safari books online vs o'reilly

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Safari Books Online is now O’Reilly for Public Libraries

As of December 17, 2020, O'Reilly for Public Libraries is taking the place of Safari Books Online.  O'Reilly offers the same great content as Safari, plus much more! 

With O’Reilly for Public Libraries, we get unlimited access to 50K+ titles (including O’Reilly books in early release), 30K+ hours of video, case studies from top companies, learning paths, expert playlists, and more—with nearly 1,000 topics to explore in technology and business. And with a range of content formats tailored to all levels, users can learn in the way that works best for them.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us !

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Remote Java Dev

Pluralsight vs O’Reilly Safari

August 18, 2019 by RJD

Pluralsight vs O’Reilly Safari

There’s Eclipse vs Intellij, tabs vs spaces, and then there’s Pluralsight vs O’Reilly Safari . While learning platforms may not be as contentious as coding styles or IDEs, we do have our preferences as Java Developers.

Pluralsight and O’Reilly are far from the only paid options, but are two of the best and worth comparing. You can also find plenty of good content elsewhere at sites such as Udemy or Lynda, now known as LinkedIn Learning.

A Few Caveats

It’s worth noting up front that I’m comparing Pluralsight vs O’Reilly Safari on some specific content areas that I’ve personally frequented. These content areas are Java, Spring, Cloud, Microservices, Docker, and Angular.

Pluralsight

As a video dominant platform, Pluralsight really shines with its user experience. Both the desktop and mobile usability are outstanding. The quality of Pluralsight content is also very good.

Pluralsight also offers the ability to download content to your mobile device. This is definitely useful for offline scenarios or to prevent choppy streaming from a mobile data connection.

The content library overall is well sized though not extremely large. This can actually be a benefit as it’s easier to find what you want without having to choose between 10 similar options.

Another item in the plus column is cost. While a monthly plan costs roughly the same as O’Reilly Safari, the yearly subscription option is much more affordable. I’ve seen regular discounts on a yearly plan for Pluralsight for $199 down from its regular price of $299.

There are also some additional features such as Learning Paths and Certification Practice Exams.  I haven’t personally utilized these, but they may appeal to some learners.

O’Reilly Safari

The content library is massive! The best feature of this platform is having access to both video and written content. 

The written content library alone is huge and has books from O’Reilly, Packt Publishing, Manning Publications, and Apress to name just a few. If you’re fine with digital copies of tech books, this alone makes the O’Reilly Safari service a good value.

The video content on Safari can feel a little sparse, though it is not.  I think it’s just that the written content library is so big that it feels this way. You can easily search for just video or just written content to remedy this.

The large amount of content also means that you can reliably find the most up to date books or videos. You’d be hard pressed to find a popular technology that doesn’t have a number of content options available.

Understandably, this all comes with an additional cost. Though the monthly subscription price at $39 is comparable to Pluralsight’s at $29, the real difference shows up in the yearly price. 

O’Reilly Safari checks in at $399 for a yearly subscription.

***UPDATE***

An intrepid reader gave me a great tip to check out ACM membership . This membership looks to include O’Reilly Safari access for a much reduced price. As of this writing a yearly ACM membership is $149, regularly priced at $198.

While I have not personally gone this route, you should check it out if you’re interested in O’Reilly Safari.

************

Likewise, another area of improvement for Safari is the user experience, especially when watching video content. The Pluralsight experience just feels better both on mobile and desktop. O’Reilly Safari’s video experience isn’t bad, but it could use some improvement to be on par with its top competitor.

The Pluralsight vs O’Reilly Safari comparison really boils down to what’s most important to you. 

Are you primarily interested in video content? Are you cost sensitive? Is user experience a big concern for you?  Pluralsight will deliver the goods if these are your determinant factors.

Do you want a massive content library? Is written content important to you? Does a moderate price difference mean little to you? Then O’Reilly Safari will be a better choice for you.

Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either platform. I’ve subscribed to both and found them to be excellent resources for ongoing learning.

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Safari Books Online

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• Safari: O'Reilly's Learning Platform for Higher Education Search for and use thousands of tech books, videos, and ttorials.

