PDFDrive Alternatives
You might have heard about PDFDrive, which is one of the most used websites(Actually a PDF Search Engine) for searching and downloading many things, like eBooks, research papers, etc. According to PDFDrive, there are millions of e-books, magazines, and journals, available for download on PDFDrive.
Now, let’s say that you want to download some e-book, magazine, journal, etc. and you find that thing not available on the PDFDrive. So, now, you might want to search for some alternatives to PDFDrive, where you can get the e-book, the journal, or the magazine that you need.
So here are some websites that you can use as an alternative to PDFdrive –
10+ Best Similar Websites like PDFdrive Alternatives

Note: PDFdrive and many other PDF searching websites and PDF search engines do allow to download only those books which are free to be downloaded and read. You should download the book only if it is available in the public domain without any copyright issues.
Many books have been removed and many are being removed from public domains due to copyright issues. It is illegal to download the eBook if it is published online without prior permission from the owner or author. We do not recommend downloading any eBook from any search engine. This is just an informative article.
In this article, we are going to have a look at different alternatives to PDFDrive.
Alternatives to PDFDrive
- Library Genesis
- Internet Archive Books
- Free-Ebooks.net
- ManyBooks
- BookBoon
- BookSC
- Project Gutenberg
9. Open library
10. Open Culture
11. OnlineProgrammingBooks
12. ReadAnyBook
13. Smashwords
14. BookNet
15. LibriVox
1. Library Genesis:
Library Genesis also called as LibGen or Genesis Library is a PDF search engine for Books, Scientific papers, and articles on various topics. LibGen has a very huge database of books, articles, magazines, etc.
It allows access to papers, books, and articles that are not even digitally publicized anywhere. While most of the files here are scientific, it also includes fiction books and comic books.
You can find almost any book or paper or magazine on Library Genesis and can easily download them in different formats, like pdf, epub, etc. formats. You do not need to pay anything here for downloading an eBook.
To download a book from LibGen, just do the following –
- Go to the Library Genesis website.
- Search for the desired book on the Library Genesis website.
- Click on the book title
- You will be redirected to a page with more information about the book.
- There are multiple downloading options available.
You can click on the picture of the book on the page, which will redirect you to a page with a book front page preview. Clicking the GET button will download the eBook for you.
You can also use the mirror links present on the information page. They can also download the free eBook for you.
The mirror links can be used as an alternative for the main link failure.
2. Internet Archive:
The Internet Archive is a digital library offering millions of free texts, and books. Using this website, you can access various books and texts, for free. The thing is that the book that you are searching for, maybe or may not be available for download from the site. If it is available for download from the site, there is no problem, and you would get different options for download. But if the file is not available for download, you might require to borrow the book.
Have a look at how can we search, and download/borrow some desired books from the Internet Archive –
- Search for the Internet Archive on your favorite search engine.
- On the website, you can search for the desired book.
- If the book is available for free download, the options will show up for download in various formats like PDF, KINDLE, TXT, etc. else, you will have to borrow the book or read it in the online book reader. You do not need to pay anything to download a book from Internet Archive Books.
- Some selected books from their collection are available to borrow. They can be borrowed by one patron at a time. The borrowed books can be read from adobe digital editions or directly from the online book reader.
3. Free-Ebooks.net:
Free-Ebooks.net is a website that provides a wide range of popular books in various categories for free. You can download eBooks in different formats like PDF, epub, etc. You have to create an account for free on the website and you will be able to download up to 5 Books for free every month.
While you sign up, there is a check box that says “I’m an author”. If you tick the box, it lets you publish your own books on the website, and also one can have an access to books and can download them.
However, as stated earlier, one can download up to 5 books every month for free, to access and download them, you have to upgrade to the VIP plan.
Remember that you can download the 5 free eBooks in PDF and TXT format for free. If you want to download the eBook in any other format like Kindle, you have to upgrade to some VIP plan.
