Comparison

Kortext vs Bookly

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Kortext

Access and read eBooks from various publishers with enhanced multimedia. Tools are included to help learners and academics engage with their content, offering features like note-taking, referencing, and text-to-speech.

Highlights
  • Read PDF and EPUB files
  • Access 13,000+ free eTextbooks
  • Highlight text and create notes
  • Add Harvard/APA references
  • Read Aloud functionality
  • Adjust text size and background
  • Search within books
  • 500MB free cloud storage
Currently charting
Read full description

Kortext provides access to online eBooks from multiple publishers, with enhanced in-built audio and video content, combined with tools to assist learners and academics to make the most of their content. Features include: - Add and read PDF/EPUB files from your iPhone and iPad - Enjoy free access to a collection of over 13,000 eTextbooks - Easy navigation to content, providing quick access to pages - Highlight text in a range of colours and create notes, enabling quick reference of key sections - Add a reference (Harvard or APA), making creation of bibliographies much easier - Read Aloud sections, providing help with accessing content - Increase text size, change font and background of pages making it easier to view content - Search for keywords and phrases within the books directly from your bookshelf, allowing quicker access to relevant content - 500MB of free cloud file storage. Simply upload your study materials and harness the full potential within

About

Bookly

This app helps you track your reading habits in real-time, manage your library, and set reading goals. It offers detailed statistics, custom ratings, and ambient sounds to enhance your reading experience and build a consistent reading habit.

Highlights
  • Real-time reading timer
  • Detailed reading statistics
  • Custom book ratings
  • Book library management
  • Reading goals and reminders
  • Character tracking
  • Readathon tracking
Features
Read full description

Bookly helps you track your reading in real-time, manage your books, make a habit out of reading and see your progress over time. Add books, e-books or audiobooks to your collections, use the timer to track your reading and get access to awesome stats that will help you improve and read even more. Set goals and reminders to stay motivated, get weekly and monthly or yearly reports on your progress. You can better rate your books by going beyond the classic five star ratings by adding custom ones like: inspiration, heartfelt, love, spice, humor, and many more. Bookly also allows half-star ratings. TRACK YOUR READING IN REAL-TIME - Start the timer every time you read with a simple tap - Record your current page number of the books you're reading - See how long it will take you to finish the book at your current pace - Set a Book Goal to finish your book by a given time - Add your own rating, thoughts, and quotes for each book - Play ambient sounds while you read - Generate awesome Infographics style reports for every book - Unlock achievements to stay motivated and read even more GET READING STATS & RESULTS - Get tons of insightful Stats: total read time, pages read, reading speed, estimated book finish time, daily reading time, days you read in a row, reading streak and more - Generate Reading Reports with graphs and stats per book/month/year - Set Monthly or Yearly Goals in number of hours, pages or books - Set daily reminders to keep you motivated to achieve your reading goals - Use the powerful Bookly Assistant to read more, get personalized reading suggestions, reminders, reports and a lot more - Share your progress directly from the app KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BOOKS - Track and manage your entire library of books, e-books and audiobooks - Setup your own custom book Collections, like "Wishlist", "Favourites" - Get book details by scanning the ISBN barcode or searching online directly in the app - Store and sync your books among devices using iCloud - Never lose a book again, mark a book as lent or borrowed KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BOOK CHARACTERS - Track and manage all characters that you meet in your reading journey - Track how they evolve over time, what challenges they face, the relationships between them and much more. KEEP TRACK OF READATHONS - Track your readathon progress in real time - Track books read, reading time and pages for any period of time - Track readathon prompts - Get notifications and stay on track - - - Bookly is free to download and use. No online account or signup needed. The Pro version is free with a 7 day trial, after which we offer three subscription packages: $4.99/month (1 Month Subscription), $19.99/6 months (6 Month Subscription), and $29.99/year (1 Year Subscription). All other features remain free to use indefinitely. These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. Subscription service conditions: - Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase - Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period - Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period - You can manage your subscription and switch off auto-renewal by accessing your Account Settings after purchase - Refunds will not be provided for any unused portion of the term - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable - All personal data is handled under the terms and conditions of Bookly’s privacy policy. More details can be found here: http://getbookly.com/privacy-policy/ http://getbookly.com/terms-of-use/ *Important: This app is for book TRACKING and MANAGEMENT. Book content and the actual reading is not done in the app.*

