9 Best Ebook Creation Software of 2026

Atticus combines a manuscript editor and a book formatter, so an author can draft, style and export without moving files between apps. It is built as a Progressive Web App, which means it runs in a browser or as an installed app on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook, and the vendor says it keeps working offline while backing up to the cloud. Formatting starts with 17 templates that Atticus says give more than 1,200 combinations, and a custom theme builder covers authors who want their own chapter headings. A previewer shows how pages look on phones, tablets, Kindle, Kobo and Nook readers before you export EPUB, print-ready PDF or DOCX. The price is $147 once, with ongoing updates and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The trade-offs are small but real: there is no MOBI export, the template library is smaller than Vellum's, and version control is listed as coming soon. For authors who do not own a Mac, it is the most complete paid formatter here.

Reedsy Studio is the strongest free option for authors who want a finished ebook rather than a raw file. You write or import your manuscript, organize it by section, chapter and scene, and Studio typesets it to PDF and EPUB as you go, so formatting is mostly a matter of picking a style. Reedsy says the core features will stay free, and the free tier includes unlimited books, unlimited devices, a 30-day writing history and export to both formats. Collaboration is a highlight: a co-author or editor can leave comments and tracked changes in real time, and you can share a read-only preview link with beta readers. The limits are clear. Studio runs only in a browser with an internet connection, design choices are narrower than in Vellum or Atticus, and longer history, advanced stats and dark mode are paid add-ons with a 30-day free trial. For a first ebook on a zero budget, those limits rarely get in the way.

Vellum is a Mac app built for one job: turning a manuscript into store-ready ebooks and, with the Press edition, print books. You import a manuscript, Vellum builds the title page and table of contents, and you pick a book style that applies to every chapter. A preview shows how the book looks on a range of devices and in print, and it updates with each edit. On export, Vellum generates specialized files for Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and other stores, each able to send readers to your next book in that store, plus validated EPUB 3 and EPUB 2 files that the vendor says are ACE-approved for accessibility. Series authors can combine books into a box set in a few steps. The drawbacks are platform and price: it only runs on macOS 14 or newer, Vellum Ebooks costs $199.99 and print needs Vellum Press at $249.99. You can build and preview free, then pay when you publish.

Calibre is best known as an ebook library manager, but it also gives authors two useful production tools for free. The converter turns personal documents and dozens of file types into ebooks and can create a table of contents, adjust styles and fix punctuation along the way. The integrated editor opens EPUB, KEPUB and AZW3 files and shows the HTML and CSS inside, with a live preview that updates as you type. Automated tools cover the jobs that trip up self-publishers: Check Book finds errors, and there are tools to embed and subset fonts, remove unused CSS, insert an inline table of contents and make the book more accessible. Calibre runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and a portable build runs from a USB stick. The cost of all that power is approachability. There are no designed templates, and fixing a book means reading markup. Authors who want a guided layout should use Reedsy Studio or Atticus and keep Calibre for conversion and cleanup.

Kindle Create is Amazon's free formatter for books published through Kindle Direct Publishing, and it covers more book types than many paid tools. Reflowable mode suits novels, essays, poetry and memoirs, with a one-click table of contents, designed themes and the option to generate print and digital files from one project. A Comics and Kids' mode adds guided view, image pop-ups and facing pages, and Print Replica keeps a fixed layout for textbooks and cookbooks while letting you embed video, audio and web links. Amazon lists EPUB export for reflowable books, and its FAQ addresses why the app does not produce MOBI files. The trade-off is focus: Kindle Create is built around KDP and its .kpf format, so authors selling widely on Kobo or Apple Books get more from Reedsy Studio, Atticus or Vellum. Styling choices are also simpler than in the paid formatters. For an author whose sales are mostly on Amazon, it is free and does the job well.

Canva approaches ebooks as a design project rather than a typesetting job, which makes it a good fit for marketers. You search for an ebook template, pick a multi-page layout with matching colors and fonts, and change images, icons and pull quotes with drag and drop. Canva says its library holds more than 3 million free stock photos and graphics, and you can upload your own images or enter brand hex codes to keep pages on brand. Designs live in the cloud, so a team can share edit or view access and work across computers, iPads, iPhones and Android devices. AI tools can draft content and generate media. The limitation for authors is format: the ebook page focuses on visual design and does not describe EPUB export, so Canva suits lead magnets, guides and illustrated books more than novels that need reflowable text. Canva Free is open to anyone, with Pro and Business plans adding premium templates and more AI; we could not confirm USD prices from our location.

Sigil is a dedicated EPUB editor maintained by volunteers, and it remains completely free to download and use. It supports both EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 and gives you two ways to work: Code View for editing the markup directly and Preview View for checking the result. A table of contents generator handles multi-level headings, a metadata editor fills in title and author details, and spell checking accepts custom dictionaries. Power users get full regular expression find and replace, plugin support and checkpoints that compare snapshots of your changes. The developers describe it as suited to anyone from authors formatting their own books to professional editors publishing on several platforms. In practice, Sigil rewards people who know HTML and CSS. There are no design themes, no print output and no Kindle-specific files, so most authors pair it with a formatter such as Reedsy Studio or Atticus and use Sigil to polish or repair the final EPUB.

Scrivener is a writing app first and an ebook tool second, which is exactly why many long-form authors keep it. Its ring-binder model lets you break a book into chapters and scenes, keep research such as PDFs, web pages and images beside the draft, and rearrange sections freely. Snapshots save a version of a section before a big revision, and projects can back up automatically when opened or closed. When the draft is done, the compile step turns the project into Epub and Kindle ebooks, PDFs ready for self-publishing, Word files and more, and you can write in one font while exporting in another. Scrivener runs on macOS, Windows and iOS, with Dropbox sync between them. The catch for ebook work is that compile is powerful but takes effort to learn, and output design is plainer than Vellum or Atticus without that effort. Licenses are one-time but sold per platform; the iPad and iPhone app is US$23.99, and the desktop prices showed in PLN from our location.

Designrr is built for marketers who already have content and want it in ebook form. Instead of writing inside the app, you import a blog post by URL, a Word file or a Google Doc, and Designrr pours it into a template with headers, footers, page numbers and a generated table of contents; links stay clickable in the PDF. The Standard plan at $29 per month includes 100 project templates, 922 Google fonts, the Wordgenie AI content creator and unlimited ebooks. Pro at $39 adds PDF import, cover designs, a 3D cover tool, Kindle, iBooks and ePub export and a flipbook generator, and Premium at $49 adds AI images and four transcription hours a month for turning videos into text. That breadth suits lead magnets and content upgrades well. It is a weaker fit for authors: there is no free plan, ebook store formats require Pro, and the tools center on repurposed marketing content rather than long manuscripts. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any time.