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Review: Epubor eBook Manager

Calibre is widely considered the best tool for managing your library of DRM-free ebooks, but it’s not your only option. About 5 years back I reviewed an app called KDeasy (alas, that review got eaten), and today I would like to show you a second ebook library app, one that was also developed by the same developers who brought us KDEasy.

Launched about 4 years ago, Epubor is designed to be a multi-format replacement for KDEasy. The older app only supported Kindle ebooks, while Epubor supports multiple formats, and can even strip DRM from Epub and Kindle ebooks.

While Epubor is primarily marketed as a DRM-stripping tool, it does have library ebook management features. You can edit an ebook’s metadata, give it a rating, add a note or introduction, and change the cover image.

Epubor also includes an online ebook reader, and it can convert DRM-free ebooks between Epub, Kindle, and PDF formats.

Opinion

I was given a free license to Epubor so I could write this review And that’s great, because I would have regretted buying it.

I don’t think Epubor is worth the money. Yes, it does work (after a fashion), but I think you should be using calibre instead. Calibre works as well or better than Epubor, and doesn’t cost $25 for an annual license.

Take stripping DRM, for example.  Back when I did this more, I liked to use calibre because it was free and because when the process failed, I would (usually) get an error message that helped me troubleshoot the problem so I could try again.

While Epubor can strip DRM, some times it fails. When that happens it doesn’t tell me why it failed to strip DRM from an ebook, which means if I really want to strip the DRM from this ebook, I will have to use a different tool, so I figure I might as well use that other tool in the first place.

Furthermore, Epubor just doesn’t have the same features as calibre. They are both ebook library management tools, but only calibre lets you install plugins which add features. Also, calibre converts to and from far more formats, while Epubor only supports 3. And where they do have comparable features, such as the ebook viewer feature for example, calibre’s feature just works better than the comparable feature in Epubor.

I could go on to list a half dozen other reasons I prefer calibre, but I think you get my point.

P.S. This app has a rating of 1.7 stars on MacUpdate. Clearly I am not the only one who is not impressed.

Epubor

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Comments


Paul Durrant April 30, 2020 um 2:56 am

I think it’s important to note that calibre doesn’t have any DRM-stripping capability itself. It just has a generic plug-in API. Many countries have laws about distribution of DRM-removal devices, and since calibre doesn’t have any built-in DRM-stripping capability, it is not affected by these laws.

Nate Hoffelder April 30, 2020 um 4:11 am

Thank you, yes, I should have made that clear.


Harmon April 30, 2020 um 4:37 pm

I use calibre & pay them the $25 annual fee they don’t charge.


Olivier May 4, 2020 um 4:11 pm

Doesn’t Epubor use some of the same software as Calibre or some of its plugins under the cover?


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