When comparing iBooks Store vs eBooks.com, the Slant community recommends eBooks.com for most people. In the question“What are the best eBook stores?” eBooks.com is ranked 3rd while iBooks Store is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose eBooks.com is:
eBooks.com offers academic eBooks on their store that are claimed to be from the world's leading scholarly and academic book publishers.
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Pros
Pro Self publishing
Users can self publish their own eBook via the iBooks store.
Pro Send eBook as gift
iBooks recently updated their store to where users can send eBooks as gifts to their friends and family.
Pro Sells textbooks
iBooks has textbooks for sale with a store wide rule of offering them at lower prices then what is seen on college campuses.
Pro Academic books
eBooks.com offers academic eBooks on their store that are claimed to be from the world's leading scholarly and academic book publishers.
Pro Free excerpts
eBooks.com offers free excerpts for their more popular eBooks. This way users can get a feel on how the title reads and what it's structure looks like.
Pro Very intuitive site
The site is very easy to understand and navigate.
Pro Send gift certificates
eBooks.com allows for users to purchase gift certificates online worth 10-100 dollars and will then e-mail said certificate to an e-mail address of the purchases choosing along with a customized message.
Cons
Con iBooks uses its own DRM scheme called Fair Play on .epubs sold in the store
iBooks does use .epubs for its eBooks but sadly they are encrypted with their own proprietary DRM called Fair Play. This means any .epub that has Apples DRM purchased from iBooks will not be able to be used in other .epub eBook readers.
Con Forced to use iTunes or an Apple product
There is no webpage for the iBooks Store which means there is no way to browse Apples eBook selection without using one of their device or installing iTunes.
Con Store feels cluttered and unintuitve
The landing page for eBooks.com feels a bit cluttered and can be confusing to navigate to the users desired section.