Students are well aware of how costly college can be and how hard conserving money can be. Over 40 million people have student loan debt, which is understandable considering the cost of living, rent, and other educational expenditures. However, finding ways to acquire cheap or free textbooks online can drastically reduce the expense of your time in school, even if it won’t solve all of your problems. Let us know the ‘Best Website for Textbooks’.
This article will examine some of the best websites where you can download free college textbooks, helping you reduce your costs further.
Best websites for accessing free textbooks
- For books of all sizes and forms, visit Z-library (from textbooks to novels to papers and more)
- OpenStax is a good resource for easy-to-integrate standard textbooks.
- For a collection of GSVU scholars’ works with a research focus, see ScholarWorks.
- For a sizable collection of IT, business, and engineering literature, visit Bookboon.
- For a website with free novels and books for a younger readership, visit Free Kids Books.
Best Websites for Free Textbooks
The top 12 free textbook websites are shown below.
Z-library
Z-Library, a venerable online resource, has all the documents you might want. It also offers free novels, free research papers, and free articles in addition to free books. To fulfil their goal of “making literature accessible to everyone,” they have succeeded.
If you ever have a required textbook for your class, check Z-Library first before buying it. You might not need to purchase a physical copy because it might show up as a PDF.
Although it’s not required, Z-library advises that you register with them to track your downloads and receive higher download limits. You may utilise their website without creating an account even if you only need one or two books.
OpenStax
The non-profit educational initiative OpenStax was developed by Rice University. You can discover textbooks for any topic on OpenStax, including those for physics, math, biology, the social sciences, the humanities, business, and more.
The wonderful thing about this website is that since a university operates it, all of the college textbooks on OpenStax are uniform and governed. This implies that using OpenStax texts in combination with your course will be simple.
One warning: practically all of the books on this page are for college or university. Only a small number of high school texts are available. However, if you are a college student, consider using OpenStax.
Access the Textbook Library
All open textbooks are available for free download at Open Textbook Library. That’s right, and you can download them to your computer and customize them to suit your requirements in addition to seeing them online.
The textbooks in Open Textbook Library are primarily geared toward college students and cover topics like business, computer science, education, engineering, humanities, law, mathematics, and even medicine.
You may upload your textbook to the Open Textbook Library website, which is cool. You can write a manual or textbook if you decide you want to give it back, and Open Textbook Library will add it to their collection for use by future students.
PDF Search Tool
In contrast to some of the other websites on this list, PDF Search is more of an engine than a catalogue.
PDF Search uses Google’s enormous database to attempt to locate the PDF you’re looking for. Type the title of the book, article, or report you’re looking for and hit “Search!” to get started.
You should check the website first to see whether Google has the desired textbook PDF. Then, rely on the other websites if you can’t locate it here.
ScholarWorks
ScholarWorks is a database of all the submissions made by GSVU (Grand Valley State University) scholars. It is operated and managed by the library at GSVU.
On ScholarWorks, you may search for any textbook you need, and there’s a strong chance they’ll have a copy of anything similar available. You may also search for texts by their title, author, citation, keywords, and other criteria.
This should be your final option if you cannot locate a copy of the exact text anywhere else.
Bookboon
With a strong focus on IT, business, and engineering, Bookboon is an online publishing company for eBooks created by academics from the most prestigious institutions in the world.
If you’re a student with one of those three passions, this is your fortunate day. Out of all the websites on our list, Bookboon has the most straightforward user interface and a large selection of books on the areas it focuses on.
Bookboon is the clear victor for websites that provide free textbooks for IT, business, and engineering students.
Kids’ Books for Free
The last website on our list is a bonus. You won’t likely discover any textbooks on this website, but there are many young adult and children’s books.
This website is ideal for teaching reading to younger siblings, people in your immediate family who are children, or teenagers who need tutoring without breaking the bank.
All young people’s books are covered under Free Kids Books, from K–12 to elementary to secondary school. a fantastic website for teachers, parents, and kids.
Google Scholar
Although The Scholar may not be a free textbook website exactly, it serves the same (or even greater) purpose!
Using this service, you may do a topical search across several academic databases. It functions just like Google but places more of an emphasis on presenting you with scholarly material such as books, theses, academic journals, and other publications that have undergone peer review.
The website serves as a one-stop shop for all of your research-related undertakings. In addition, you’ll probably save money and time with its accessibility and thoroughness!
FreeTechBooks
You should visit the website FreeTechBooks if you are studying computer science in school. The website includes a ton of free online programming, computer science, and engineering resources that you may use to further your education.