You may already be familiar with Safari Books Online - but we now have access via a new source.   Safari   is now available on a new platform.  How do these platforms differ?

• Unlimited use across the platform - formerly 100 users across the OhioLINK system.
• Now contains videos and tutorials!
• Note: We're working to get the titles uploaded into the OSU Library Catalog.
• If you are teaching a course and want to use one of the titles in your class, check your subject librarian so the items can be cataloged to best insure off-campus access.
• You must  provide your email  address for access. Use your OSU name.# email to access Safari.   This will get you into Safari. 
• To use advanced features, set-up an account.  Once you set up an account, you will need to sign in each time you use the database.
• Set up an account on the regular Safari site.
• Download the app from Google Play or Apple App Store
• Log in with the account you created

Take the following steps to access items in Safari Books Online if you have problems with access:

• Go to the Library Home Page, and Under Recommended Links, use the Research Database List link and type Safari in the search box.
• If you have an account, sign in to Safari
• If you DO NOT have an account, simply supply your osu.edu email address.  Make sure to use your name.# address.    If you have another department supplied email address , that email may not allow access to Safari. 
• Setting up an account is not required – but it gives you additional options and allows for accessing  a mobile app .

​ If you have problems connecting to the book you need : 

• This usually happens with the system had you as already logged in from your last visit.

If the above steps do not work, please email  Reference   with the following information:

• Are you on or off campus?
• What device were you using to access?
• What operating system and browser?
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O'Reilly Higher Education

UConn Libraries subscribes to O'Reilly for Higher Education, a digital library which provides access to many books on technology, digital media, engineering, math, statistics, business, and many other topics.  Notably, O'Reilly for Higher Education provides access to many technology manuals from publishers like O'Reilly, Wiley, and more.  Login with your UConn email address for authentication:

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Selected Safari Books Online

Books on Arduino from Safari Books Online

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• Safari Books Online by O'Reilly Media Review

Safari Books Online offers hundreds of quality courses, but it's pricey and doesn't have robust support.

Bottom Line

• Huge video library.
• Classes are easy to follow.
• No forums or other help resources.
• Lacks built-in tools or quizzes.

While there are plenty of options for beginners who want to learn to code online, there aren't as many for advanced programmers. Safari Books Online (starting at $39 per month) offers the widest range of coding classes we've seen. However, this particular service has been through more than a few transitions. O'Reilly Media acquired online learning platform Infinite Skills in 2014, which it then spun off into Safari Books Online. O'Reilly still sells its books and courses à la carte style from its main website, but if you're looking for unlimited online access to O'Reilly's and Infinite Skills' courses, you must now sign up for Safari Books Online. Once you get that sorted, it's actually relatively easy to navigate. However, Editors' Choice services Treehouse and Codecademy provide better user experiences.

Interface and Pricing

Safari Books Online costs $39 per month or $399 per year. Teams can set up accounts for $399 per user per year for up to 25 users. Enterprise plans are available on request. There's a free 10-day trial that doesn't require a credit card. Android and iOS apps are available for people who want to learn to code while on the go.

While the O'Reilly/Infinite Skills interface was vastly confusing, Safari Books Online is much improved. When you sign up, you can choose three topics you're interested in, including Android and iOS development, HTML, C++, game development and computer networking.

Then you can see recommended courses and learning paths from your dashboard, and access tutorials and new publications. Your recommendations evolve as you take more courses and explore additional topics. From your dashboard, you can also set up a video queue, view your history, and access settings and support.

Class Selection, Features, and Help

Safari Books Online offers courses at all levels. It also has the most robust course catalog among the services I've looked at, as it offers both beginner and advanced classes in heavy-duty programming languages, such as Java and C++. The first course I tried was a Python class. The first video in the series serves as an introduction to the instructor and overview of the course. Each video, like those of Treehouse and Code Avengers , run less than 10 minutes, making it easy to take breaks and then pick up where you left off when you have the time.

In addition to standalone classes, Safari also has learning paths, which bundle together related courses. Safari has more of these paths than its competitors, including co-Editors Choices Codecademy (Free at Codecademy) and Treehouse, with topics ranging from machine learning to mobile design to data visualization. While you can search the site for courses and publications, there's no easy to way to see Safari's full offerings or search by category. It can get overwhelming trying to get a grasp on all the content that is offered.

