Apps Like OverDrive and Alternatives. OverDrive app, Inc. is an American digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, music, and video titles. The company provides secure management, digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, and retailers. OverDrive’s catalog includes more than 2 million digital titles from more than 5,000 publishers. The company’s global network includes more than 27,000 libraries and schools. OverDrive was founded in 1986 and is in Cleveland, Ohio.
However, if you are not satisfied with OverDrive app and looking for OverDrive app alternatives, or you like testing different apps and looking for apps like OverDrive then the list of similar OverDrive apps below are for you.
- AMAZON KINDLE
Most people know Amazon Kindle as a device on its own but what they don’t know is that there is also an Amazon Kindle application that does almost the selfsame thing the device does. So, why would you bother buying an extra device when you can just download an application that will comfortably fit into your smart phone or tablet that is roughly the same size?
The Amazon Kindle application is not used only for eBooks, they also have a wide selection of magazines and newspapers too. They also allow their users preview the first chapter of some paid books without having to pay before making their purchasing decision. Amazon Kindle has a lot of books, newspapers and magazines for sale but they also have quite a number of free books, newspapers and magazines. To read books or other content on Amazon Kindle, you need to browse through the lists of books available via different categories or just type in the name of the book or the author into the search bar and see if your book is available or not.
You can also connect your local library to the Amazon Kindle app and borrow books from your library for free without having to visit the library or spend a whole lot more. With Amazon Kindle, you can set your desired reading preferences for the books you read through the application like adjusting the brightness of the screen, adjusting the font size and the style and also the background color. You can also choose your preferred orientation of either landscape or portrait. All of these options are made available to ensure that you enjoy your reading experience with the application.
Amazon Kindle also has a dictionary built into the application. So, if you ever come across a word you don’t recognize, you can always look it up in the dictionary. They also have plug ins linking to Wikipedia and google in case you want to go beyond just knowing the meaning and pronunciation of a word to knowing more details about that subject.
Amazon Kindle also syncs the reading progress of its users across different devices. So, for every time you would rather use a different device to continue your reading, you can always start from the same page you stopped so long as you have an internet connection and the Amazon Kindle app installed and signed in on that device. Beyond your reading progress, Amazon Kindle will also sync your bookmarks, notes and your highlights. This application is available in different versions for different devices like the Android version, iOS version, Windows phone, PC, Mac and also blackberry.
- GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS
Google Play Books is an application by Google made mainly for easy access of digital books to book lovers. It is a free application and can be downloaded on the Google Play Store. This application is a very clean one with clear pages and text. You can also adjust the preferences on this application to your taste and desires like the size of the font (Only three options available: small, medium and large), the typeface of the font (Only four typefaces are available), the space between the lines of horizontal text, the alignment or justification setting, the themes you are most comfortable with per time between the day theme and the night theme. You also get to adjust how bright you want your screen to be when reading. All these settings help you personalize your reading interface to what you are most comfortable with hence creating an environment for a great user reading experience.
The application is pretty basic but also has some interesting features like how you can tap in the middle of a book you are reading to reveal a slider that displays the number of the page you are on now and can also allow you to use the slider to slide to whatever page you want to access. Google Play Books does not have a bookmarks option which means that you can’t set bookmarks to remind you fn what page you want to keep for references and the last page you had read.
This application works hand in hand with the Google eBook store in the sense that when you want to read books and you click on the “Get Books” icon that can be found on your home page, you get redirected to the Google eBook online store where you can either download the same of a book, read a book preview or purchase the book immediately. Searching for books with this application is always a breeze because of the search feature that has all the books grouped into different categories with the different categories also grouped into different collections. All of these are tailored at making your searching experience an easy one. If you would rather do a straight forward search, you can also type in the title of the book, the name of the author or a keyword associated with the book you want to read into the search bar that is available in the application.
Since the Google eBook reader works together with Google Play Books, it is only normal to find out that there is synchronization between the two so long as you have an internet connection. You can start where you stopped every time you close the app and reopen it. With this application you can access a whole lot of books including bestsellers too.
- SCRIBD
Scribd is another eBook reading application that allows you to gain access to a vast number of digital books, audio books, newspapers, magazines and also sheet music for a small price. This application requires a subscription of $8.99 every month but they also offer a 30-day free trial. You also get to create highlights, add your notes, create bookmarks, and listen to audio books all day long while doing something else without interruption.
With this application, your reading interests would be spiked and you will be amazed at how much books you can finish reading over a short period of time. On Scribd, not all books are unlimited, you could also find some that cost one credit and you get one of those credits every month. With a premium subscription on Scribd, you gain access to over 150,000 book titles and you also three free book credits per month. Once you use a book credit to make a book available, the book will remain accessible to you so long as it is on the application. Every month, Scribd also releases a batch of books called Scribd Selects which you do not need to use a book credit on to read.
