Amazing
Great app for reading college textbooks
One can read, nothing more.
Translations are missing, zoom is not working, progress is not being saved, bookmarks not visible.
It’s messy
Digital text books are a pain in general. Largely because you can’t flip through them like a regular book. But with Kortext specifically, I can’t just highlight AND notate on the page that I’m reading. I have to create a notes page which is a pain to go back and reference later. It also takes time to load and I haven’t been able to figure out how to just edit the notes page that I’ve already taken notes on. I have to create a new notes pages… I miss regular text books.
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difficulty
The app and website are super slow. I always have to refresh both because of how many times it freezes when I am imputing notes. Horrible system to get your books!!!!!!
What a freaking insult
I got this app so I can do my college work. It is OK for reading however I do a lot of driving so I thought maybe I would have the app read to me so that’s where the insult starts if you want Stephen Hawkins to read you and this app will be great. It literally sounds like a computer. You can barely understand not to mention the features in here are so ridiculously lockdown. It’s almost a worthless app.
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RedShelf is better
Slow, unstable, and buggy. Pages sometimes fail to load.
No scrolling?
I would the ability to use the track pad in order to scroll DOWN, as if I am actually reading an “E-Book” I easily lose my track when I have to hit the arrow key. Ironically, using the website the scroll function is available?
Not Compatible with Apple Products
Here’s a clearer, more concise version of your review:
I am writing this review because my microbiology course requires us to use this app for our online textbook. Unfortunately, the app is extremely difficult to use on Apple devices. Every time I access the textbook on my iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, the formatting is broken, pages do not display correctly, scrolling often glitches, and the overall reading experience is frustrating.
The read-aloud feature is also very poor and does not function reliably. Based on my experience, the app appears to be much more compatible with Windows and Samsung devices, where I have not encountered these issues.
As a student who depends on this textbook to succeed in class, it is disappointing that the app performs so poorly on Apple products. I hope the developers address these compatibility and usability problems soon.
I am writing this review because my microbiology course requires us to use this app for our online textbook. Unfortunately, the app is extremely difficult to use on Apple devices. Every time I access the textbook on my iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, the formatting is broken, pages do not display correctly, scrolling often glitches, and the overall reading experience is frustrating.
The read-aloud feature is also very poor and does not function reliably. Based on my experience, the app appears to be much more compatible with Windows and Samsung devices, where I have not encountered these issues.
As a student who depends on this textbook to succeed in class, it is disappointing that the app performs so poorly on Apple products. I hope the developers address these compatibility and usability problems soon.
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Mobile Sucks
The mobile version of this is terrible. It might be great for a tablet but for some of us students we don’t get the luxury of having a full computer, tablets and phone to do our work. If you close out of the app it doesn’t save the page you are on so when you go back after notes you have to search all over again . Terrible app.
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Glitchy
Was so excited to have an on the go option for reading my textbooks while managing childcare, but the app doesn’t save my spot in the book if I have to do something else on my phone and sometimes goes back a page when I’m trying to go forward. I often have to shut it down and use the index to find my page again. Could work a lot better!
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Se plante tout le temps
Se plante tout le temps. De plus, j’ai été obligée de créer un compte chez Kortext pour avoir accès à mes fichiers. Je n’achèterai plus d’ebooks dans ce format
Clunky
App is clunky and doesn’t work most times. Not intuitive.
Please Read Carefully
TL;DR
*If you are an online student with ASU and own a Mac for your studies, you may need to reconsider and use ahonorlock with the windows operating system if you can. It would seem Apple lacks compatibility with the honorlock extension- my computer has been behaving like it has viruses.*
I would like to preface this by informing Kortext: the gal who assisted me to address my concerns was polite and professional. This review is simply about Kortext itself and possible incompatibilities with Apple after downloading the honorlock extension from google.
I have a brand new MacBook Air. During my previous spring semester, Kortext worked well! I was able to use all of the features available, including note-taking, highlighting, and audio narration. While I prefer a physical textbook, this was the simpler option (I thought) and as I said, Kortext worked well! I was a fan.
Nearly a week after mandatorily downloading google chrome and the honorlock extension for an online PSY course from ASU to my macbook air, the malfunctions in Kortext are now daily, hours long struggles. My computer has also been performing much more slowly- not at all like a brand new apple computer should. After spending nearly 3 hours on the phone with tech support between my uni and Kortext, and while the reps for both were polite and professional- the Kortext app has become a drain on my life. What should take an hour to read one chapter while taking notes, has become multiple hours. I will be contacting apple as well.