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If you need help along the way, you can call or email the support team. There aren't any student forums or ways to get in touch with teachers if you need extra help, though, which is why I prefer Treehouse and Codecademy, both of which have active communities.

Even though Safari Books Online offers quality classes, its videos aren't as engaging as Editors' Choice Lynda.com From LinkedIn (29.99 Per Month at Linkedin) , which offers high-quality video and sound, with enthusiastic, practiced instructors.

Solid, but Flawed

Safari Books Online is a nice resource for beginning and advanced coders, though you'll pay a premium for its breadth of content. While it's relatively easy to navigate Safari, that huge library of content makes it hard to find what you need at times. It could also use more support resources. In the meantime, give our top-rated services like Treehouse, Code Avengers, or Codecademy a try.

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O'Reilly Safari Learning Platform

O'Reilly Safari Learning Platform  (also referred to as Safari Books Online) provides over 30,000 electronic books in computer science, information technology, and related subjects from two major publishers, O'Reilly & Associates and Pearson Technology Associates. For access, O'Reilly Safari is unique: unlike other e-book collections at UD, Safari does not rely on your campus-wide credentials for access; instead, users are only required to provide their UD email. Note that the Safari interface can prove confusing for initial access, so please follow the steps below to gain access . Also included on this page is an overview of how to access individual e-books within this vast collection.

How to Access O'Reilly Safari E-Books at UD

• To access e-books in the O'Reilly Safari Learning Platform, visit the following url -   https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/temporary-access/ . Once on this page, the prompt below should appear. Select the link labeled "Institution not listed?" (as circled below) . Selecting this link is required because the University of Dayton is not listed in the dropdown menu of institutions.

• Upon clicking the "Institution not listed?" link, the following page should appear, prompting you to enter your academic email. Make sure you enter your @udayton.edu email in this field and then click the "Let's Go" button:

• Entering your UD email should cause the page to refresh and show the following screen welcoming you to the O'Reilly Learning Platform. Click the "Got It" button circled below:

• You should now be in the platform with full access to the over 30K titles. In the example below, an e-book on C++ was selected. To access the full-text of this title (or any other title in the platform) hit the "Start" button beneath the e-book cover:

• This button should open the book and allow you to read it within the browser. Note that Safari e-books are only available to read online.

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Accessing O'Reilly Ebooks/Safari Books Online

Always access the database through uc.

The database  must  be accessed via the UC Libraries website or UC LibGuides (like this one).

Accessing the database independent of UC and creating an account  does not  grant you UC-provided access and in two weeks Safari will ask you to begin paying.

Only accessing through UC gives you free, unlimited access to the database.

Directions to Access the Database

• Go to the library homepage: libraries.uc.edu
• Click the red " Databases " tab above the search bar
• The database is also linked below
• Open the database
• In the Institution drop-down list click  "Unlisted? Click here."
• Enter your UC email address and click "Let's Go"
• When it loads, click  "Got it"
• Use the search bar to locate the resource you need.

The Problem with Copy/Paste

If you copy and paste a link to a O'Reilly Ebooks resource, the link will bring the next user to a paywall.

This page gives you options for how to give your students access to these resources and avoid paywalls.

Safari Books via the Catalog

In many cases, the e-book will be listed in the UC Libraries Catalog .

Give your students the link to the catalog record which includes an access link to the resource. You can see in this catalog record , a grey box titled "Click on the following to:". Within that grey box is a link to the e-book.

• << Previous: Books/E-Books
• Next: Journals and Magazines >>
• Last Updated: Mar 22, 2024 12:28 PM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/information_technology

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Access to Safari Books Online

Safari Books Online is now available on the O’Reilly platform (unlimited simultaneous users).

In the dropdown box under Select Your Institution , choose “ Not listed? Click here” .

Yale users: enter your yale.edu email address and then authenticate through CAS.

YNHH users: enter your ynhh.org email address.

Proceed to the O’Reilly platform for Safari Books Online .

• Library Catalogue

O'Reilly Online Learning (formerly Safari Books Online): Access and register

On this page.