Scribd also accepts feedback from their users and recommendations too but you would have to send it to them via mail at feedback@scribd.com. When you look at it thoroughly, you will realize that the total cost of buying hard copy books every time you want to read a book is way more expensive than investing in a Scribd subscription plus you also get access to more books and have them read in different ways. For all the book worms and book lovers out there, Scribd is a worth giving a shot at least for the 30-day free trial.
- KOBO BOOKS
The Kobo e-reader is another application that serves the purpose of making book reading easier and providing more access to more books. This application always comes with 100 already downloaded free books from the 1.4 million they already have in stock once you have downloaded the app and installed it. Apart from the that feature, the app behaves basically like the average book reading application.
You will be required to sign in or create a new account immediately after installation after which you can start searching for books, downloading them and reading them. They also have a search button for searching for book titles and they also have categories to help you browse for different options.
When you have started your books on the application, you will realize that unlike other applications, there are very few settings you can adjust on this application. These settings are the Font size which gives you only five options to choose from, the font style which gives you only two options to choose from (either the san serif or the serif) and night mode which turns the background black with white text. Like I mentioned earlier, the Kobo app is just like every other basic reading application because it has no extra special features that separate it from the rest. Instead, it lacks a couple of features that are very important and make it a less appealing app to use. One of these features is the lack of manual bookmark feature. You know how it is that sometimes you want to place a book mark on a particular page for reference at a later time? You can’t do that with the Kobo app. The only bookmark the application is able to remember is the last page you read and that’s it. Another feature that they lack is the limited options for personalizing your reading screen hence limiting your reading experience to a set of already predetermined options.
One more feature that they would rather not have missed out on is the sync feature. It has been noted that Kobo synchronizes all the relevant information across multiple devices. They also have a Kobo E-Reader as well and this perfectly in sync with the application.
So. In conclusion, the Kobo application is a great application to use but if the personalization feature and the bookmarking feature is duly worked on and upgraded, they will be one of the go to eBook reading applications in the world today.
- CALIBRE COMPANION
Calibre Companion app for android is an application that helps users consolidate all the eBooks they have on their device without stress. It is not a free application as it costs $3.99 on the Google Play Store. They also have a free Demo version. The thing with Calibre companion is that it is not an eBook reader because you can’t read your books from within the application but you get to organize them virtually and get relevant information about each book like the author of the book, the genre of the book, the meta data of the book and other relevant information. You can also sort the books however you want to see them arranged and you can see every eBook you have on shelves with their cover images in front.
The Calibre group of applications also has an eBook reader called the Calibre eBook reader but it is a desktop application while the Calibre companion is an Android application but they also work together and can be synced. So, to sync your eBook reader with your Calibre companion, you can turn on your Wi-Fi and connect the two devices and the two applications will be synced promptly. With the Calibre companion, you can also download your books from any cloud-based platform like Box, Dropbox and Microsoft One Drive to your device.
In summary, the Calibre Companion application enables you to arrange your library of eBooks in a few minutes and also download your books from the cloud and save it to your device. You can also sync this application with the Calibre eBook reader on your desktop and access your books from the reader too. Instead of trying to find the exact folders your eBooks were placed in on your device, you can use the Calibre Companion to sort them out and have all your eBooks organized in one place.
- BOOKMOBILE AUDIO BOOK AND PODCAST PLAYER
Bookmobile Audiobook and Podcast Player was made for you to enjoy listening to your audio books and podcasts at all times by Freshmowed software. It was made basically for iPhones and iPads. With Bookmobile Audiobook and Podcast Player, you can download files from the web, import files from your RSS feeds and also your iTunes library. This app is only compatible with iOS 6.0 and above and is best used with an iPhone 5. It is not a free application but users can download a trial version of the application.
This application was developed with the aim of playing spoken word sounds like podcasts and audio books and it achieves this goal with maximum clarity as opposed to when you use it to play music. Bookmobile Audiobook and Podcast Player allows you to listen to audio books and podcasts while you are driving, eating and doing everything else. For a new user, Bookmobile Audiobook and Podcast Player has clear cut directions guiding the user on how to operate and navigate around the application. For instance, when in driving Mode, all you need to do is tap once to play a file or pause it, swipe to the left to skip forward and swipe to the right to skip backward.
To add files to the application, you can choose to add directly from iTunes or just download directly to the application. You can find all the books on the application in one place called the Bookshelf. In the case of a little distraction when listening to one of your files play, you can always subtract a couple of minutes to reach where you last heard. Some other interesting features this application has that make it appealing to use are the swipe features that allow users swipe when driving, the skip features that enable users skip forward or backward on a second by second or minute by minute basis. They also have a sleep timer and a set of part lists that shows all the chapters and episodes that are available.
The application is very stable and the voice sound is very clear in the sense that you don’t miss out words when the reading is going on. They also have a trial version so if you are interested in giving it a try, you can always download the trial version to check how it works for yourself before subscribing to the premium version on the iOS App Store.
- LIBRIVOX AUDIO BOOKS
Librivox is an application designed to grant its users access to free audio books. Little wonder their mission statement is “to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.” So, what they do is recruit volunteers that read and record the books that are in the public domain. They also host fundraisers to help raise funds for the expenses they encounter.