Screenshots

Kortext4 screens
Bookly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bookly at 84% against Kortext's 17%. Bookly also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.9) and ratings volume (62K vs 1.3K). Kortext's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 17) and ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bookly sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Kortext asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bookly holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookly has 62K ratings behind it against 1.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 17% of Kortext's written reviews are positive against 84% of Bookly's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kortext ships an update every 2 months, Bookly monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Kortext versus Bookly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKortextBookly
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (1.3K ratings)4.6 (62K ratings) — better
Positive reviews17.4% of reviews83.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.3K62K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#89#19 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB475 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperKortextTwoDoor Games

Customer experience

Kortext

All ratings1,339 ratings
Positive69.8%
Neutral6.2%
Negative24.0%
Written reviews374 reviews
Positive17.4%
Neutral7.2%
Negative75.4%

Bookly

All ratings62,090 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral4.3%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews2,697 reviews
Positive83.8%
Neutral7.0%
Negative9.1%

User reviews

Kortext

From 1.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 💡 Helpful features like highlighting and note-taking
  • 👍 Convenient to access textbooks on the go
  • 🚀 Efficient for studying

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🐛 Unreliable performance
  • 🐛 Overlapping text and pages
  • 🐛 Inconsistent navigation and page turning
  • 🐛 Laggy and slow

Bookly

From 62K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for tracking reading progress
  • 🚀 Motivates users to read more
  • 📊 Provides detailed reading statistics
  • 💡 Allows adding quotes, thoughts, and new words
  • 👍 User-friendly interface and design

Room to improve

  • 💰 Paywall for many features
  • 🔒 Limited functionality in free version
  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Difficulty finding/adding some books
  • 🔢 Limit on number of books that can be added

Bugs and requests

Kortext

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Pages not loading properly
  • Highlighting and annotations not saving
  • Login issues and inability to access content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved text-to-speech functionality
  • Better organization and navigation of content
  • Ability to customize text size and layout
  • Syncing across multiple devices
  • Offline reading mode

Bookly

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Reading sessions not always accurately recorded
  • Inconsistencies in page count/progress tracking
  • Syncing issues between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to delete/edit books
  • Option to track audiobook progress
  • Sync reading progress across devices
  • More customization options
  • Integration with other reading apps

In-app purchases

None

Kortext

No in-app purchases

16 purchases

Bookly

Subscriptions10
  • Monthly Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Monthly Pro Family Plan$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Plan7 Days trial$9.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Yearly Pro 50% OFF$14.991 Year
  • Six Months of Pro$19.996 Months
  • Yearly Pro 30% OFF$19.991 Year
  • Yearly Pro$29.991 Year
  • Yearly Pro (50% OFF 1st year trial)1 Year trial$29.991 Year
  • Yearly Pro 20% OFF3 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • Yearly Pro Family Plan$49.991 Year
One-time6
  • 10 extra reading days$0.99
  • A handful of Diamonds$0.99
  • A big bag of Diamonds$2.99
Show 3 more
  • A chest of Diamonds$5.99
  • Bookly Pro$79.99
  • Bookly Pro Lifetime$149.99

Questions

Is Kortext free?
Kortext is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bookly free?
Bookly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Kortext or Bookly?
Bookly is rated higher. Kortext averages 3.9 out of 5 from 1.3K ratings, while Bookly averages 4.6 from 62K ratings.
Do Kortext or Bookly have ads?
Bookly shows ads; Kortext does not.
Which is updated more often, Kortext or Bookly?
Kortext ships an update every 2 months, and Bookly monthly. Most recently, Kortext was updated on October 18, 2026 and Bookly on October 20, 2026.
Which is more popular, Kortext or Bookly?
Kortext currently peaks at #89 in the App Store charts, and Bookly at #19. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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