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Should I use Bigwords?

We Want to Help You Save - bigwords.com

Worth it. If you're a student buying, renting, or selling back textbooks, this free comparison engine is exactly the right size for the job. If you came looking for business software, wrong door: it's a consumer shopping site, not a platform.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~30 public sources: Reddit threads, news profiles, and the official site. No formal review-site ratings extracted.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence in sources
  • Security postureNo public findings either way

Pricing

$0

Free comparison

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • College students buying or renting textbooks
  • Law and med students with heavy book lists
  • Students comparing sellback offers at term end

Not for

  • Anyone shopping for business software — it's a bookstore, not a platform
  • Casual book buyers; Amazon is simpler
  • Teams wanting courseware or content systems

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Aggregator, not the seller — shipping and returns follow each partner store's rules.

medium

Buyback quotes are 'up to' figures that shift with demand.

low

Trustpilot shows 19 pages of reviews; read recent ones before a big order.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Compares buy, rent, and sellback prices across many stores in one search
  • Multi-item price optimization minimizes total cost across a whole book list
  • Free to use, funded through retailer partnerships
  • Repeatedly recommended on Reddit and by university blogs
  • iOS and Android apps available

Cons

  • Rivals Amazon and Chegg, which already dominate student habits
  • Nearly went bust in 2000; survived on a small scale
  • Selection and prices depend on partner retailers, not Bigwords itself

Sources & method

Analyzed 10/04/2026 - 10 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x1review x4security x1news x4

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free; repeatedly cited as finding lowest prices
  • Ease of use: 4/5. One search compares buy, rent, sellback
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Multi-item optimization, buyback comparison, mobile apps
  • Support quality. No support evidence in sources
  • Security posture. No public findings either way
  • $80M Funding raised Lifetime, per TechCrunch
  • Late 1990s Founded Covered by Wired in 2001
  • Yes Free to use Comparison engine, no subscription
  • 19 pages Trustpilot reviews Volume shown at review listing

Pricing

Free comparison

$0

  • Compare buy, rent, and sellback prices
  • Multi-item price optimization
  • iOS and Android apps

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Reddit threads and frugal-living guides repeatedly recommend Bigwords for textbook price comparison, though no large-scale rating data surfaced.

“PSA: Big Words for Textbook Rental and Buying”
Reddit, r/LawSchool
“Have You Guys Tried BigWords.com for Textbooks?”
Reddit, r/Frugal
“Five Best Sites to Buy Cheap Textbooks”
Lifehacker
Full analysis

Based on ~30 public sources: Reddit threads, news profiles, and the official site. No formal review-site ratings extracted.

Free Kayak-for-textbooks price comparison — a yes for students, irrelevant for anyone shopping business software.

Methodology

Based on ~30 public sources: Reddit threads, news profiles, and the official site. No formal review-site ratings extracted.

Sources

  1. BIGWORDS.com — official sitebigwords.com
    official
  2. Kayak For Textbooks: How BIGWORDS Raised $80Mtechcrunch.com
    news
  3. BIGWORDS.com Announces World's First Multi-Item Price Optimizationsg.news.yahoo.com
    news
  4. Have You Guys Tried BigWords.com for Textbooks? : r/Frugalreddit.com
    review
  5. PSA: Big Words for Textbook Rental and Buying : r/LawSchoolreddit.com
    review
  6. Five Best Sites to Buy Cheap Textbooks — Lifehackerlifehacker.com
    review
  7. Trustpilot reviews of bigwords.comtrustpilot.com
    review
  8. BigWords.com Goes Bust — Publishers Weeklypublishersweekly.com
    news
  9. Crash Course — Wired profilewired.com
    news
  10. Product security pagebigwords.com
    security

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