Software Alternatives & Reviews

Kobo Books VS Open Library

Compare Kobo Books VS Open Library and see what are their differences

Kobo Books logo Kobo Books

Kobo Books is a best in the class eBooks and eReadering apps for many reasons.

Open Library logo Open Library

The ultimate goal of the Open Library is to make all the published works of humankind available to...
  • Kobo Books Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02
  • Open Library Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26

Kobo Books videos

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Open Library videos

Open Library Overview

More videos:

  • Review - Aaron Swartz on The Open Library
  • Review - The Open Library of Humanities

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kobo Books and Open Library)
eBook Reader
24 24%
76% 76
Ebooks
31 31%
69% 69
eBook Manager
47 47%
53% 53
Books & Reference
7 7%
93% 93

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Kobo Books and Open Library

Kobo Books Reviews

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Open Library Reviews

15 Best LibGen Alternatives & Sites Like It in 2024
Open Library stands out by prioritizing accessibility for visually impaired readers, offering a diverse range of books in accessible formats, and reinforcing its commitment to inclusivity and equal access to information.
Source: earthweb.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Open Library should be more popular than Kobo Books. It has been mentiond 263 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Kobo Books mentions (38)

  • Buying a Clara HD in 2023?
    If I were in your position I would spend the extra and get the 2e, if for no other reason than iirc, it has an audiobook feature. The clara2e is only $139 on kobo.com right now. Source: 5 months ago
  • Tolino Vision 6 eManga
    Im buying my manga from kobo (kobo.com). Theyre usually drm protected, but its incredibly easy to remove it. After doing so you get a standard epub file which you can read on basically any ereader, including yours. Source: 10 months ago
  • How do you keep up with LNs that have dozens of volumes? Is it even possible to keep track and remember what happen in each?
    LNs are short. If they look like they're as long as your typical Western novel, it's only because of the font size or thickness of paper used. You'll probably find similarly thin books in the YA section of a bookstore, but most Western books are longer. And while Harry Potter books start out shorter, in general, they absolutely dwarf the size of the typical LN, and I don't know if there are even any LNs which are... Source: 10 months ago
  • Some kobo.com purchased books not showing up on Kobo Clara HD
    I purchased some ebooks and I can see them at kobo.com but not all of them show up on my Kobo Clara HD reader. Everything is up-to-date and synced. Source: 11 months ago
  • Is piracy my only option?
    I usually buy from either ebooks.com or kobo.com (sometimes Google Play). They have their own Android apps where you can read your purchases without removing the DRM. On Boox, I've only ever tried the ebooks.com app, but I've found it to have a very limited feature set, so I prefer Pocketbook. By the way, ebooks.com sells DRM-free ebooks whenever the publisher allows it. I usually don't buy Kindle books, because... Source: 11 months ago
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Open Library mentions (263)

  • MLIS books available digitally?
    Check out https://openlibrary.org. You can search ´library science’, librarian’, etc, and something should come up. Just select the ‘ebooks’ option to search for items within the collection. And you can narrow the search by subject, etc. Source: 5 months ago
  • NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month
    Right now I'm in the middle of the chicken and the egg problem where we don't have enough authors cataloging their publications and b/c of that obviously readers are not interested in using the site. I've gone back and forth with taking Open Libray's [0] catalog as that would at least flesh out our collection of books but then I'd have to deal with verifying authors to accounts so they can access their books.... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • is there any way to read books for free?
    Here's one: https://openlibrary.org/. Source: 6 months ago
  • YSK: You can access many old and out of print hiking books from the Internet Archive's Open Library
    The Internet Archive runs what they call the Open Library, which is a unique concept on the traditional library. You can sign-up with minimal details and digitally check out many scanned books from libraries all over the world. The only caveat is that almost all of the books are older editions - ones that would be impossible to find locally. It's great if you're looking for old routes, a look back in time, details... Source: 7 months ago
  • Searching for a pharmacy book
    I want to clarify that I'm a non-US citizen, so accessing physical copies from US libraries or buying it from Amazon might not be feasible for me. To give you some context, my personal research was guided by the wiki section of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH (https://www.reddit.com/r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH/wiki/reading/). I've conducted research using various online resources, including the Ebook & Open Source/Access Libraries... Source: 8 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Kobo Books and Open Library, you can also consider the following products

Google Play Books - Google Play Books lets you search, preview, and buy millions of books using Google Book Search.

Archive.org - Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies...

Cool Reader - Fast and small cross-platform eBook reader for desktops and handheld devices

Z-Lib - ZLibraryPart of Z-Library project. The world's largest ebook library.

Amazon Kindle - Amazon Kindle software lets you read ebooks on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, and...

ManyBooks.net - Thousands of free ebooks, pre-formatted for reading on your computer, smartphone, iPod, or e-reading device - ePUB, Kindle, eReader, PDF, Plucker, iSilo, Doc, RTF, Mobipocket, Newton Paperback, and zTXT ebooks ready to go!