Project Gutenberg

Instead of Kindle's free book section

www.gutenberg.org

Screenshot from www.gutenberg.org, taken 2026-10-30, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.

The story goes that on 4 July 1971 a student named Michael Hart typed the United States Declaration of Independence into a computer at the University of Illinois, and called it the first ebook. Project Gutenberg grew from that. It now says it has more than 75,000 free ebooks and promises that they are free and always will be, with no fees, no registration and no ads, and thousands of volunteers have digitised and proofread the books since. A foundation runs it and takes donations.

Project Gutenberg scores a 5 on lock-in, power and longevity, a 4 on footprint and delivery and a 3 on self-direction. It is the oldest and biggest free library of its kind, and the books are plain files you can keep. It runs in any browser or on an e-reader.

The site looks its age and the formatting varies from book to book. Like the rest of the free shelf it holds older books, so anything new has to come from somewhere else.

A book from it is a file you can keep on any reader.

What stands out

• More than 75,000 free ebooks from a volunteer library started in 1971
• No fees, no registration and no ads
• Plain files you can keep, though the formatting varies

For comparison, we also reviewed Amazon Kindle (13/30) as a benchmark.