Gutenberg Project User Reviews

Customer Experience

Positive experience40.7% of reviews
Neutral6.8% of reviews
Negative experience52.5% of reviews

~ Based on 59 written reviews from the US App Store.

Is Gutenberg Project Safe?

Gutenberg Project has mixed safety signals based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for Gutenberg Project is 67/100.

This assessment is based on 43 user ratings, with an App Store average of 3.3/5.

Safety Analysis

53.5% of ratings point to a safe experience
9.3% of ratings suggest some concerns
37.2% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 43 App Store ratings for Gutenberg Project.

Is Gutenberg Project Legit?

Gutenberg Project appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Gutenberg Project is 80/100.

Based on 80 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

504 bad gateway errors

When I search and attempt to download books I get 504 gateway error. App not working for me at all.

Navigation

Navigation to different sections of the app is awful. Closing a book and getting to the bookshelf is clumsy. Amgoodmideambut poorly executed

Worst app ever

Didn’t work at all it’s trash don’t get!

Gutenberg app

How do u cancel service

Worst app ever

I have tried to read books over here 👈 but this app is not showing any pages 📑. I don’t know why I have ever downloaded this app.

Read-A-Long nearly impossible to see… Useless Eye Strain

Yellow on Orange? It looks good in the screenshot but in real life it’s nearly impossible to see and follow along with.

All those color combinations do is slowly make you go blind.

I would consider paying for it if the paid version let me choose my favorite colors. To me what really pops is basic white on a basic blue background. Those color combinations are really good for cutting through background glare from lighting.

How about it? A paid premium version where we could choose our own color combinations? Face it some people just like dark modes. It’s a good bit less of a battery drain overall. All the blue light before bedtime they say keeps us from getting a good nights sleep.
Show more

white on black

i can find no way to make it black on white

Gutenberg Reader

Nice app for readers but irritating to have so many ads that inhibits a steady and consistent read. Would be better to have a continuous ad at the bottom or top of the page than to have a full page ad that comes on several times in one minute and blocks off your ability to continuously read the material in the book. Bad setup app
Show more

Works ok on iPhone 7 Plus

Crashes occasionally but restarts where you left off if you select the same book. Would be better if it included sourcing more Gutenberg sites: for instance Gutenberg Australia has some John Carter of Mars books not currently available in the app. Is a satisfactory way to read ebooks on An iPhone 7 Plus.
Show more

Response from developer

Kalliste23,   Thank you for your suggestion. We will study the Australia site and see if we could include it in our app. One of the concerns is copy right protection. We wish you many hours of happy reading in Gutenberg. Your developer

Who IS the idiot

They got rid of the useless black
background in the search box ( with black script) but now it won’t search at all most attempts .

Is a favorite app going to go the way
of FREEBOOKS ? Time and tell .

Response from developer

Hi Steve, Thank you for alerting us the problem in 'Search'. Could you kindly email us a screenshot to show "it won't search at all", so that we can duplicate the problem and fix it. To email us, go to app's home screen, tap icon '?' in the upper-right corner, and pick "Email US" at the upper-right corner. Thank you again, sincerely Your developer

Great app

Have had this app since it came on line, it is such a good app.

Response from developer

Dear r.x-m, Thank you so much for helping us to improve this app. We certainly will try to fine tune the frequency of displaying a banner ad at the bottom of the screen. The reason we show the banner ad often is because that space at the bottom is unusable (occupied by the black bar) and wasted. Could you also please kindly email (tap the '?' mark on Home screen) us a screenshot of the ad so that we can understand better what you mean and will try our best to improve the user experience. Thank you enormously! Your developer

What happened?

This used be to a decent app. But now search doesn’t find anything but error 404. But on the website it finds what I’m looking for? Needs to be fixed!

Response from developer

Dear Tamsharley, Thank you for your feedback.  We have added a new 'Quick Search' page, which is much cleaner than the original 'Full Search' page. Your feedback has helped us make this app better and better. We truly appreciate your support. Your developer

Good app

I am sorry for the negative review I have just sent to you. I just found the app hiding among the numerous others, I am sorry about that, I beg your forgiveness. The app is good and I do enjoy it after I get familiar with the tools. Thank you

Response from developer

ElectraFossil, It is so kind of you. Your encouraging words made the hard work of coding so much more rewarding. It is obvious that most of App developers earn much less than a minimum wage, and the only reason we are still toiling along is try to produce something useful as a hobby. Thank you so very much. Your developer Your developer

Scrap

Not serving the purpose it built for
Not user friendly UX
Bad performance and speed

Der Untertan

Author Heinrich Mann
Outrages app interruptions from Facebook!
No star - should be a rating option.
Inge

Response from developer

Dear Der, Thank you for your feedbacks. Could you kindly describe the problem in some detail? We will try to reproduce it and fix it. Thank you.

