shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Doabooks (Directory of Open Access Books)?

Free discovery service for peer-reviewed open access books - doabooks.org

Worth it. Use it freely if you research, teach, or curate academic books — it is free, trusted, and indexes 109,000+ peer-reviewed OA titles. Do not treat it as a purchasable product; it is nonprofit infrastructure with no support contract.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 14 public sources. Several fetched snippets were truncated or off-topic (G2 review guides, FNAF game wikis), so user-voice evidence is thin.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of useNo direct usability evidence found
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo support evidence found
  • Security postureNo findings either way; no public security page

Pricing

$0

Directory access

ModelNonprofit
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Researchers doing literature reviews
  • University libraries
  • Open access book publishers
  • Students seeking free academic texts

Not for

  • Anyone shopping for purchasable software — this is a free index, not a product
  • Readers wanting fiction or paywalled/proprietary books
  • Teams needing support contracts, SLAs, or vendor accountability
  • Buyers comparing G2-style commercial review platforms

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Full-text links depend on external publisher sites, which can move or disappear

medium

Cost trap is indirect: paywalled research still requires a subscription database elsewhere

low

Grant-funded nonprofit: no support desk or SLA if the service degrades

low

Not a turnkey data feed; programmatic bulk access means API work or scrapers

Pros and cons

Pros

  • 109,000+ peer-reviewed open access books, fully free to search
  • All services free, including metadata
  • Metadata openly available and reusable
  • Recommended across many university library guides
  • Evaluated as trusted open infrastructure by Invest in Open Infrastructure

Cons

  • Discovery only — full texts live on external publisher sites
  • No public security page published
  • Covers open access monographs only, no paywalled literature
  • Bulk access pushes users to third-party scrapers
  • No commercial entity behind it — no vendor to hold accountable

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/21/2026 - 7 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x4review x1news x2

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 7

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Completely free, grant-supported open infrastructure
  • Ease of use. No direct usability evidence found
  • Feature depth: 4/5. 109k+ records, open metadata, API access
  • Support quality. No support evidence found
  • Security posture. No findings either way; no public security page
  • 109,000+ Books indexed peer-reviewed open access
  • $0 Starting price all DOAB services free
  • Yes Free tier no paid plans exist
  • Nonprofit Model community-driven, listed on Invest in Open Infrastructure

Pricing

Directory access

$0

  • Search 109,000+ peer-reviewed OA books
  • Free metadata downloads
  • API for integration

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Library guides and Emerald's review treat DOAB as a trusted community-driven discovery service; no substantive user complaints surfaced in the sources.

Alternatives

Compare Doabooks (Directory of Open Access Books) with each alternative.

Companies that use it

  • University of Canterbury
  • Mississippi State University
  • Universiti Utara Malaysia
  • National College of Art and Design
  • JabRef⁵

Companies that could

  • Iloilo Provincial Library Uses EBSCOhost instead
  • University of Cambridge Uses DSpace + OpenAlex instead
Full analysis

Based on 14 public sources. Several fetched snippets were truncated or off-topic (G2 review guides, FNAF game wikis), so user-voice evidence is thin.

Free nonprofit index of 109,000+ peer-reviewed open-access books. Use it — just don't expect a supported product.

Methodology

Based on 14 public sources. Several fetched snippets were truncated or off-topic (G2 review guides, FNAF game wikis), so user-voice evidence is thin.

Sources

  1. DOAB — Directory of Open Access Books (official site)doabooks.org
    official
  2. DOAB on OASPA (member page)oaspa.org
    official
  3. DOAB on Infra Finder (Invest in Open Infrastructure)infrafinder.investinopen.org
    official
  4. DOAB: Directory of Open Access Books — Emerald Insight reviewemerald.com
    review
  5. JabRef issue: add DOAB fetcher (confirms all services free)github.com
    official
  6. Doabooks company profile — Tracxntracxn.com
    news
  7. DOAB API — Anakin cataloganakin.io
    news

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