# Royal Road - Read Stories — user reviews > 261 indexed App Store user reviews of Royal Road by Not Yet Media LTD, rated 4.80/5 from 5,105 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/royal-road-read-stories/id6456945333/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/royal-road-read-stories/id6456945333.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 4,525 · 4★ 415 · 3★ 67 · 2★ 21 · 1★ 77 ## What do users think of Royal Road? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Customizable reading experience - 🚀 Smooth and fast performance - 💡 Personalized recommendations - 👍 Convenient for mobile reading - 👍 Supports a wide range of stories **Cons** - 🔋 Battery draining issues - 🔊 Intrusive audio ads - 🔘 Lack of font/theme customization - 🔘 Ads not respecting dark mode - 🔘 Offline reading locked behind paywall **Commonly reported bugs** - Inconsistent dark mode behavior - Downloaded stories not available offline - Navigational issues with chapter buttons **Most requested features** - Add text-to-speech functionality - Improve sorting/filtering of reading history - Allow more control over ad placement - Implement screen rotation support - Provide in-app support/feedback options ## Newest reviews (10 of 261) ### 3/5 — Clunky *2026-06-12, version 2.43* The app works but is very clunky. It’s better than the website but just barely. ### 4/5 — Read, but don’t review *2026-06-02, version 2.41* It’s a really good platform to find interesting stories I would recommend using the app and website, but I would not recommend leaving reviews. It seems that well thought out constructive criticism is bad, especially if the review encourages the author to keep creating but maybe don’t rely heavily on AI to write stories for them. This is apparently insulting, disrespectful and discourages them from writing. Just read the story, don’t let the writer know if there are issues, it’s better for them that way. ### 3/5 — not great *2026-05-09* I prefer using the website to the app. I find it a lot better less glitches and I'm more used to using the website. ### 5/5 — Great *2026-05-02, version 2.33* Such a great app for reading. This space is full of amazing authors! ### 5/5 — It’s great. I haven’t found any downsides so far. *2026-04-30* It’s very intuitive and easy to find what you are looking for. It saves the spot you were reading at even if you close out. The ads are not bad at all. I only get one like every 4 or 5 chapters and they don’t have a wait time to dismiss. I love that you can customize how you view the ad. The library system is great. But my favourite part is that you don’t have to pay for everything like other apps. There are a couple ads popping up asking if I want a premium version but it’s not often enough for it to be annoying. So 5 stars. ### 5/5 — Love this app! *2026-04-22, version 2.32* I currently publish and read on Royal Road. The app is geared towards reading (which I find easy to do and enjoy the layout), but it also lets me quickly check notifications to keep up with my published stories. Highly recommend for anyone looking for new things to read, or wanting to key tabs on what they’ve posted. ### 3/5 — My opinion *2026-04-19, version 2.32* Until I learn how to use you and actually can use you what you say is what you get in ratings I’m sorry but I don’t give ratings either above that so I know if it’s gonna work for me ### 5/5 — It’s awesome *2026-04-16* So many good stories from up and coming authors! ### 1/5 — Can’t even make an account *2026-03-27, version 2.25* Whenever I attempt to make an account I’m told to retry because it counted my attempts as spam so I retry still spam so I try again a few hours later still spam. ### 1/5 — Hate play button *2026-03-19* Hate the mandatory play button, it serve no purpose and take screen space ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Stuffed with full screen scummy ads with time locks *2026-08-14, version 2.47* Stuck in ad loop bouncing back and forth - do yourself a favor and either use the web app or another site ### 1/5 — Obnoxious Ads *2026-08-11, version 2.47* Just today it looks like the Royal Road app launched some new ads between chapters. They are extremely cumbersome to dismiss. Go back to old ad system or I am gone. ### 1/5 — Get banned for critical reviews *2026-08-11, version 2.46* Is there a way to give negative stars? This app will ban you if you give authors anything but good reviews. Critical about how the author writes about a character.. banned! Critical about how a reviewer reviews him.. Banned! How long is the ban?? 50 years lol I highly recommend you don’t use this app. If you absolutely need to .. don’t buy their premium. Apple.. maybe ban this app? 