• Create and activate an O'Reilly Online Learning account to access

SFU Terms of Service: Your privacy and use of ORL

O'Reilly Online Learning (formerly Safari Books Online) provides a rotating collection of technology, digital media, and business books plus educational video. Both trade (e.g, O'Reilly) and academic publishers (CRC, Wiley) area included in the collection.

Create and activate an O'Reilly Online Learning account to access

To use  O'Reilly Online Learning (ORL)  you will need to create a ORL account on ORL's website using your SFU email address.

To start, click on the Institution not listed? link. 

In the next screen, enter your @sfu email address. You must register with a valid SFU email address.  You'll be allowed to proceed through to your book.

Separately you will receive an email at that @sfu address asking you to complete the O'Reilly account creation process. Your login will be your @sfu email address. Do not re-use your SFU password as your O'Reilly password. Using that login and password, you can access O'Reilly ebooks in the future.

The SFU Library makes the O'Reilly Online Learning service available to you for your convenience. Your use of the O'Reilly Online Learning service at Simon Fraser University is voluntary.

Please be advised that the personal information you disclose to O'Reilly Online Learning is stored on servers located in the United States of America. When you use this service, no personal information about you is collected by or for the University. Canadian privacy laws do not apply to personal information you provide directly to O'Reilly Online Learning. You may wish to review the  O'Reilly privacy policy  before using the service.

Access to O'Reilly Online Learning is restricted to current students, faculty and staff  with a valid SFU computing ID at Simon Fraser University.  Alumni access is not permitted.

O'Reilly Support Center

For assistance email the Library at [email protected] .

TODAY'S HOURS:

O'Reilly Safari Books Online Registration recommended / required Tutorials included O'Reilly Safari Books Online Registration recommended / required Tutorials included

Online access to 40,000+ technical books, videos, on-demand courses / tutorials, and case studies. 

ACCESS NOTE: Access to Safari is now unlimited for all current U-M Flint students, faculty, and staff who enter their umich.edu email address (in the format: [email protected] ).  Selecting a U-M Library link to O'Reilly (either the link above or the "Available online" link in a U-M Library Catalog record for a particular O'Reilly book) leads to a screen labeled "Welcome! Get instant access through your library." 1) On the Welcome! screen, choose "Select your institution" to open the menu and select the first option "Not listed? Click here." 2) In the Academic email box, enter your U-M email address (in the format: [email protected]). At first, U-M Flint students, faculty and staff are granted temporary access from the device and browser used that will expire after 3 days, and are emailed an invitation to create a permanent O'Reilly Safari account. Creating a permanent account is not required unless you want to use personalized features or the smart phone app version. You can return and obtain temporary access as many times as you wish. Guest users are granted temporary access only and are not eligible for a permanent account via U-M. The only information required to obtain temporary access is a umich.edu email address. Other information, like academic major or area of specialization, is optional and used to provide customized results tailored to your interests. Any information you enter, including your U-M email address, is protected by the O'Reilly Privacy Policy .

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Which e-reader for O'Reilly books?

Most of my programming books are from O'Reilly. Several of them need to be updated, and I'm thinking of going for an e-reader this time. O'Reilly sell their e-books as a multi-format bundle (PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket (Kindle)).

Has anyone done a comparison of the formats as for suitability on a small e-reader screen? In Europe, the Kindle DX is not (yet?) available, so I'm not sure whether a Kindle or a Sony (or some other reader) is best suited for these books. Disregarding other advantages/disadvantages of the different readers for now, which one in your opinion gives the best experience with O'Reilly books in particular (or programming books in general)?

• not strictly computer related, but probably OK as long as it involves software –  Jeff Atwood Nov 22, 2009 at 3:37

6 Answers 6

I am in a similar position as you. I have many programming books (including ones from O'Reily) and I am ready to replace them with an ereader of some kind. After looking at the choices out there I was not completely happy with any of the current readers. Instead, I decided to explore using my iPhone as an ebook reader for technical books.

I know you may think the iPhone could never match a true ereader. I felt the same way until I experimented with some of the ebook reader apps out there. I found a few that did exactly what I want.