Some may advise to disable the honorlock extension. I have done this, then uninstalled both it and google chrome, as well as the Kortext app, to no avail. I have restarted my computer, closed out of Kortext, shut down my computer, redownloaded the Kortext app, all the things. Some may advise that I stop using the built-in features for Kortext. I would still be highlighting in a physical text, and I don’t have one- also, highlighting helps for neurosparklies like myself.
I used Kortext during the spring 2026 semester as an online student with ASU. My instructor required lockdown browser and I believe it is compatible with apple. However, google and the honorlock extension have seemingly relegated my new computer to a middle-aged one. I am not at all pleased with this outcome.
I don’t think it possible to have foreseen the extent of these malfunctions within Kortext and my computer. Unfortunately as this was a gift, I cannot afford to replace it. Likely, ASU will not reimburse students for the malfunctions caused to my computer— even though honorlock was mandatory and “agreeing” to the terms was essentially coercion if we want to take our tests. Not all instructors utilize honorlock, some use lockdown browser- but we are not informed of which instructors will use what exam/testing platform prior to selecting courses. There is much to be desired being an online ASU student.
I hope it works out for whomever may be an apple user. My laptop was gifted brand new December 2025, worked beautifully and nearly wicked fast. Mac users, beware.
*If you are an online student with ASU and own a Mac for your studies, you may need to reconsider and use ahonorlock with the windows operating system if you can. It would seem Apple lacks compatibility with the honorlock extension- my computer has been behaving like it has viruses.*
I would like to preface this by informing Kortext: the gal who assisted me to address my concerns was polite and professional. This review is simply about Kortext itself and possible incompatibilities with Apple after downloading the honorlock extension from google.
I have a brand new MacBook Air. During my previous spring semester, Kortext worked well! I was able to use all of the features available, including note-taking, highlighting, and audio narration. While I prefer a physical textbook, this was the simpler option (I thought) and as I said, Kortext worked well! I was a fan.
Nearly a week after mandatorily downloading google chrome and the honorlock extension for an online PSY course from ASU to my macbook air, the malfunctions in Kortext are now daily, hours long struggles. My computer has also been performing much more slowly- not at all like a brand new apple computer should. After spending nearly 3 hours on the phone with tech support between my uni and Kortext, and while the reps for both were polite and professional- the Kortext app has become a drain on my life. What should take an hour to read one chapter while taking notes, has become multiple hours. I will be contacting apple as well.
Some may advise to disable the honorlock extension. I have done this, then uninstalled both it and google chrome, as well as the Kortext app, to no avail. I have restarted my computer, closed out of Kortext, shut down my computer, redownloaded the Kortext app, all the things. Some may advise that I stop using the built-in features for Kortext. I would still be highlighting in a physical text, and I don’t have one- also, highlighting helps for neurosparklies like myself.
I used Kortext during the spring 2026 semester as an online student with ASU. My instructor required lockdown browser and I believe it is compatible with apple. However, google and the honorlock extension have seemingly relegated my new computer to a middle-aged one. I am not at all pleased with this outcome.
I don’t think it possible to have foreseen the extent of these malfunctions within Kortext and my computer. Unfortunately as this was a gift, I cannot afford to replace it. Likely, ASU will not reimburse students for the malfunctions caused to my computer— even though honorlock was mandatory and “agreeing” to the terms was essentially coercion if we want to take our tests. Not all instructors utilize honorlock, some use lockdown browser- but we are not informed of which instructors will use what exam/testing platform prior to selecting courses. There is much to be desired being an online ASU student.
I hope it works out for whomever may be an apple user. My laptop was gifted brand new December 2025, worked beautifully and nearly wicked fast. Mac users, beware.
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Accessibility
Read aloud
Good
Good and user friendly
The worst reading app I’ve ever used
Both the app and the web application are TRASH. First off, the web application is constantly logging me out for no reason, and the app gives me error messages frequently and I have to reboot it. Then there's the copy-paste restriction - yeah, I get that you don't want people copying pages and uploading them, but seriously, you get to copy a few sentences' worth of words, then you're never allowed to copy-paste after that. Sometimes it's really useful to be able to copy a term or sentence into a search engine or your notes, but you can only do that a few times. The forward and back arrows, for some reason, also jump by a few lines. Want the next page? Scroll to the bottom, THEN you can use the arrow, and repeat. Need to go back a few pages? Scroll to the top, back arrow, scroll to the top... you're going to be doing a lot of scrolling.
