Publishing · head to head
Kobo Writing Life vs Sigil
Kobo Writing Life
Publishing
Rakuten Kobo self-publishing platform paying a 70% royalty with no delivery fee deduction and no upper price cap, a materially different structure from Amazon KDP
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Sigil
Publishing
Open source EPUB editor for working directly on the file, not generating it
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Kobo Writing Life kobo overall market share is smaller than Amazon Kindle in the US specifically, so an author relying only on Kobo reaches a smaller US audience than KDP alone would.; Sigil it produces no print output whatever, so any book that needs a paperback interior requires a completely separate tool and a second workflow.
- They diverge on capability: Kobo Writing Life covers Free publishing, Sigil covers Direct EPUB editing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Kobo Writing Life and Sigil actually diverge.
| Attribute | Kobo Writing Life | Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free to publish; Kobo earns a royalty share rather than a fee | Open source, no licence fee |
| Platforms | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Publishing).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Kobo Writing Life
- Free publishing
- 70% royalty, no price ceiling
- No delivery fee
- Automatic price matching
- International reach
- Direct payment threshold
Only in Sigil
- Direct EPUB editing
- Code and preview views
- EPUB 2 and EPUB 3
- Regex across files
- Validation
- Python plugins
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Kobo Writing Life
- An author with a long or image-heavy ebook wanting to avoid the delivery fee that would apply on KDP at the same pricenot Sigil
- An author pricing a book above $9.99 who wants the 70% royalty without hitting the price ceiling that would apply on Amazon before its July 2026 expansionnot Sigil
- A wide-distribution author targeting Canadian, UK or other international markets where Kobo has stronger relative reach than in the USnot Sigil
- An author who wants to understand that price-matching to other retailers may automatically change their Kobo price without a manual updatenot Sigil
Sigil
- Fixing an EPUB that a retailer validator has rejected, without re-exporting from the tool that generated itnot Kobo Writing Life
- Correcting the table of contents, reading order or metadata in a file supplied by a conversion servicenot Kobo Writing Life
- Preparing a back-catalogue title where the only surviving source is the EPUB itselfnot Kobo Writing Life
- Applying a consistent stylesheet or a bulk text correction across every chapter of a book at oncenot Kobo Writing Life
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Kobo Writing Life
- Kobo overall market share is smaller than Amazon Kindle in the US specifically, so an author relying only on Kobo reaches a smaller US audience than KDP alone would.
- Automatic price matching to other retailers means an author discounting on one platform can see their Kobo price change without a deliberate action, which requires active monitoring to avoid unintended royalty impact.
- The requirement to price at least 20% below any physical edition to qualify for 70% is easy to overlook and can silently drop an author into the 45% tier if a print edition price changes without an ebook price adjustment.
- Below the qualifying threshold, the fallback royalty is 45%, not the 35% floor on KDP, which sounds better but is a smaller total addressable audience given lower Kobo market share, so gross revenue comparison still favours evaluating both platforms together.
- As with any single-retailer self-publishing tool, relying solely on Kobo concentrates risk in one platform policy and market position rather than spreading across a wide-distribution strategy.
Sigil
- It produces no print output whatever, so any book that needs a paperback interior requires a completely separate tool and a second workflow.
- Meaningful use requires reading and writing HTML and CSS, which puts it out of reach of most authors who simply want a finished file.
- There is no cloud storage, sync or collaboration, so the book exists as a file on one machine and version control is whatever you set up yourself.
- Development depends on a small number of volunteer maintainers, so release timing and platform builds follow their availability rather than a roadmap, and a lapse in maintenance would leave no obvious successor.
- It provides no distribution, no retailer connection and no Kindle-native output, so it sits in the middle of a workflow that other tools have to complete on both sides.
Pricing, plan by plan
Kobo Writing Life
Free- 70% royalty tierFree
- Applies from $2.99 USD (or currency equivalent) with no upper price cap
- No delivery fee deducted, full 70% kept
- Ebook must be priced at least 20% below any physical edition list price
- 45% royalty tierFree
- Applies below the $2.99 threshold
- No delivery fee deducted
Sigil
Free- SigilFree
- GPL licensed with no cost or account required
- Full functionality with no feature gating
- Community support through forums and the issue tracker
Which should you pick?
Choose Kobo Writing Life if
- You need free publishing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want 70% royalty, no price ceiling.