My favorite is called GoodReader . If you have an iPhone, you should really purchase it for a few dollars before committing to an ereader. You can load any pdf into it very easily via wireless without having to deal with complex file transfers, etc. Unlike the built in iPHone pdf reader most pdf apps are based on this one has its own rendering engine that makes each page load correctly.

It is also very fast and has many built in features to offset the smaller screen size. Two of my favorites are: automatically sliding back to next "area" of a page when you get to the right edge and two "locks" - one that does not let you skip to the next or previous page without an extra drag and another that only allows vertical scrolling so you cannot accidentally move the page out of the text area.

If you have an iPhone (or another smartphone) I would give this a try before buying a dedicated ereader. If nothing else it could be an effective stopgap until a clear winner emerges in the ereader market.

• 3 'complex file transfers'??? +1 for making my day (NOT for the gadget you're recommending :) –  Molly7244 Nov 22, 2009 at 1:36
• Hm, interesting. I don't have an iPhone (still using my trusty old Palm T|X), might buy an iPod touch if it gets more than 64 GB one day... O'Reilly is offering several of their titles for less than 4 Euros, so that's another variable to consider. –  Tim Pietzcker Nov 22, 2009 at 9:03

This was one of the big questions I had before getting my Kindle, and I didn't go ahead with getting the Kindle until I was able to check out how the books are handled.

I'd been using my iPhone to read their books prior to getting the kindle, and overall I'm much happier with reading them on the kindle. Better searching, better annotating, bigger screen...

(On the other hand, the ability to read O'Reilly's books is secondary for me; I went with the kindle for purely subjective reasons - it seems slicker, the page turning feels nicer, and I feel like Amazon have a bigger range of fiction. For me, the technical books are just a nice-to-have, albeit a nice-to-have that would be a dealbreaker if absent. If technical books are what you primarily intend to read, something that supports EPUB as well as PDF and has a bigger screen might be a better choice)

I just found this thread as I am looking to purchase an eReader. With the iPad now out it added to the quantry. I believe I have decided to not get an iPad because of it's size and weight. I do not want all the bells and whistles it will offer since I have a perfect Sony Vaio with a 13" screen that bows the iPod out of the water for true computer ability and what I need it for. No, I want an eReader for my tech books and personal reading and perhaps magazines and newspapers, and I wat it small, light, portable. I do not own an iPhone so I cannot comment on that idea, and I do not expect to be buying one any time soon. Not that I dislike them, but I am located in Montana where we have limited choices of providers and none offer it. Since most of my tech books are O'Reilly ones, I decided to check the O'Reilly site to see if they could help on the decision, and YES. Check out http://oreilly.com/ebooks and they list all the formats and readers they work with!

In brief: •iPhone, iTouch — Grab the EPUB or PDF and read in the Stanza App, Bookworm, or the reader of your choice. •iPad — Download the EPUB format and read it on your iPad. •Android — Read the .apk or .EPUB on your favorite reader. •Kindle — Get the Mobipocket file and load it onto your Kindle. •Sony Reader — EPUBs work well on your Sony Reader. •Computer — Get either the EPUB or PDF. •Other Mobile Devices — Explore the EPUB with the mobile version of Bookworm.

Because the Kindle is not a standard open format, I am leaning to the Soney Daily Edition, though I wish it were a bit larger like the Kindle DX. Since I will make up my mind and buy my eReader by the end of June, my hope is that Sony with either announce a new one that is a bit larger that I can wait for, or Amazon will get off it's stinking high horse and update the Kindle to handle PDFs better and EPUB format. Either of those will spark my purchase rapidly.

• I'm in the same boat as you. Which e-reader did you end up buying and are you happy with it? –  Joe Schmoe Aug 16, 2010 at 13:04

I also have a Safari Books Online subscription and was looking for the best device to read the content. I looked at many platforms including Sony eReader, Kindle, Kindle DX, Netbooks, etc ...

For me the iPad is far and away the best choice.