4. Google
Well, many of us know that Google is the largest search engine on the web. Well, whenever we need to find something on the internet, we often make use of the Google search engine. It is not a different thing in the case of PDFs. We can find a lot of PDFs with the help of the Google search engine. So, if you want to download some PDF, you just have to include the term PDF in your search. For example, if you are searching for a PDF related to some course syllabus, for example, an MS Word syllabus PDF, you would get a list of results, which would be PDFs. When you would open the PDF in the browser, you can then download the PDF into your system. Sometimes, opening the link downloads the PDF directly into your device.
5. ManyBooks –
ManyBooks is an extensive library of books, which are accessible for free on the internet. You can find books in various categories, like Action, Thriller, history, biography, fiction, and many others. The thing is that you can either download the book or read it online as well.
All you need to do is go to the ManyBooks website and search for the desired book. If the book is available, you can simply get the option to download the book, you can simply hover over the book, and get the download button there, or simply click on the book picture to go to the page where you can download the book, or read it online. Note that in order to be able to download the book from the website, you have to create an account.
As mentioned earlier, you can download many books for free, but you have to become a member by creating an account. You can avail of a discount on many books as a member if you wish to purchase some.
To download free eBooks from Manybooks, just do the following-
- Go to the Manybooks website.
- Search for the desired book and open it.
- You will be redirected to a page where you can see the download option(if it is available for download).
- Click on the download button. You will be prompted to create an account or sign in to start the download. Sign in if you already have an account, else create an account and then you would be able to download it.
6. Bookboon
Bookboon is a collection of millions of eBooks from various categories like Business, Information Technology, Marketing, etc. It emphasizes more on providing business and Educational eBooks and it continuously works with leading academic experts and publishers to provide high-quality books.
Bookboon is a very popular website for downloading eBooks with millions of downloads annually.
Bookboon allows access to such a big database with just one subscription. It provides a 30-day free trial and charges an amount after the time period ends. There are many e-books that can be downloaded for free as well, but we have to create an account on the website.
To download the eBooks, you will have to either subscribe or have to pay the price of that particular eBook to directly download it.
7. BookSC:
BookSC is one of the world’s largest eBooks and scientific article stores. It consists of millions of articles and more than millions of eBooks available for download literally for everyone. It lets you download the book without any sign-up and without any cost. You may sign up or create a free account for more features like saving a book for reading later.
Users can also upload their own eBooks and share them with people across the globe. There are books available for numerous trendy categories.
To download a book from BookSC, just do the following –
- Open the BookSC website.
- Search for the book, author, or article with help of the provided search box and hit enter.
- Within no time, it will display all the search results. It would display the articles and the books that match the query. You just have to click on the desired option from the article, or the book.
- Then you will be redirected to a page where you will see the download or save for later option.
- Just click on the download button to download the free eBook, and the download will start.
- If you want to save it for later, you can click the save for later button(you need to log in or sign up in order to use this feature. But don’t worry, it’s free!)
So, the BookSC website can be used to download the desired book for free(if it is available for download)
8. Project Gutenberg:
Project Gutenberg allows users to download eBooks literally for free. Neither registration is required, nor any fees are charged for downloading any eBook. However, one can consider donating some amount to help Gutenberg grow, improve and digitize more and more books. You can also help Gutenberg by finding bugs, or errors or giving suggestions.
Similar to Library Genesis, Gutenberg also contains the Mirror links to download eBooks.
It is so easy to download eBooks from Project Gutenberg. Just search the book from the available search box and hit enter. It will show the search results.
Click the result that you want to download.
You will be redirected to a page with different links with download options in different formats.
9. Open library:
Open Library is a digital library, where one can borrow millions of books, and also we can download many books for free. In fact, you can also add or edit some books, but for that, you would need to have an account here with the open library. Simply put, to be able to access some more features, you might require an account with the open library.
Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive to build a non-profit digital library. The Internet Archive is a digital library for sites on the Internet.
To borrow an eBook from Open library, just do the following –
- Open the open library website.
- If you already have an account on the open library, then log in. Else, you will have to create a free new account. (you should not skip this step because if not here, you will have to log in before you borrow the book.)
- Search for the book from the given search box and hit enter.
- From the shown search results, open the desired eBook.
- If a copy of that book is available for borrowing, it will have the borrow button and also the duration for which the book can be borrowed.
