The Best Free and Open-Source Tools for Self-Publishers (2026)

Every link on this page was opened on 6 September 2026 and the licence and last commit date of each repository were read from GitHub that day. An earlier version of this page listed five tools that do not exist; they are gone, and I say which at the end. Reviewed by Robert Prime, 6 September 2026.

You can write, format, check, cover and publish a book in 2026 without paying for a single piece of software. The stack I would actually use is short: LibreOffice Writer or novelWriter to write, Calibre and Sigil for the ebook, Pandoc to convert between formats, epubcheck and Amazon’s free Kindle Previewer to check the file, GIMP or Inkscape for the cover, and Audacity for the audiobook. Everything else on this page is for a specific job or a specific kind of author.

Two rules before the list. “Free” and “open-source” are not the same thing: open-source software gives you the code and runs on your own machine forever; free-but-proprietary tools like Kindle Create cost nothing but can change terms or disappear. I mark which is which. And free software costs time instead of money: a paid layout tool like Atticus at $147 does in an afternoon what LibreOffice does in a weekend. If your book earns £2.09 a copy (a £2.99 ebook at Amazon’s 70% rate), Atticus pays for itself at about 55 copies. Decide which currency you have more of.

The short list at a glance

Technical 1 means “any Word user”; 5 means “you will be reading documentation and typing commands”. Every tool in the table runs on Windows, macOS and Linux; Typst also runs in the browser and epubcheck needs Java.

Writing: the free Scrivener alternatives

Scrivener costs £55 and is the tool people ask me to replace most often. Three open-source projects do the job, and they are still alive: I checked the commit dates.

novelWriter (GPL-3.0, last commit 5 September 2026) is the one I would pick for fiction. It stores each scene as plain text, tracks characters, locations and plot threads with simple tags, and builds the manuscript into a single document or ebook when you are done. It looks and behaves like a writing tool rather than a database.

Manuskript (GPL-3.0, last commit 1 September 2026) is the closest copy of Scrivener’s corkboard-and-outliner model, with a snowflake-method planner built in. Development is slower and the interface is rougher, so try novelWriter first.

bibisco Community Edition (GPL-3.0) is built around character interviews and world-building prompts. Two cautions: the open-source repository last changed in September 2024, and the developer sells a paid “Supporters Edition” with more features, so the free version is the shop window. I could not find the Supporters price on a page I could read.

For distraction-free drafting, FocusWriter (GPL-3.0) hides everything but the page, and ghostwriter (GPL-3.0, maintained by KDE) and Zettlr (GPL-3.0) are Markdown editors, Zettlr with citation support that suits academic non-fiction.

LibreOffice Writer (MPL 2.0, verified on LibreOffice’s licence page) is the default answer if you already write in Word. It opens and saves .docx, handles styles, section breaks and page numbering, and exports a PDF that KDP accepts. My Word to KDP guide applies almost line for line.

Checking the text

LanguageTool (LGPL-2.1 core) is the open-source grammar checker behind a free web service and browser add-ons. The free tier limits how much text you can check at once; the paid Premium tier raises that to 150,000 characters per text field, according to LanguageTool’s own Premium page. Paste a chapter at a time and it costs nothing.

Ebooks: build, edit, convert, validate

Calibre (GPL-3.0) converts almost anything into EPUB, edits the result, and manages your library. Its conversion from a clean Word file is good enough to upload. It is not a layout tool: if you want drop caps and chapter ornaments, do them in the source document or in Sigil.

Sigil (GPL-3.0, last commit 31 August 2026) is the EPUB editor. Where Calibre converts, Sigil lets you open the EPUB and fix the HTML and CSS directly, which is how validation errors actually get solved. If you are choosing between them, my Calibre vs Sigil guide is the long answer; the short one is “both, for different jobs”.

