# Gutenberg Project — user reviews > 59 indexed App Store user reviews of Gutenberg Project by himalaya-soft, rated 3.30/5 from 43 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gutenberg-project/id672017144/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gutenberg-project/id672017144.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 17 · 4★ 6 · 3★ 4 · 2★ 6 · 1★ 10 ## Newest reviews (12 of 59) ### 2/5 — 504 bad gateway errors *2026-01-15* When I search and attempt to download books I get 504 gateway error. App not working for me at all. ### 3/5 — Navigation *2026-01-07* Navigation to different sections of the app is awful. Closing a book and getting to the bookshelf is clumsy. Amgoodmideambut poorly executed ### 2/5 — Gutenberg app *2024-07-11* How do u cancel service ### 2/5 — Read-A-Long nearly impossible to see… Useless Eye Strain *2023-06-22* 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. ### 2/5 — white on black *2023-04-29* i can find no way to make it black on white ### 4/5 — Gutenberg Reader *2023-02-24* 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 ### 4/5 — Works ok on iPhone 7 Plus *2021-08-11* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 3/5 — Great app *2021-02-12* Have had this app since it came on line, it is such a good app. **Developer response:** 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 ### 2/5 — What happened? *2020-08-27* 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! **Developer response:** 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 ### 3/5 — Unique page turning *2018-09-07* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 4/5 — Amazing *2017-09-21* Just amazing, audio books, and read-along with each reading word highlighted. ### 3/5 — What? No ability to create favorite list? *2017-09-11, version 8.2* New to using. I either missed it or there is no way to favorite and build a library for future reading/listening? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Worst app ever *2025-10-19* Didn’t work at all it’s trash don’t get! ### 1/5 — Worst app ever *2024-07-04* 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. ### 1/5 — Who IS the idiot *2021-05-03* 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 . **Developer response:** 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 ### 1/5 — Scrap *2020-06-25* Not serving the purpose it built for Not user friendly UX Bad performance and speed ### 1/5 — Der Untertan *2020-05-19* Author Heinrich Mann Outrages app interruptions from Facebook! No star - should be a rating option. Inge **Developer response:** 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. ### 1/5 — STOP WORKING *2019-11-02* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 1/5 — Pretty useless *2019-06-14* 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. **Developer response:** 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 ### 1/5 — New Version Leaves a Lot to Be Desired *2017-10-31* I used to be able to search the Audiobooks by Genre, but now you have to know what you are looking for which makes discovering new authors in your favorite category impossible. Please fix this. **Developer response:** Dear user, Thank you very much for sharing with us how much you value the function of searching 'Audiobooks by Genre'. That function has now been moved into a dedicated Audiobook app, which can be downloaded FREE by tapping 'Dedicated Audio Books App', second item from bottom of the home screen in 'Gutenberg App'. With our very best regards, Himalaya-soft Support ### 1/5 — So so *2017-10-25* Functionality excellent but too many ad interruptions. **Developer response:** Dear ebgard, Thank you so much for evaluating our app's functionality as 'excellent'. Thank you even more for sharing with us your experience of encountering too many ad interruptions. We will try to reduce the number of ad interruptions in future versions. But for the time being, ad interruption can be stopped for a small fee of $2.99. Better yet, most users find it a better value to download the paid version "Gutenberg Book Reader" , which has identical functionality, unlimited usages, and without any ad interruption. Thank you again for sharing with us your user experience. ### 1/5 — Ebook Reader *2017-09-10, version 8.2* 👎🏾 ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Good app *2020-07-27* 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 **Developer response:** 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 ### 5/5 — Ads *2019-07-07* 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 **Developer response:** 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 ### 5/5 — Can‘t download *2018-04-14* 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. ### 5/5 — Listen to any of the 50k books! *2017-10-13* I was initially skeptical of the claim but was amazed after testing it. Some of popular books are available in both human-read audiobooks and in text-to-speech, but I find the voice of Ava in tts is more than adequate for most of the books. I now can listen to any of the 50,000+ books when I cannot find time to sit down to read,on the bus, doing chores... **Developer response:** Dear User, We are so delighted to hear from you. Thank you for your kind encouragement. Himalaya-Soft Support ### 5/5 — Very functional *2017-09-28* The list of book recommendation is very helpful. The simple introduction to each book and a link to Wikipedia is absolutely delightful! ### 5/5 — It is all I wanted to do with books *2017-09-27* I always wanted to read the best books ever published. But books are just like trees in a forest, most are of little value. With this app I get some of the best book recommendations. The list alone is worth the effort of downloading! ### 5/5 — Works well *2017-09-26* Works well. Beautiful page turning, ### 5/5 — Night reading mode *2017-09-17* Great App, BUT, just upgraded to latest version and now find that I cannot use the night reading facility invoked by selecting the light bulb icon at the bottom bar, which is now missing. Wish I could go back to the previous version as I valued this facility more than the so called improvements. Hurray the light bulb is back. Thanks. **Developer response:** Hi Tony, The missing night reading light bulb will be restored soon. Thank you very much for alerting us this omission in our latest version. ### 5/5 — Simply the best *2017-06-03, version 8.1* tried many Gutenberg Apps, none came close. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2017-03-20, version 7.7* Superb and Bravo!! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-02.*