There are tons of great manga to read, but as a hobby, the costs can add up quickly. And, unfortunately, fans don’t have as many choices for free manga reading compared to anime watching. But no-cost options are out there to get your manga fix, and that’s what this list is all about. You probably are familiar with many of these services, but you may find some new ones.

Since these platforms allow you to read manga for free, of course, there are limitations. You usually can only read a select number of chapters for free before they’re either removed or require payment. Some services also have ads. Just as with every other medium or activity, if you want the biggest selection and/or best experience, you are going to have to pay up.

If you are concerned about what to buy, consider the fact you can sample manga on several publishers’ websites as well as most eBook vendors. You can use this to preview later volumes/chapters and get an idea of what’s going on.

I have also included some no-cost Japanese manga resources for those who like to peek at spoilers or test your Japanese reading skills. It’s also good if you are searching for the next title you want to press publishers to license. Just make sure you don’t bug the wrong English publisher for your unlicensed favorite!

English Services

Amazon Prime/ComiXology Unlimited/Kindle Unlimited

Technically, these three are all paid offerings, but all offer or have offered free trials for one month or longer. These are three separate programs with their own costs, but a lot of the manga offerings included in them overlap. If it’s a multi-volume series, you usually won’t be able to read the whole thing except for the Kodansha ComiXology Originals line (BECK, MARS, and more). But there are many one-volume series available as a part of these programs.

Balloons and Chapters

You can only preview a limited number of pages, but if you sign up, you can extend your preview. They also have sampler issues that allow you to try out a bunch of titles at once and a rotating selection of free chapters. Most of their manga offerings are Harlequin titles, so this is a good option for you mature romance fans.

BOOK☆WALKER

While BOOK☆WALKER is mainly geared toward selling eBooks, the service has offered free volume 1s before. In addition, lots of titles have the first chapter available for free. For you light novel fans, you can also find some free selections here.

Coolmic

While Coolmic isn’t an app, the site is reserved for mobile devices. You won’t be able to view their selection on a computer without an extension like this one or using Developer Tools. All first chapters are free, and depending on their sales, a few more chapters will be available for free. Like webtoons/webcomics, the chapters require vertical scrolling versus manga/comic-style page flipping.

Crunchyroll

If you are not a Premium member, your selection will be limited (noted by a crown icon). However, non-subscribers will still have some options for free reading. A couple of titles will only have the latest chapters for free, but a few others (like Elan Palatinus above) are completely free. Crunchyroll could always put them behind their paywall, so if you see something for free and don’t have a membership, read them before you can’t.

MANGA.CLUB

MANGA.CLUB advertises 300+ chapters for anybody to view without paying or signing up. Registering means you can read three select chapters for free per day. If there’s nothing you want to read that day, you can carry over up to three tickets. If you are a TOM Premium member, you can double these limits and get discounts on paid content.

MANGA Plus

This service shares much of its catalog with Shonen Jump (discussed below), but MANGA Plus has some exclusives as well as reserializations of some of the biggest manga hits (Bleach, NARUTO). Some titles are also — or only — available in Spanish. Unlike many other services, this one is available worldwide.

MANGA REBORN

Manga creators can put their works on MANGA REBORN, and fans can translate it so that others may enjoy it. While other services are catered to current works, this one has many older and classic manga. If you don’t want to pay coins for some titles, you may be able to read a text-only version for free.

Manga Toshokan Z

The successor of J-Comi, the service started by Love Hina/Negima! creator Ken Akamatsu, Manga Toshokan Z (aka Manga Library Z) has a good selection of Japanese language comics with some having English translations available. You can also try their YouTube channel for machine auto-translated manga.

MyAnimeList

This one is a recent addition. While the selection is currently limited to seven titles, MyAnimeList promises that it will eventually grow to over 300 chapters. New chapters are released every week, but some will eventually be locked and never be made free again.

Netcomics

Netcomics isn’t strictly limited to manga produced by Japanese artists. You can read most first chapters for free. Beyond that, it depends on the title. It ranges from having to pay for the second chapter and beyond all the way up to the entire series being free.

Renta!

As its name suggests, readers have the option of renting titles (mostly josei/BL) instead of buying them outright. Like most other eBook stores, most of the free manga are limited to first chapters. But they also have some large sampler magazines and bonus promotions to help boost the selection of free offerings.

VIZ/Shonen Jump

I’m combining these two since their free offerings are the same. The difference is that VIZ’s app and site allows you to preview and buy all their offerings while the Shonen Jump app, as the name suggests, is Shonen Jump titles. Either way, they offer several simulpubs for fans. You can also subscribe to read most of the Shonen Jump catalog for $2 a month.

Japanese Services

Comic Days

You can read a limited number of opening chapters for free. By logging in, you can take advantage of sales and can read some additional ones without paying. Subscribers also get monthly points to spend along with digital issues of Kodansha manga magazines.

MagaPoke

Also known by its full name of Kodansha Magazine Pocket, this service is a spin-off and supplement to Weekly Shonen Magazine. It functions much like Comic Days, but it has select chapters from current serialized works, exclusives, and completed manga available for free.

MangaBox

Manga Box used to have an English version, but it has since shut down. The Japanese version of the service is still going, though. It has a smaller selection compared to other platforms, but it does feature variety.

Pixiv Comic

Pixiv has quite a few manga. They pull chapters in the middle as well as break up longer chapters into parts, but they have something for everyone. Some series would be considered indie titles, but a lot of the major manga publishers/magazines work with Pixiv.

Shonen Jump+

This contains much of what the English version of Shonen Jump has with MANGA Plus. However, there are plenty of untranslated titles as well as extras like The Right Way to Make Jump!‘s creator visiting other artists.

Know of any other free manga-reading services? Do you use one or more of these regularly? What titles do you read?

EDIT: This article has been updated to include MagaPoke. Thanks @icblues.