Software Malfunctions Software Malfunctions The more you use the software's features, such as highlighting and cue cards, the more it begins to glitch and eventually becomes dysfunctional. Customer support states "It is a known issue" and has no fix. Their recommendation was to "delete highlighting" and be "more judicious" with its use. As such, I am being very judicious and never using it again.

Great resource I've been using Vitalsource since I discovered it in 2019. I was tired of carrying around textbooks and at the time most eBooks were still on Adobe's Digital Editions software, which was a very barebones reader more concerned with DRM protection than offering an actual reading experience, to put it nicely. When I mention Vitalsource, I'm referring to two things: 1. The eBook store, and 2. the Bookshelf app that they author. The Store --Selection The VitalSource store has a good selection of textbooks. Most books you'd need for school (or supplemental learning) on mathematics, physics, and computer science authored within the last 10 years are there. --Purchases and Refunds Purchases and access are easy. Most books have both rental and lifetime purchase options. The options seem to be dictated by the publisher, so every once in a while a books is rental only or lifetime only. Everything is laid out on the product page and I've never run into any errors. Prices are competitive with Amazon and other retailers. Refunds seem to be automated, so as long as you haven't already read more than 20% of the book, haven't returned the same book in the past, and haven't already returned 3 books in the last 90 days, you can expect a quick refund. Sometimes books from certain publishers or delivered by the publisher cannot be refunded. This is all detailed in the return policy. The Bookshelf app --Features and Performance The Bookshelf app's feature set has stagnated in recent years, and I stumbled on this page because I was looking for a way to report feedback on how highlighted notes should have better UI, but the desktop and web apps are good and by a country mile the best DRM reader out there. It's even better than the Kindle app - step up your game, Amazon. As with everything else in life, there are some weaknesses. The desktop app is a memory hog. This might have to do with existing DRM protection implementations, but if not, performance in this aspect can be improved, and may be the reason users with lower end hardware face issues. Conclusion Vitalsource has a great marketplace and offers the best DRM reading app available today. They're not perfect, and the app has weaknesses that regular PDF apps like Adobe Acrobat or Readdle's PDF Expert don't have, but it has more than enough features and is stable enough to rely on for daily use. Well worth checking out if you prefer eBooks over paper copies.

constant freezing and trouble loading constant freezing and trouble loading. can barely use. absolute horrible waste of money. Need these books for school. Offered through my university but just a gross waste of money. Constant error messages saying the page is unresponsive just when trying to read through the chapter. terrible terrible terrible. It's been 2 years. I've reported so many times and they keep saying they are working on it. Refuse to give money back.

Avoid at all costs I really wanted to like this website, but I have to say my experience has been absolutely horrible. My problem is that it lags ALL. THE. TIME. I use it for one of my uni textbooks which is available in very few places in my country, this website being one of them. It seems like the book is too long/has too many chapters for the website to load it properly. I have completely given up on using the search function to search for certain words or phrases, as the website simply cannot handle it and freezes, which sometimes even causes an error message. Not ONCE has the search function worked. Even something as simple as turning a page causes lagging. Reloading the page does not work in the slightest, neither does switching browsers. The internet connection cannot possibly be the problem either, as I have tried both at home, at campus, at my parents' house, and many other places. There is no other explanation for the lagging, than this website being bad. My question is - whyyy even distribute a long book if the website can’t handle it? Do not recommend.

The software updated and this meant I… The software updated and this meant I could not read my textbook which I paid $120 for. The update happened in the middle of exams when I most needed the book. I contacted the company and they refused to refund me or even email me a pdf of the book so I could at least complete my exams. Furthermore, when I could actually access the book it lagged horribly and the search function did not work at all. I Could not recommend against strongly enough. I paid top dollar for a product which I suddenly couldnt use, during a critical period of my study and they could not have been any less concerned with helping me. This company is everything that's wrong with big businesses these days, they simply don't care.