Pandoc (GPL-2.0 or later) is the converter everything else is built on. One command turns a Markdown or Word manuscript into EPUB, HTML or, with a typesetting engine installed, a print PDF. It is a command-line tool, so it sits at the technical end of this page, but it is the reason plain-text authors never pay for formatting.

epubcheck (BSD-3-Clause, maintained by the W3C) validates an EPUB against the standard. Apple Books and the aggregators run it on your file; running it yourself first means you see the error before they do. KDP does its own conversion and checks instead, which is why Kindle Previewer (below) matters more for Amazon.

EpubMerge (GPL-3.0) is a Calibre plugin that joins several EPUBs into one file, which is the fast way to make a box set from books you have already built.

Free but not open-source: the Amazon and retailer tools

• Kindle Create is, in Amazon’s words on its own page, “a free desktop application that helps you turn a completed manuscript into a professional looking” ebook. The same page says it is an interior tool and does not design covers. Its output is built for KDP; for other stores you still need an EPUB.
• Kindle Previewer is described by KDP as “a free desktop standalone application” for checking how your ebook renders on Kindle devices and apps. Use it on every upload.
• Reedsy Studio (formerly the Reedsy Book Editor) is free for everyone and typesets to PDF and EPUB; Reedsy’s page lists a paid Craft add-on for extra history and statistics. My Reedsy editor review shows what the exports look like.
• Draft2Digital’s formatter produces EPUB and print-ready files, and Draft2Digital’s FAQ says: “Even if you choose not to publish with us, we have you covered,” with the option of downloading the files. Full comparison in Draft2Digital vs KDP.

Print interiors: from Word to real typesetting

LibreOffice Writer covers most paperbacks. The KDP paperback formatting guide tells you the trim, margins and gutter to set; the front and back matter guide tells you the page order.

Typst (Apache-2.0 compiler) is the modern alternative to LaTeX: plain text in, properly typeset PDF out, with real hyphenation, widows and orphans handled, and running heads. The compiler is open-source and runs locally; the hosted web app has a free tier at $0 “free forever” and a Pro tier at $7.99 a month on Typst’s pricing page. Non-fiction authors who can face a markup language get Vellum-quality print from it.

Scribus (GPL) is desktop publishing in the InDesign sense: frames, master pages, colour management, PDF/X export. It is the right tool for illustrated books, cookbooks and anything with a fixed layout, and the wrong tool for a novel.

For technical and academic books, four text-based systems produce book-quality output from Markdown: Quarto (MIT, from Posit), Bookdown (GPL-3.0, for R users), Asciidoctor (MIT) and mdBook (MPL-2.0, the Rust community’s documentation tool). They shine when a book contains code, equations or cross-references; for prose they are more machinery than you need.

Covers and images

GIMP (GPL) handles raster work: photographs, textures, print-resolution export at 300 dpi. Inkscape (GPL) handles vector work: type, spines, anything that must stay sharp at any size, and it exports the PDF a printer wants. Krita (GPL-3.0) is a painting program, the choice if you illustrate your own covers or children’s books.

Amazon’s KDP Cover Creator is free inside the KDP dashboard and builds a compliant cover from templates, at the cost of looking like one. For the specs any of these must meet, and the free web tools compared against them, see free book cover design tools.

If you make colouring or activity books and are looking for a free alternative to a paid template library, Inkscape plus public-domain line art is the honest route. Check the licence of every image you reuse; “free to download” is not “free to sell”.

Audiobooks

Audacity (GPL-3.0, confirmed on its licence page) records and edits narration and exports the file formats ACX and Findaway ask for. Pair it with a decent USB microphone and the audiobook platforms guide for the spec each platform wants.

PDFs

Stirling-PDF (MIT core; the company also sells paid tiers) is a self-hosted web app that merges, splits, compresses and re-orders PDFs. Compressing an image-heavy interior before a KDP upload is the job it does for authors. It runs in Docker, so it belongs at the technical end.

Author websites

Two open-source themes give you a fast static site for nothing, hosted free on GitHub Pages: hugo-book (MIT) for a Hugo site that presents long-form content, and al-folio (MIT) for a Jekyll portfolio site with a publications list. If you would rather click than configure, Wix vs Squarespace vs WordPress for authors covers the paid options.

