The best e-reader apps for your phone or tablet

Electronic books, also known as eBooks, are a convenient way to read literature and consume text-based information in a digital format. Surprisingly, the earliest known eBooks date back to the late 1900s and, at the time, were only accessible on computers.

However, thanks to the never-ending evolution of technology, reading eBooks is as easy as purchasing an Amazon Kindle device or downloading an e-reader app to your mobile device. In this article, we’ll focus on the latter. That said, there are so many available options that choosing the best app for your needs can be challenging and confusing based on the various file formats and genres.

Whether you’re looking to read novels, library books, or comic books, the perfect app for turning your phone or tablet into an eBook reader is right around the corner. If you’re looking for the best Android apps, in general, be sure to check out our extensive list. However, this list specifically showcases the best e-reader apps based on your needs.

Best for variety: Amazon Kindle

Amazon Kindle is one of the most obvious go-to e-book reader apps. If you’re not sure what you want to read yet, this may be your e-reader. It offers one of the largest and most consistent e-book stores on the internet.

Plus, Amazon Kindle has plenty of reading features, cross-device syncing, and an impressive collection of free books.

However, you should know that the user experience is packed with advertisements. But, when it comes to reading the actual book, you don’t need to worry.

Amazon Kindle is an excellent option for availability alone, and you’re sure to find plenty of inspiration. You can download books for offline use, too.

Best for library access: Libby

Did you know that thousands of public libraries provide free eBooks and audiobooks? They do! And thanks to Libby, you can browse and borrow them without stepping foot in your physical library.

The app will help you find the nearest library based on your location. Once found, you can set it as your default location and add a library card. This will allow you to borrow titles and place holds directly from the app.

Libby’s search filters are great for narrowing down your results and locating any specific eBook or audiobook. In addition, when listening to audiobooks, you can adjust the playback speed (slower or faster) and add a sleep timer if you like to listen when in bed.

You can also download titles for offline reading, which particularly comes in handy when traveling. Once you start reading a book, your position will be saved and automatically synced across all devices where the app is installed.

Best for customization: Aldiko Next

The Aldiko Book Reader has been around for a while. It’s extremely popular and boasts tens of millions of downloads in over 200 countries around the world.

The e-reader supports EPUB and PDF formats and Adobe DRM encrypted eBooks too. Plus, it backs eBooks from public libraries. To enhance your reading experience, there are plenty of customization options as well.

The free version can be great to get a feel for the app but expect plenty of ads. With the premium version costing $4.99, you can enjoy an ad-free experience and more features. On both the free and paid versions, you can also import or export annotation features and host unlimited audiobooks on your personal bookshelf.

Best for older devices: AIReader

The AIReader is a relatively new e-book reader app, but it supports old phones. If you’re still hanging onto an old Android, the AIReader can be used on devices as far back as Android 1.6. That makes it ideal for people who’ve decided to stop upgrading but still want to have a great digital reading experience.

AIReader supports almost all major eBook formats, including PDF, Kindle azw3, ePub, fb2, to name a few. It also hosts other formats, including comic books, doc, HTML, and plain text.

The app also comes with a browser to download content from different stores. For example, some more popular libraries offer content in international languages such as English, French, Polish, Chinese, and Russian.

Best for beginners: Kobo Books

Kobo Books is another online bookstore like Amazon Kindle. The app is very basic, and all it seems to do is read purchased books from the service.

However, Kobo Books does support audiobooks and typical e-books. Other features include downloading for offline use, cross-device syncing, and Night Mode for late-night reading. The discovery features aren’t too bad, either.

If you’re not sure where to start, this simple e-reader may be the way to go.

Best for the features: Moon+ Reader Pro

The Moon+ Reader Pro is a comprehensive eBook reader, supporting almost all known digital formats. It’s efficient and fast, too, while providing plenty of features.

One is the shake-the-phone-to-speak feature, where, as you may guess, shaking the phone will prompt the Read (text-to-speak) feature. Shaking the device again will stop the feature.

There are plenty of other features, too, including multi-joint touch controls, Bluetooth key controls, auto-scrolling, browsing unlimited book files in Google Drive and Dropbox, and more. Read statistics will keep you in the loop of how much reading is left, which can be handy for some.

The interface is customizable, too, so you can set up the best reading experience for yourself. The pro version comes with a price, but there’s a free version, too, if you don’t mind dealing with ads between reading.

Best as an all-rounder: Google Play Books

Google Play Books is another e-reader that can’t be missed. It’s a virtual bookstore and competitor e-book reader apps like Amazon Kindle.

Choose from books, magazines, and other types of reading material. The app supports various e-book formats, comic book formats, and even audiobooks.

You can also upload your books to the cloud to read them anywhere, at any time.

Additional features include book rentals, a wishlist tab, Quick Bookmarks, and a Rapid Skim Mode. The app is free, but you’ll need to pay for many of the books.

Best for graphic novels: CDisplayEx

If you’re a fan of comic books, you’ve likely heard of CBR and CBZ files, which are container formats for comic books, Manga, and other graphic novels. Unfortunately, many e-readers cannot open those files, but CDisplayEx can, along with PDF files.

The app is clean, straightforward, and customizable, thanks to many options in its settings. Plus, you can adjust the graphics as you see fit using the built-in color corrections feature.

Simply browse the files on your phone and import the relevant files to start the party. You can also monitor folders from your device so that each new comic book is automatically uploaded to the app and ready for your next reading session.

CDisplayEx comes in two versions: Lite and Pro. The Lite version is free and ad-supported. However, the full version requires a one-time fee of $5.99; it’s ad-free and includes cloud storage access, continuous pages, advanced page scaling options, image exporting, bookmarks, S-Pen support, and night mode.

Best for translating: Fbreader

Fbreader is another reading app with a bit of an old-school feel. That doesn’t make it any less efficient, though. The app supports EPUB up to UPUB3, AZW3, fb2, RTF, and HTML formats. It also supports comic books, MS Word, and plain text formats.

Fbreader relies on the Google Drive cloud service, so you can also sync your e-books across devices. While the interface may look a little retro and dated, you’ll have no problems once you get the hang of using it.

A stand-out feature of the FBreader app is Google Translate, which it comes integrated with. This feature allows you to read content in foreign languages.

To help you expand your knowledge even further, there’s a built-in dictionary that allows you to search for unknown words and phrases. Haven’t we all wanted to do this while sitting down with a book?

Another win is that there are plenty of customization options too.

The best e-reader app for your needs

The possibilities for using your phone or tablet to access e-books are endless; there is an app to meet everyone’s needs. Amazon Kindle or Google Play Books are great places to start if you’re just getting started and want to find an extensive range of e-books. Meanwhile, Libby brings your local library right to the palm of your hand.

Which do you prefer? Tell us which e-reader you like to use and why in the comments!