In August 2019, Microsoft posted a new support page for the Edge Browser and announced the killing of EPUB support: “Microsoft Edge will no longer support e-books that use the .epub file extension. Visit the Microsoft Store to see our recommended .ePub apps.” Frankly speaking, Edge was a terrific ebook reader for Windows. Now there is no way for us to read EPUB with Edge, thus it’s high time to find an alternative EPUB reader for Windows. What are the best EPUB Readers for Windows? Here is the top list for you.
1.Calibre
Calibre is a cross-platform free and open-source suite of ebook software, which is the top priority for you to read EPUB books on Windows. Besides EPUB ebook reading, Calibre supports editing, creating, and converting ebooks with a wide variety of other ebook formats. Also, Calibre makes it rather simple to transfer books between your desktop machine and any ereaders you own-either wirelessly or via a USB cable. Like other free epub readers, Calibre won’t let you read DRM-protected books natively, which might be the only real drawback here.
Pros:
- A one-stop solution for all your ebook needs–ebook reading, library management, ebook metadata editing and ebook conversion
- E-books can be uploaded to the library via manual loading and wirelessly syncing from the cloud storage service
Cons:
- No native support for reading DRM-protected epub books
- Crowded interface
- No support for highlight and annotations
2.Adobe Digital Editions
Along with the desktop application, Adobe has worked closely with many E-Ink reader manufacturers so that Adobe Digital Editions is used as the default rendering engine for many EPUB files. ADE has all the regular features including highlighting, adding notes and bookmarking. A much great function that’s really helpful is we can create custom bookshelves to manage our book collections neatly. The most important feature deserves to be mentioned is that ADE even supports DRM-protected EPUB and PDF books.
Pros:
- Pleasant and easy interface
- Support DRM-protected books with ADE DRM that’s used by some popular online ebook stores, like Kobo, Google Play, Sony
Cons:
- It frequently freezes and crashes
- Slow and choppy page scrolling
3.Neat Reader
Neat Reader is a cross-platform EPUB reader that will save all your EPUB books in the cloud. It’s available for free on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire. Still, it provides a wonderful online EPUB Reader, which means you don’t need to download and install the desktop software. Just visit the site on the browser and you can read your epub book online. The free version can satisfy your basic needs for epub ebook reading. You can also get premium version which gives you cloud storage, sync and some other customizable features.
Pros:
- Elegant and modern design
- It allows you to conveniently highlight, add notes and bookmark
- Premium version supports cloud service. It syncs books automatically and you can access them on the cloud from any device
- Premium version allows you to customize reading, including theme, page-turning mode, font-size, text-style adjustment
Cons:
- It’s not free to get the premium version, which costs $19.99/year
- No support for DRM-protected books
- Only support ebooks in epub format
4.BookViser (Windows 8 & 10 App)
BookViser Reader is a highly customizable EPUB ebook reader with a simple and clean interface. What impresses me most is the realistic page turning animation, just like reading a physical book instead of an ebook. You can also change the font, the background and the animation effects of flipping the page depending on your preferences. In addition, it even allows you to download books from integrated public catalogs like Project Gutenberg and Smashword, and import books from OneDrive, Dropbox or other cloud storage apps besides from the local files.
Pros:
- Realistic page-turning animation
- Easily adjust brightness while reading and set color themes for day and night
- Synchronize your reading across multiple Windows devices
- Premium version support Text to Speech
Cons:
- Does not support DRM-protected ebooks
- Only available for Windows 8 and Windows 10
5.Freda (Windows 8 & 10 App)
Freda is another free program for reading EPUB on Windows 8/10. Its uniqueness lies in that it offers all premium features for free, even including Text to Speech and auto-scroll and speed-reading, that are not supported by many other free EPUB readers for Windows. Freda can get books from online catalogs like Feedbooks, Smashwords and the Gutenberg Project, and can also download books from any website and from email attachments. Or if you have an existing book collection, you can import your books from OneDrive, Dropbox and Calibre.
Pros:
- Supports Text to Speech, speed-reading and auto-scroll for free
- Offers many options for customizing text appearance and layout
- Provides access to online catalogs (Feedbooks, Smashwords,…) plus OneDrive, Dropbox and Calibre
- Lets you create and export bookmarks, highlighting and annotations
Cons:
- No support for reading DRM-protected books
- Contains ads
- Only available for Windows 8 and Windows 10