If you can code

Four libraries, listed because the old version of this page did and because a small press with a developer can use them: pdf-lib (MIT, JavaScript; last commit July 2024), lopdf (MIT, Rust; last commit August 2026), isbnlib (LGPL-3.0, Python, validates and hyphenates ISBNs; last commit August 2024) and onixcheck (Apache-2.0, validates ONIX metadata feeds). If those sentences mean nothing to you, you do not need them.

Keyword research: there is no good free tool, and the fake ones are gone

The previous version of this page recommended two “open-source” Amazon keyword scrapers. Neither repository exists, and scraping Amazon search results is against Amazon’s Conditions of Use in any case. The free method that works is Amazon’s own search box, which I walk through in how to choose KDP keywords. The paid tool most authors end up with is Publisher Rocket at $199 once; the AI tools for authors roundup says when it is worth it.

What the free stack cannot do

• One-click print typography. LibreOffice will do drop caps, ornaments and running heads, but each is a manual style you set up and test in a proof. Typst does them properly and costs you a markup language.
• Kindle-specific output for other stores. Kindle Create’s file is for KDP. Keep an EPUB from Calibre or Sigil for Kobo, Apple and the aggregators.
• Cover design taste. GIMP and Inkscape are as capable as Photoshop and Illustrator. They do not know what a thriller cover looks like. The book cover design guide is the part no software supplies.
• A guarantee that the project survives. bibisco’s open repository has been quiet since 2024 and pdf-lib since mid-2024. Prefer tools with a recent commit date for anything you will depend on for years; the dates above are why they are there.

What I removed, and why

The earlier version of this page listed BookRecon, KDP Scout, Amazon Keyword Tool and macaw-book as open-source projects and linked to them on GitHub. On 6 September 2026 none of those repositories or organisations existed (GitHub returns a 404 for each), and the lopdf link pointed at the wrong organisation. I have no evidence they ever existed. They are gone, the lopdf link now points at the real project, and every remaining link was opened the same day.

What I could not verify

• The price of bibisco’s Supporters Edition: bibisco’s site did not expose it to a plain fetch.
• LanguageTool’s exact free-tier character limit per check: the Premium page states the 150,000-character Premium figure clearly and the free figure ambiguously, so I have not quoted it.
• Canva’s free plan details: its pricing page is script-rendered, so Canva is discussed on the cover tools page rather than here.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Scrivener?

Yes. novelWriter and Manuskript are open-source, run on Windows, macOS and Linux, and cover the scene-by-scene drafting, character notes and manuscript compile that people buy Scrivener (£55) for. novelWriter is the better maintained of the two as of September 2026.

What free software can I use to format a book for KDP?

For the ebook, Kindle Create (Amazon’s own free tool), Calibre or Reedsy Studio. For the paperback, LibreOffice Writer exporting to PDF, or Typst if you are comfortable with plain-text markup. Check the ebook in Kindle Previewer before you upload.

Will Amazon KDP accept files made with free or open-source software?

Yes. KDP checks the file, not the program that made it. A PDF from LibreOffice or Typst and an EPUB from Calibre or Sigil upload like any other, provided they meet the paperback and ebook specifications.

Calibre or Sigil?

Calibre to convert and manage; Sigil to open the EPUB and fix it. Most authors use Calibre only. If a retailer rejects the file, that is the day you install Sigil.

Are open-source tools safe to use for a manuscript?

The code is public and the software runs on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded unless you choose a web tool. The bigger risk is abandonment, which is why every entry above carries its last commit date.

Sources, all opened 6 September 2026

GitHub repository pages and licence files for every linked project (licence and last-commit dates as shown); LibreOffice licences; KDP: Kindle Create; KDP: Kindle Previewer; Reedsy Studio; Draft2Digital FAQ; Typst pricing; LanguageTool Premium; Krita licence; Audacity licence. Prices for Atticus, Scrivener and Publisher Rocket are those verified on the linked roundups this week.