STOP WORKING

Have used for years with great pleasure. This morning it stopped working: will not load catalog, and close when attempt to open current book being read. Attempted to reinstall with no change.

Response from developer

Dear ETHASKELL, A new version has been released to fix the reported problem in IOS13.2.  Thank you very much for letting us know the reported problem has been fixed on your device. Thank you for using Gutenberg! Himalaya-soft support team

Ads

I have pd for two(2) life-time subsrptns in last few years while using my Apple iPhone4s. For Christmas present my daughter purchased my new phone an Apple 8s+. My Gutenberg Project Apps were transferred when memory was swapped out but the life-time credits were no where to allow my downloading. And I see the price has gone up. The price is fair for the value but I really do not wish to continue this dance annually.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Gratefully, I received the response awaited. In error I assumed I was being charged for the service repeatedly. I was wrong to my delight.
On whole there is no way this app deserves anything less than five stars for the incredible service to literature of all genres. For that alone it remains the most valuable app on the internet.
Thank you for the courtesy of a rapid
response. wt
Show more

Response from developer

Dear NotedSinger, Thank you for your feedback. Once an app is purchased, you can use the same apple ID to 'repurchase' the app again, and Apple's app store would not charge you because it knows you already paid for it. Alternatively, from the purchase screen, you can also tap the 'Restore All Purchases' in the bottom-left corner. Thank you again and wish you many hours of happy reading and listening. Himalaya-soft support

Pretty useless

I installed this app. It launched. I tapped “Gutenberg Bookshelves”. I tapped “Classics”. The app spun its wheels for a few seconds but nothing else happened. I tapped “Classics” again. This time the app froze. I deleted the app. One huge disappointment. My advice: don’t waste your time.

Response from developer

Dear paraphraseologist, Thank you for your feedback. We have tried but could not reproduce the error you encountered. Could you kindly share with us the device you used? We will try to test it again using a similar device. Thank you very much! Himalaya-Soft Support

Unique page turning

Initial 2107 purchase:
I am quite satisfied with the font size and page color. It is easy to find books and the downloaded library is eye catching but I can't seem to adjust to the pages turning options.

Turning pages is done in a curling motion (like a power point presentation) with a choice of 3 speeds OR the page turning can be a flip. The flip is having the page do a complete turn around, like being skewered through the center and it slowly flips around until you can see the back of the page. I have tried both methods at all 3 curling speeds. The developer is very earnest and eager for me to like the "improvements" but personally, the page turning options offerred are a distraction.

In all other respects this is a very good app. I would encourage you to try out the free version and see how you like it's performance.

Update August 2018
Note: The developer responded to me three times to try out the various improvements. I suppose I may be a faster than normal reader and the wait as each page flips or curls eats into my reading time and interupts my focus on the story. I hope a less stylized page turn option (like the swipe in Kindle and iBooks or the continuous scroll in PDFs) is made available in future updates.
But other than stylized page turning, this is a good app.

Update Sep 2018:
The developer responded to my updated reviews twice more so I decided to go with the in-app offers to see if it would improve page turing options. I now have two Himalaya Soft icons that behave the same. One has the word "pro" on it. The other doesn't.

I received a combined Apple receipt for $2.99 for the Gutenberg Book Reader Pro app and another for $2.99 for the Gutenberg Project, Unlimited Reading app. I am at this point somewhat confused. I would prefer just one app that will meet my needs of finding, downloading and reading Gutenberg publications. I decided to delete both of the apps which offer the exact same page turning options. They both have a stand alone library which is not sycned between them.

I found I can download the Gutenburg books directly from the website and send them to be read as PDFs in my Kindle app. With the Kindle app, I can tap the side of the page and it transitions instantly to the next page without a curl or flip. It takes more time to locate and download but to me the reading experience (especially page turning) is well worth it.
Show more

Response from developer

Hi, Sandimacd We have just released a new version, which offers three different page-turn speeds: Fast, Normal, Slow. We hope you will be able to pick a more desirable speed from the app's settings. Thank you so much for your feedback. We look forward to receiving more feedback from you. Himalaya-soft Support Team Hi, Sandimacd Thank you for your valuable feedbacks. (1) Apple’s App Store would never charge you twice for the same app no matter how many times you have purchased it. Please do contact the App store for a refund if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase. (2) Gutenberg Book Reader is a different app than Gutenberg Ptoject. The later displays ads banner while the former does not. We apologize for the confusion and will try to minimize such confusion in the future. Thank you very much for sharing with us your experience. Himalaya-Soft Support

Can‘t download

Don’t know why it’s not working any more.

Edit: Access from Germany is blocked at the moment because of a law suit. Not a problem with the app. Downloaded books still work.