😂 ### 1/5 — Go somewhere else *2026-08-10, version 2.46* Mods intentionally prevent reviews on writing. Go to another site, the mods for this site are obviously big on censorship. ### 1/5 — I Love Royal Road But… *2026-07-25, version 2.45* I have used this app and the website before it for years. I love reading stories on it and used the app ever since it came out. However recently the app has become literally unusable. The app just wont load anything. I can’t even try to login. I just have to use the website like before. I have already made a bug report. I hope the issue is fixed soon. ### 1/5 — Too much unmarked AI slop *2026-07-05* 90% of the stuff is (unmarked) AI slop nowadays and if you mention it in the forums your post gets insta deleted… don’t bother with it. ### 1/5 — RR cut Apple *2026-06-08, version 2.42* Signed in only via Apple ID. RR now requires a separate ID linked to Apple ID. No way to contact support and lost all progress. ### 1/5 — I can’t read anything *2026-04-26, version 2.32* The app just crashed…. ### 1/5 — way too many adds now *2026-04-26, version 2.32* I love the actual format/content of royal road- but they I recently updated my phone and the new version of royal road I downloaded sucks. I don’t mind the right amount of adds- but this is way too many. And they are the type where I have to sit and wait and can’t just click through. it feels like the site got bought by some third party who immediately said how can we maximize the profit with no consideration to the user experience. in general Royal Road is great- but they need reduce the number of adds by a lot. ### 1/5 — Bad update *2026-04-06, version 2.29* Update forces a large blue icon in the middle of the screen. Who thought this was a good idea? There’s no option to disable it.. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Favorite app *2026-07-24, version 2.45* Best app I have. ### 5/5 — Decent stories to find. *2026-07-20, version 2.44* I love chicks coors light and cheesecake ### 5/5 — Perfect app, thank you *2026-07-16, version 2.44* After reading cradle I inevitably stumbled upon royal road and web novels. What a delight that this exists. Free to use and very reasonably priced to pay for and get offline reading etc. couldn’t sing higher praise ### 5/5 — Very good app *2026-07-15* I love the fact that I can ddl story. But I would love something like Google translate integrated nto the app. English is not my first language and sometime I don’t understand words. With my pc I use google translate but sadly I can’t with the app. ### 5/5 — Great spot to put a novel *2026-06-19, version 2.43* I love the format and community here. It’s awesome! Wish uploading chapters was a bit less clunky, but great overall. Check out Transcendent: Ultra! ### 5/5 — . The best app ever *2026-06-05, version 2.42* Easy read ap e A ### 5/5 — So good 😊 *2026-05-25* I was super happy with what I got, I can read books and write and PUBLISH. I just love it so much pls download ### 5/5 — The User Interface and Reading Experience *2026-05-25* I love the dark mode of Royal Roads; the dictionary is pretty helpful and the read loud, even though I tried it only twice, can be very helpful for visually impaired people. Overall, Royal Roads provides a very neat reading experience and the novels are pretty entertaining as well. Compared to some other web novel websites where you can find some garbage on front page, Royal Roads provides with a well curated novels on the front and I liked it personally. There is some room for improvements but it’s not a dealbreaker to me. Developers seem pretty honest with their work as well. ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-05-06, version 2.34* As a writer this app has helped me write consistently. Adding and publishing chapters is fairly easy and seing readers following my story is very encouraging. Give it a try ### 5/5 — Easy start *2026-05-02, version 2.33* I’ve been on here for a year and so far so good. You write and submit. I haven’t been denied publishing yet, so not sure where that bar is. I’m a nobody, not social media popular, or friends with a lot of people who help boost my books. Yet I still found someone to read my stuff. Pretty happy with that. --- *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 2026-08-30.*