Just click on the Borrow button and the book will be added to your collection. - You can read the borrowed book directly from the online reader or from the adobe digital edition.
Note that Open Library is completely free to use.
10. Open Culture
With Open Culture, one can get many online courses, audiobooks, ebooks, etc, which can be downloaded at no cost and is available in different formats, like PDF, online reading, kindle, etc. In fact, along with the audiobooks, and ebooks, the users can find many different courses, and movies as well. All the things here are available without any subscription or registration.
To get some books from Open Culture, you just have to do the following –
- Visit the Open culture website.
- Here, you can simply find a lot of options in front of you. You can go to the eBooks section, or audiobooks section as per your requirement.
- You can also search for the book that you want here, and it can be available in some different formats.
If the book is available, downloading it is very easy from this website.
11. OnlineProgrammingBooks
If you are a computer enthusiast, or a computer engineering student, using Onlineprogrammingbooks, you can read online, or download many books related to computer science. You can get a lot of books and other resources, related to different concepts from computer science, like Artificial intelligence, Robotics, many different programming languages, and much much more.
To get or read some book, you just need to follow the given steps –
- Go to Onlineprogrammingbooks.
- Look for the book that you want to get/read online.
- Once you get the book, you need to click on it to open another page, which has the option of reading the book online or downloading the book.
If the book is available for download, you can download it, otherwise, you can read it online. This website can be a treasure for someone who loves programming, and the things related to computers. Here, some resources might be free, while some may be available at a discounted price.
12. ReadAnyBook
The ReadAnyBook is another resource and can be considered as an alternative to PDFDrive. From the website, you can download, or read the books online. It is very easy to use, and there are many books available that can be read online or downloaded from the website. If you want to download some book or read it online, you can simply follow the given steps –
- Go to the ReadAnyBook website.
- On the front page, you can see a lot of books. Also, you can search for the book that you want.
- After you have got the book that you want, you may simply have different options, like downloading the book or reading it online.
- You can read the book online, or download the book, and then read according to at your convenience.
The thing is whether you want to download the book or read it online. You need to create an account with ReadAnyBook. In fact, you can also publish your own book here, which is an amazing thing. So, if you are searching for some platform where you can publish your book, and get your book in the public.
13. Smashwords
Smashwords is the world’s largest distributor of indie e-books. On the website, you can get many different books from different authors. There are many books that are available for free and many other books that you can get at a very low price. Here, you can also publish your books, and market them.
You can filter the books according to whether they are free, or also according to the price, top-selling, best selling, and so on. So, you can create an account with Smashwords, and add the books to your library.
14. BookNet
On this website, you can find books in various categories, like Science fiction, suspense, thriller, romance, and much more. Also, you get a lot of options, for filtering your search, like in terms of popularity, best sellers, etc.
On the BookNet website, we can read the synopsis of each book for free, and we can also get an idea about how the book is. In order to be able to read the books for free, one needs to register on their website. BookNet is very easy to use, and a very useful one.
15. LibriVox
LibriVox is another website, where you can get to download PDF books for no cost. Here, you can download many books, and audiobooks at no cost. To download some books from LibriVox, you just need to do the following things –
Go to the LibriVox website.
Search for the book or the audiobook that you want to download.
You can get several options for downloading the audiobook or book from the website.
So, this way, you can download some book or audiobook, from the LibriVox.
Frequently asked Quiz Questions About PDFdrive Alternatives
Ans: PDFdrive is used for downloading eBooks and other files from the public web using its servers. However, many books have been removed from PDFDrive due to copyright issues. So if the file is available for free download on the public web without any copyright issue, then it would be totally fine to use a pdf drive.
Ans: To download any file from PDFdrive, just do the following –
1. Open the PDF drive on your browser, and search for the desired file.
2. From the displayed search results, select the desired search result.
3. You will be redirected to a page where you can download the file. Just click on the download button.
4. It will check the availability and will let you open the pdf. Once the PDF opens, you can download it.
Ans: If you want to download some e-books, journals, magazines, etc, you can find many alternatives to the very popular website, PDFDrive. There are many alternatives, like Bookboon, BookNet, Project Gutenberg, Open Library, etc.