On their website, you can search for the books you want to listen to by the title of the book, the name of the author, the genre of the book and the language of the book too. Librivox is presently growing into accommodating a community as they now have close to 6800 readers, 8500 audio books and up to 1200 non-English audio books. The books on Librivox are all free books and you don’t have to pay for them or the application in itself. All the audio books they have are also downloadable to your device and they have a lot of language options on some books with over 35 languages.
Now that these books are free, you can even go as far burning them into a CD after downloading or even play them with any other iOS or Android application. Most of the people who have used this application have had nothing negative to say about it. They all tend to love the layout of the application, the sound of the audio and the user-friendly nature of the user interface. They have done so well for themselves over the years that they have been features with positive reviews on the Los Angeles Times, Wikinews, Wired.com, New York Times and Montreal Gazette.
The downside to the LIbrivox application is the fact that the only books available on that platform are public domain books so you can’t access new releases and the books are not as much as other eBook readers contain in Quantity. Another issue you would have to adjust to is the quality of the audio because they accept any volunteer to record their books so you will need to be prepared to listen to a lot of books recorded by Non-Professionals. Putting all of these inconsistencies aside, it is also a great option to download books from their platform because all the books are free.
- IBOOKS
The iBooks e-reader application was launched just for the iPad but recently, they extended its services to the iPhone and iPod Touch too. This application is not free and you are also required to pay for the books you download. They have one free book though: the title, Winnie the Pooh written by A. A. Milne. To read any other book, you would have to purchase it. When you want to purchase a new eBook from them, you will get redirected to an inbuilt bookstore where you will find countless number of books to choose from.
As with all things Apple, the prices of the books are little more expensive than what you would find on other book reading platforms as their popular books cost $9.99 and the New York Times Bestsellers cost $12.99. iBooks also lets their users download a sample preview of the required book before making your purchasing decision. The application also supports both ePub and PDF formats so you can use it to read files of the afore mentioned formats on your iOS device. Every time you download a new book, you can find it on your bookshelf which you’ll find when you click on the Library tab.
All the books downloaded via this app is revealed in full color and the page turn animation which occurs with one swipe of your finger is so real, almost like you are turning the page of a book in real life. You can also read books in either Landscape mode or Portrait mode. Users are allowed to view the table of contents of the book they are reading from whatever page they are on and the brightness of the screen and text can be adjusted to suit your reading preferences.
iBooks has a very classy user interface and it is also one of those applications that make reading interesting especially if you are using an iPhone. If you don’t want to purchase books, you can always pass time by reading book reviews and samples. They have a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars so they are pretty good at what they claim to do.
- ALDIKO BOOK READER
The Aldiko app is another great application to try out and this one is available on both Android and iOS versions for download. It was developed to help in organizing books and also reading them. You can also read books in either portrait or landscape mode and when you first open the application, you will see for icons namely, Shelf view, List view, Store and files. You will also find a button at the screen named Recent Reads where you would find the most recent books you opened with the application.
When you want to read a book using this application, you would need to click on the Files option to have all the books readable by this application in your device show up. Then you can pick out what you want to read and import them to Aldiko. Remember those icons I previously mentioned that you see when you first open the application? Now the Shelf view icon is to help you arrange your books on a virtual shelf with the front page of the books showing while the list view as the name implies arranges all your books in one list. With Aldiko, you can also sort books according to the author of the book, the title of the book, the ratings of the books, the recently added books and the recently finished books.
When reading with the Aldiko application, you swipe left to move forward and swipe right to move backward, all the hyperlinks in any book you are reading will be bright blue and underlined, they front page of your book would be in full color but the rest of the book will be black text on a white background. You can also switch to night mode which is white text on a black background. You can change the size of the fonts, the margins of the text, the brightness and the orientation you are reading with. If the font you want to read with is not available on the app, you also get the option to download fonts from the internet. If you want, you can also shop online for more books to download and if you are not comfortable with the default settings of the book you are reading, you can always customize it by adjusting the settings to suit your own preferences.
- BARNES AND NOBLE NOOK APP
The Barnes and Noble Nook App is an application for iPhones and iPads. The application in itself is a free application that can be downloaded from the iOS App Store and it requires devices with an operating system of iOS 7 and above. It is also a very basic reading application without serious complexities as you swipe to move from one page to the next as other applications do and you can also customize your reading experiences.
You can change the font size, the text justification, the color of the background and type face. You can also choose from different available themes already supplied by the application. With the Barnes and Noble Nook App, you can also create bookmarks and adjust the screen brightness. This application does not let you buy books from within the application so if you want to download a book from the Barnes and Noble website, you would have to go to their website to download it if is free or purchase it if it is not for free but the great thing about this process is that the moment a book is purchased from the website and downloaded, it appears in your Barnes and Noble Nook App immediately you open it so you don’t have search for it.
This application is great all iPhone users and iPad users because it also utilizes the retina display of the iPhones and iPads to give users a good reading experience.