Bookmarks also don't show what section they're in, just the page number, and when you click a bookmark, the page takes a good 30 seconds to load all the images, and since the placeholders aren't the size as the actual figures, it jumps around like crazy on the page until everything's loaded (it also seems to inconsistently load images you aren't looking at, so you also have to scroll up and down to load them all. Yay! More scrolling!). The table of contents on the sidebar doesn't highlight which section you're on, so you have to scroll and read every title to find where you are and jump to the next or previous section. When you search for something, the results come up in a seemingly random order and without the chapter titles, so it's essentially useless. I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking but if you use it you'll understand just how much time all these little inconveniences waste. Utterly baffling how badly programmed this platform is. If you're in school, just pay the extra to get the paper version, this platform is borderline unusable
Bookmarks also don't show what section they're in, just the page number, and when you click a bookmark, the page takes a good 30 seconds to load all the images, and since the placeholders aren't the size as the actual figures, it jumps around like crazy on the page until everything's loaded (it also seems to inconsistently load images you aren't looking at, so you also have to scroll up and down to load them all. Yay! More scrolling!). The table of contents on the sidebar doesn't highlight which section you're on, so you have to scroll and read every title to find where you are and jump to the next or previous section. When you search for something, the results come up in a seemingly random order and without the chapter titles, so it's essentially useless. I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking but if you use it you'll understand just how much time all these little inconveniences waste. Utterly baffling how badly programmed this platform is. If you're in school, just pay the extra to get the paper version, this platform is borderline unusable
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Glitches on MacBook Air
Its nice to use but the app has to be restarted every 5 min because it freezes.
Terrible platform experience
I was able view the first two pages from the textbook I rented on my phone from the first chapter without issue.
It would not load past the first two pages, not on my phone or my laptop.
Customer service is terrible. I was only able to email customer service, for something urgent this is disappointing. They did not reply until 3 days later and before they replied they disabled my ability to send emails.
They did not solve any issues after three days, their email stated that they were going to look into the issue.
A week into my online masters program… without being able to read the book I paid for.
It took 4 days to receive a refund BUT kortext did absolutely nothing to help with technical difficulties or with helping me get a refund.
16 years of experience renting books online and this has been the worst.
Thank you for reading :)
It would not load past the first two pages, not on my phone or my laptop.
Customer service is terrible. I was only able to email customer service, for something urgent this is disappointing. They did not reply until 3 days later and before they replied they disabled my ability to send emails.
They did not solve any issues after three days, their email stated that they were going to look into the issue.
A week into my online masters program… without being able to read the book I paid for.
It took 4 days to receive a refund BUT kortext did absolutely nothing to help with technical difficulties or with helping me get a refund.
16 years of experience renting books online and this has been the worst.
Thank you for reading :)
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Works somewhat similar to website…
I downloaded the app for offline access and I like writing/highlighting from my iPad instead of my laptop but I keep running into the issue of only being able to highlight. The options for notes and viewing the definition of the terms via hypertext don’t work on mobile like they do on laptop/desktop. Can someone please fix this? It’s pretty annoying to not have full capabilities
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Frustrated
Dummy that I am, I went ahead and ordered my books from my school bookstore. Paid way more to have them delivered within this inconvenient app, which is the only way I can open and read them.
I could have saved 30% and been able to access them across all devices- including the kindle I bought for the purpose. I need to be able to access the book AND use my computer screen simultaneously.
I’ll deal through this semester, then I’ll never use this app again.
Returned to take my stars back. This app has horrible functionality, can’t even take notes on the page. One of my books can’t even be zoomed in enough to read.
WHY are schools still using this?
I could have saved 30% and been able to access them across all devices- including the kindle I bought for the purpose. I need to be able to access the book AND use my computer screen simultaneously.
I’ll deal through this semester, then I’ll never use this app again.
Returned to take my stars back. This app has horrible functionality, can’t even take notes on the page. One of my books can’t even be zoomed in enough to read.
WHY are schools still using this?
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