Pressbooksvs
Scribus
Scribus: For free print layout with full typographic control, if press-ready PDF matters more than a web book
Pressbooks
Open source book production built on WordPress, and the default tool for open textbooks
As of 31 August 2026, Pressbooks is free to use. GPL-licensed publishing software that outputs a web book, EPUB and print PDF from one source. Softwr lists it under Publishing. Pressbooks is made by Book Oven Inc., available on Web, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Pressbooks does
Pressbooks is book production software built on WordPress, developed by Book Oven Inc. in Montreal and released under the GPL. An author or institution writes in a familiar web editor and publishes simultaneously as a browsable web book, an EPUB, and a PDF laid out for print, all from a single source. Interactive exercises can be embedded through H5P, and the hosted institutional product connects to Canvas, Moodle and Blackboard through LTI so a book behaves like course content. Its position in open educational resources is what makes it hard to substitute. A textbook published in Pressbooks under an open licence can be cloned wholesale into another institution network, then edited to suit a different course, a different jurisdiction or a different set of examples, with attribution preserved. That workflow is why provincial and state consortia standardised on it, and why the catalogue of adaptable open textbooks that exists in Pressbooks has no equivalent in any commercial authoring tool. For a university library trying to remove a hundred-dollar textbook from a syllabus, the ability to adapt rather than write from scratch is the entire business case. The licence means an institution can self-host and pay no fee, but that comes with an important caveat: the print PDF export depends on a commercial rendering engine whose licence most self-hosters do not buy, so free self-hosting in practice means a web book and an EPUB, with print output degraded or watermarked. Add WordPress multisite administration, upgrades and backups, and the hosted institutional network often turns out cheaper than running it yourself. It is not a trade publishing tool: there is no distribution, no ISBN service and no retail channel.
What people use it for
- A university library replacing a commercial textbook by adapting an existing open textbook rather than commissioning a new one
- A course team that wants readings delivered inside Canvas or Moodle with embedded exercises rather than as a static PDF
- A research institute publishing reports that must exist as a web page, an EPUB and a printable document without maintaining three files
- A consortium standardising open textbook production across several institutions with a shared catalogue of adaptable titles
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Pressbooks.
- Self-hosting is free in licence terms only; it requires WordPress multisite administration, upgrades and backups, which is a real staff cost most institutions underestimate.
- Professional print PDF output depends on a commercial rendering engine that is licensed separately, so the genuinely free self-hosted route produces web and EPUB output but not press-quality print.
- Design control is limited to the supplied themes unless someone writes custom CSS, so books tend to look recognisably like Pressbooks books.
- There is no distribution, no ISBN service and no retail channel, so it produces files and web pages but plays no part in selling anything.
- The editing experience inherits WordPress conventions, and authors working on long or heavily structured manuscripts find it slower than a dedicated writing application.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Pressbooks
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- PressbooksvsAdobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign: For designed, illustrated or complex books where the layout is the product rather than the content structure
Pricing
What Pressbooks costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Pressbooks
Free
- GPL licensed, self-hostable with no software fee
- WordPress multisite administration is your responsibility
- Print PDF export depends on a separately licensed rendering engine
- Hosted institutional networks quoted per organisation
Capabilities
Features
Single source, three outputs
Web book, EPUB and print PDF generated from the same content
Cloning and adaptation
Open licensed books copied into another network and edited, with attribution retained
H5P interactive content
Embedded quizzes, flashcards and exercises inside the web book
LMS integration
LTI connections to Canvas, Moodle and Blackboard for course delivery
Open source under the GPL
Self-hostable on WordPress multisite with no licence fee for the software
Accessibility tooling
Structured output and checks aimed at meeting institutional accessibility requirements
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Pressbooks really free?
The software is GPL licensed and free to self-host. The hosted service is priced, and professional print PDF output requires a commercially licensed renderer, so budget accordingly.
Can I sell a book made in Pressbooks?
You can sell the EPUB or the printed book through any distributor, but Pressbooks itself provides no ISBN, no storefront and no distribution.
Why do universities use it for open textbooks?
Because an openly licensed book can be cloned into another institution network and adapted for a different course, which turns a finished textbook into a starting point rather than a fixed artefact.
Keep looking
Where to go from Pressbooks
- Pressbooks alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Pressbooks pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Pressbooks badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Publishing softwareThe full category
- Best Publishing softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Publishing software for
Compare Pressbooks with
- Scribus
- Adobe InDesign
- Sigil
- GIMP
- Calibre
- Kotobee
- Scrivener
- Affinity Publisher
- Atticus
- Kobo
- Webtoon
- Moon Reader
- Libro.fm
- Calibre
- Affinity Publisher
- Atticus
- Kobo Writing Life
- Kobo
Other Publishing software
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Open source10 researched notesInteractive EPUB authoring that also exports native mobile apps and hosted libraries
Free plan10 researched notesLong-form writing and manuscript organisation software sold as a one-time purchase per platform, with no subscription at any tier
11 researched notesDesktop page layout application, free since the Affinity range was relaunched by Canva
Free plan11 researched notesOne-time-purchase writing and book formatting that runs on Windows and Linux, not just Mac
From $147/one-time11 researched notesRakuten e-reader hardware, app and ebook store, the reader-facing side of the Kobo ecosystem
Free plan11 researched notesNaver-owned vertical-scroll digital comics platform with a paid-early-access coin system
Free plan9 researched notesAndroid ebook reader app with a one-time purchase, deep format support and no subscription or store lock-in
Free, then $4.99/one-time10 researched notesAudiobook subscription that splits revenue with an independent bookstore of your choice
From $14.99/mo11 researched notesDesktop page layout application, free since the Affinity range was relaunched by Canva
Free plan11 researched notesOne-time-purchase writing and book formatting that runs on Windows and Linux, not just Mac
From $147/one-time11 researched notesRakuten 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
Free plan11 researched notesRakuten e-reader hardware, app and ebook store, the reader-facing side of the Kobo ecosystem
Free plan11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Pressbooks, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Pressbooks
Pressbooks alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Pressbooks pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Pressbooks
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Pressbooks badge
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Best Publishing software alternatives
Amazon self-publishing platform that is free to use, earning Amazon a royalty cut instead of a fee, with a hard price band and per-megabyte delivery cost governing the 70% rate
Free to publish; Amazon earns a royalty share rather than a feeRakuten e-reader hardware, app and ebook store, the reader-facing side of the Kobo ecosystem
Free store and app; hardware sold separately; optional subscriptionAudiobook subscription that splits revenue with an independent bookstore of your choice
Per credit per month, credits never expire
Unlimited ebook, audiobook, magazine and sheet music subscription, the consumer reading service formerly called Scribd
Per user per month, unlimited
Amazon-owned book cataloguing, review and recommendation app
Free, no subscription or in-app purchases; funded by Amazon as a commerce and data feeder
Pay-per-book self-publishing service for ebook conversion, print on demand and distribution
One-time purchase per project
Amazon's consumer e-book reading app, distinct from Kindle Direct Publishing, the author-facing service
Free app, revenue from book purchases and optional subscriptionRakuten 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
Free to publish; Kobo earns a royalty share rather than a fee