How To Read an eBook: All you need is a reading app on your device, then send the downloaded ebook to your device (your phone/tablet/laptop), usually by email, and then upload the ebook to the app. On a phone, you do this the same way that you’d save a photo, but instead of saving to your photo album, you select the reading app to send the ebook to. (© June 2026)
Reading & Listening Apps: Most people use Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, or Google Play Books apps. Apple Books only works on Apple devices. Google Play Books works best for syncing all types of devices together, and for comics/graphic novels (and for sharing them over Zoom). My favorite reading apps are Pocketbook Reader (reformats pdfs, so it’s popular with pirates) and Readest (for easy audio features, AKA robotic text-to-speech). If you really love an audio feature on ebooks (without buying audio books), consider Éist instead. Éist has the best audio features, but does not have drag-n-drop. Kindle, Nook, Apple, and Google make audio TTS difficult. (© June 2026)
eBook Ownership & Variety: Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a security feature that makes it inconvenient to move your books from one app to another. To really own your books, you have to unlock the DRM, and that is easy to do with Google Play Books, harder to do with Amazon Kindle books, even harder with B&N books, and maybe impossible to do with Apple Books. All Apple and B&N books have mandatory DRM. Amazon has the biggest catalog of independent authors (and a lot of trash). Google has the 2nd largest inventory. Apple Books and B&N are in 3rd place, and mostly carry quality books. (© June 2026)
Other Considerations: Kobo and Everand have something similar to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription. A lot of readers like Kobo, since indie authors have more freedom there, though you’ll find more of the quality bestsellers at Everand. You have to use their apps for subscriptions, but if you just buy a (DRM unlocked) book from them, you can read it on the Pocketbook Reader or Google Play Books apps too. (© June 2026)
Overall Recommendation? Go with Google, unless you have another reason, like Amazon subscriptions, a big library with Apple or Amazon already, or a B&N storefront that you like to browse around in.