• The screen size is perfect for the content on Safari. I read in both Portrait and Landscape mode and both are excellent.
• The fact that the iPad also handles PDF documents is a huge bonus.
• The iPad is the right size without being too big. The browser is excellent and panning, zooming is a dream.
• The instant on capability is so much better than waiting for Windows to load

The finger based navigation is great and lends itself to Safari's interface

If there was improvement I would like it would be Flash support. Even though most of Safari's collection can be viewed in "HTML" mode there are some books that are "Flash" based only, which as I am sure everyone knows, is not "allowed" on the iPad thanks to Steve Job's insatiable ego. Also the favorites navigation does not seem to work on Safari on the iPad. I would expect Safari Bookshelf plans to work on these issues.

I am no Apple "fan-boy" but I am really impressed with the iPad. For me it is the best for reading Safari Books Online as well as PDFs.

• 1 How are you feeling about Flash now? ;-) –  Bruno Bronosky Dec 1, 2016 at 22:46

I have bought a Kindle DX in early 2011 and have by now a couple dozen O'Reilly books on it. Most but not all books are available as Mobipocket files (some are only available as PDFs, especially those with complicated typesetting/layout, like the Head First series or slide:ology).

Where Mobipocket is available, the Kindle is very good as a reader, although in some books, illustrations are a bit problematic (for example, small diagrams are often scaled to the width of the display which makes them look very blocky, but I think this is a general problem with the Mobipocket format). It's also nice to see that problems (which rarely occur) are being fixed rapidly. For example, there were formatting errors in a book that caused some highlighted parts of code samples to become invisible; these were quickly fixed after I submitted a bug report.

The PDF versions look nice in general, and the DX screen is just large enough to display them in a readable way. The main drawback in using the Kindle with PDFs is that the Kindle can't use the Table of Contents of PDF files. I had hoped that this would be fixed in a future firmware update, but it doesn't seem like one would be forthcoming in the near future.

If you are interested in using a Kindle (ePaper, or Fire) or the Kindle app. The best option is to download your books in Mobi format . It is basically the same format that Amazon chose for their azw/kf8 files.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats#KF8_.28Amazon_Kindle.29 and http://www.booknook.biz/tips-tutorials/what-is-the-best-ebook-format-for-kindle

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O'Reilly Safari Books Online: Welcome!

• Searching and Browsing

This guide is a starting point on how to use O'Reilly Safari books through the WVC Library.

What Is Included In This Database?

Coverage:  Mostly 2004 to present

Users:  Unlimited simultaneous users

Source Types:  Tech books, manuals, videos, learning paths, case studies, interactive tutorials, and subject playlists on programming languages, applications, systems, networking, web design and development, and more. Over 48,000 titles; very current.

Subjects:  Computer science, web development, data science, applications, and increasing in resources on other subjects like Entrepreneurial , Real Estate, Fashion Design

Printing:  None

Download:  None

How Can I Access This Database?

Accessing o'reilly tech books through wvc library.

___________________________________________________________________

O'Reilly Safari ebooks require a different login process compared to many online resources available through WVC Library. Your initial access O'Reilly Safari ebooks you will need to start from the WVC Library database collection page .

From the Subscription Database page you can either narrow down your results to "eBooks" from the Source Types dropdown, or click on O to retrieve all databases beginning an O.

WVC is not listed under the "Select your institution" drop-down menu. Click on "Not Listed? to continue.

(1)  If you  do not  have O'Reilly account you can enter your westvalley.edu email to gain temporary access.  After doing so, O'Reilly will send you a confirmation email with a link to create a password-protected account. (2)    If you already have an O'Reilly account you must use the link that reads "Already a user? Click here."  and log in. (3) Once you have a verified O'Reilly account you can bookmark the homepage you do not need to use the WVC Library link to access again.

• Next: Searching and Browsing >>
• Last Updated: Nov 10, 2022 2:56 PM
• URL: https://libguides.westvalley.edu/SafariBooksOnline

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Safari Books Online (O'Reilly)

Safari features a curated library of the best technical books today—including titles from Pearson, O’Reilly Media,and more—organized by the most popular subjects, from web development and mobile apps to entrepreneurship and UX/IA, and more. Instructions for signing in: Type in your SJSU email address and click on the password field (do not enter your password here). A "sign in with SSO" button will display Click "sign in with SSO" button.

Compatible with: standard browsers.  Get the app for iOs and Android  

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