was looking for books in the Arts discipline and the Wheel let me choose from a huge variety of subjects - Philosophy, English Language, Music, etc. These subjects have been branched out to more specific categories, allowing you to choose from a vast sea of books.  

At ScholarWorks, you can choose from University Archives, Journals, Open Textbooks, apart from other categories. You can also choose a paper written by a particular author.

Mobilism started as a media-sharing forum. Now, it’s a massive digital library with eBooks, audiobooks, and software. Its extensive catalog and community updates make it a great resource for diverse digital content, from academic texts to novels. However, much of its content might be copyrighted, so you should be mindful of legal issues. What I liked about Mobilism is that the website has divided the books as per their compatibility with specific devices - Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, and even those old (forgotten) devices. Interesting, right? The website also lets you participate in fun contests, giving you a chance to win exciting prizes. 

All you have to do is register yourself and get access to all the books you have been looking for. Get to know how many people are online, how many of them have registered, how many are guests, and how many are ‘hidden’. You will also get real-time updates like the total number of posts published so far, number of topics, number of members and who is the newest member.

The best part? This website is not only a home to top books, you can also choose from a collection of top games as well as apps. You can even get to read book reviews that will help you decide whether you should start that book you had been thinking about or not.

Open Library is like a treasure trove for book lovers! It offers millions of titles available through controlled digital lending, which means I can borrow and read a vast array of books without any hassle. Setting a yearly reading goal has never been easier, and I love how I can track my reading progress along the way. What else makes it one of the best free textbook websites? It organizes my books into lists, keeping my library tidy and personalized.   

What I really enjoy is the sense of community here. I can discover new books based on recommendations and see what others are reading. It's like having a virtual book club at my fingertips! Open Library is my go-to resource for anything reading, whether I'm reading the newest blockbuster or digging into a classic work. Its vast library and easy-to-use interface allow me to fully enjoy my love for books whenever and wherever I choose.

It’s like having a personal library right in my pocket! With over 1.2 million titles, including bestsellers, children’s books, and educational resources, there’s something for everyone. What’s amazing about Bookshare is that I can listen to words being read aloud while following along with karaoke-style highlighting. I can also adjust the text size, which adds more convenience.   

Bookshare offers 10,000 freely available public domain books, accessible to anyone, anywhere. I never have to wait for my next read; there are no due dates or waiting lists! It’s one of the best free textbooks websites I’ve found, perfect for students or anyone who loves to read. Bookshare can be a fantastic resource for exploring literature. 

Bookshare has made reading easier for everyone! With around 285 million people in the world with visual impairment, Bookshare understands the importance of making reading accessible for all. This is why the platform also offers a Braille feature.