You may get books, lecture notes, and ebooks at FreeTechBooks to aid in your academic endeavors. The problem is that FreeTechBooks only gives links to websites and resources that contain PDFs and HTML versions of the books.
Library Genesis
Library Genesis, one of the largest shadow libraries in the world, offers a ton of free academic journals, general-interest books, periodicals, and comics, allowing you huge savings.
Library Genesis, sometimes referred to as LibGen, is a fantastic tool to use when getting information or necessary textbooks behind a paywall. You can discover connections to extremely comparable materials or free versions of them on the website.
Project Gutenberg
You can likely locate the ancient cultural work you need to write on for class on Project Gutenberg.
The website volunteers created is your best bet for locating any type of classic literature in ebook format.
Thanks to its sizable offline catalogs and comprehensive online collection, you can locate the ebooks you need on Gutenberg.
Archive.org
As you would infer from the name, Archive.org is a website where everything on the internet is archived.
You can discover a variety of missing papers, YouTube videos, and other stuff here that you can’t locate anywhere else.
Despite being an all-purpose website, many students utilize it to backup their electronic textbooks. As a last option, search Archive.org for the textbook you’re looking for if you can’t locate it online.
You will undoubtedly locate the textbook you want among these 12. However, if things go bad, there are a ton of OTHER places you may check out to get inexpensive textbooks to buy or rent.
Website where you may purchase or rent textbooks
We will look at four of the top online retailers for discounted college textbooks.
Chegg
Online bookstore Chegg is a great place to locate cheap college textbooks. When you return the books you rented, shipping is free.
Purchases of new or secondhand textbooks with a 21-day return guarantee are an additional choice. Additionally, you may utilize coupons or obtain free delivery on orders over a specific amount for additional discounts.
For only $6.99 per month, students may choose from over 300,000 Ebooks and rent them for as long as they need in addition to hardback books, which are also available. All eBooks also have a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Amazon
For years, one of the top places to purchase college textbooks has been Amazon.com. It has hundreds of books in any subject you can imagine, from business to math and science.
By author, title, or subject, look up new or used textbooks on Amazon, then compare prices. Some novels are accessible for free Kindle download, while others may be rented.
Remember that if you have Amazon Prime, you can get your book quicker and for less money on delivery. As an alternative, check out Amazon Prime Student for exclusive discounts and added perks for students.
SlugBooks
SlugBooks is still worth a look when looking for inexpensive textbooks even though it is a little more constrained than other platforms.
Look for the book you want, then compare the list price and discounts offered by retailers such as Amazon, Campus Book Rentals, and Chegg.
Go to that online store, click the desired purchase or rental pricing, and then purchase what you require. Selling your books is another option provided by SlugBooks. Please post your textbooks after entering your state and school so that other students may see them and purchase them.
ValoreBooks
College textbooks may be rented or purchased at fair costs with ValoreBooks, which also gives you the opportunity to sell your used books. You should see options below the search field as soon as you start typing the ISBN, title, or author.
The cost of both new and old textbooks will then be shown. You may also examine the prices for other editions for books with foreign, teacher, or earlier edition choices.
Add the book to your basket if you wish to purchase it. If not, scroll down to view more market pricing, shipping information, and expenses.
An excellent and convenient choice for finding inexpensive textbooks online is ValoreBooks. You can save up to 90% on most titles with careful research.
Conclusion
Avoid the campus bookstore by visiting the websites we have looked at in this article for accessing free textbooks. If you fail to find the book you are looking for, you can purchase or rent your college textbooks online using some of the options we have laid out and save some money. These websites help you save a ton of money while making getting the textbooks you want simpler.
Commonly Asked Questions
Following are some commonly asked questions concerning websites that offer free textbooks.
- Is it against the law to obtain free college textbooks from these websites rather than my institution?
In the majority of American higher education institutions, purchasing textbooks is optional. This implies that you should be okay accessing free online books instead of the ones your school gives, whether you’re a student at a private or state institution.
- Are open textbook libraries legitimate and safe?
The majority of websites that offer textbook resources are secure, however some have drawn criticism for violating privacy rules. This implies that, as a student, you might need to go around online to get ongoing free access to textbooks (as the domains might change).
- Can I share the materials I get from these websites with others?
Normally, it is forbidden to redistribute these content without authorization. However, having said that, some websites make it clear that it’s acceptable for you to distribute the material or PDFs. If so, you are free to share as much as you like.