Choose Sigil if
- You need direct epub editing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
- You also want code and preview views.
Questions people ask
- Is Kobo Writing Life or Sigil better?
- Neither clearly leads. Kobo Writing Life starts at Free and Sigil at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Kobo Writing Life or Sigil?
- Kobo Writing Life starts at Free and Sigil at Free.
- Does Kobo Writing Life or Sigil run on more platforms?
- Kobo Writing Life runs on Web. Sigil runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
- Can I use Kobo Writing Life for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Kobo Writing Life best used for?
- Kobo Writing Life is most often used for an author with a long or image-heavy ebook wanting to avoid the delivery fee that would apply on kdp at the same price, an author pricing a book above $9.99 who wants the 70% royalty without hitting the price ceiling that would apply on amazon before its july 2026 expansion, a wide-distribution author targeting canadian, uk or other international markets where kobo has stronger relative reach than in the us, an author who wants to understand that price-matching to other retailers may automatically change their kobo price without a manual update. Of those, an author with a long or image-heavy ebook wanting to avoid the delivery fee that would apply on kdp at the same price and an author pricing a book above $9.99 who wants the 70% royalty without hitting the price ceiling that would apply on amazon before its july 2026 expansion are not what Sigil is typically brought in for.
- What can Kobo Writing Life do that Sigil cannot?
- Kobo Writing Life covers Free publishing, 70% royalty, no price ceiling, No delivery fee, Automatic price matching. Sigil covers Direct EPUB editing, Code and preview views, EPUB 2 and EPUB 3, Regex across files.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Kobo Writing Life: Does Kobo Writing Life charge a fee?
No. Like KDP, it is free to publish; Kobo earns its share through the royalty percentage on each sale.
Sigil: Can I write my book in Sigil?
You can, but you should not. It is an EPUB editor, not a word processor, and writing long-form prose in it is unpleasant. Write elsewhere, import, then finish in Sigil.
Kobo Writing Life: Is there a price ceiling on the 70% royalty?
No. Unlike KDP, which caps the 70% band at $12.99 as of July 2026, Kobo 70% rate has no upper price limit, only the $2.99 lower threshold.
Sigil: Does it make Kindle files?
Not natively. Produce a valid EPUB in Sigil and let Amazon convert it, or use a separate conversion tool for other Kindle formats.
Kobo Writing Life: Does Kobo deduct a delivery fee like Amazon?
No. Authors keep the full 70% regardless of file size; there is no per-megabyte delivery deduction.
Sigil: Is it safe to rely on a volunteer project for commercial work?
The files it produces are standard EPUB, so nothing is locked in. The risk is that maintenance stops, not that your books become unreadable.
Related pages
More on Kobo Writing Life
Other head to heads
- Kobo Writing Life vs Kindle Direct Publishing
- Kobo Writing Life vs PublishDrive
- Kobo Writing Life vs Draft2Digital
- Kobo Writing Life vs IngramSpark
- Kobo Writing Life vs BookBaby
- Kobo Writing Life vs Reedsy
- Kobo Writing Life vs Atticus
- Kobo Writing Life vs Scrivener
- Kobo Writing Life vs Kindle
- Kobo Writing Life vs Blurb
- Kobo Writing Life vs Lulu
- Kobo Writing Life vs Wattpad
- Kobo Writing Life vs Kotobee
- Kobo Writing Life vs Moon Reader
- Kobo Writing Life vs Pressbooks
- Kobo Writing Life vs Calibre
- Kobo Writing Life vs GIMP
- Kobo Writing Life vs Scribus
- Kobo Writing Life vs Affinity Publisher
- Kobo Writing Life vs Kobo
- Kobo Writing Life vs Libro.fm
- Sigil vs Kindle Direct Publishing
- Sigil vs PublishDrive
- Sigil vs Draft2Digital
- Sigil vs IngramSpark
- Sigil vs BookBaby
- Sigil vs Reedsy
- Sigil vs Atticus
- Sigil vs Scrivener
- Sigil vs Kindle
- Sigil vs Blurb
- Sigil vs Lulu
- Sigil vs Wattpad
- Sigil vs Kotobee
- Sigil vs Moon Reader
- Sigil vs Pressbooks
- Sigil vs Calibre
- Sigil vs GIMP
- Sigil vs Scribus
- Sigil vs Affinity Publisher
- Sigil vs Kobo
- Sigil vs Libro.fm