BookBub vs Simon & Schuster Books
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BookBub
Discover daily deals on bestselling and free ebooks across all genres. Track your wishlist and receive price alerts for your favorite titles, ensuring you never miss a sale on books you want to read.
- Daily ebook deals
- Hundreds of free ebooks
- Personalized recommendations
- Wishlist tracking
- Price alerts
- Genre and price filtering
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Discover amazing deals on bestselling ebooks, plus hundreds of free ebooks. Track your wishlist and get alerts when your most wanted titles go on sale. BookBub helps millions of readers save money on ebooks they'll love. Our expert editors hand pick incredible ebook deals every day across all major genres — romance, mystery, thrillers, women's fiction, fantasy, contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and many more — from bestselling authors to hidden gems. WHY READERS LOVE BOOKBUB: THE BIGGEST EBOOKS, UP TO 95% OFF We feature limited-time ebook deals from all major retailers. Get huge savings on the biggest books and authors, including #1 New York Times bestsellers. HUNDREDS OF FREE EBOOKS Unlock a vast selection of free ebooks across 40+ genres, with new titles added each day YOUR PERSONAL BOOK TRACKER Build your reading wishlist and never miss a sale. Add any book you want to read, and we'll notify you when it's discounted. Track your TBR (to-be-read) list, sort by release date or author, and mark it as read when you're done. PERSONALIZED TO YOUR READING TASTE Our editorial team hand picks from thousands of ebooks to bring you only the best — from BookTok favorites to award-winning fiction. FEATURES: - Browse daily ebook deals personalized to your reading preferences - Track unlimited books on your wishlist - Get price alerts for specific titles or favorite authors - Discover popular titles to add to your list - Filter deals by genre and price - Buy from your favorite ebook store "When we say 'deal,' we mean it — many of BookBub's titles are free entirely, $0.99, or just a couple of bucks." — Lifehacker "Bargain-basement deals on ebooks." — The New York Times Join millions of happy readers saving money on ebooks every day. Questions? Visit bookbub.com/apphelp
Simon & Schuster Books
Access your purchased ebooks and audiobooks from simonandschuster.com. Enjoy offline reading and listening with features like bookmarking, customizable text, and a sleep timer. Seamlessly continue your reading across devices.
- Offline access to purchased content
- Audiobook player with sleep timer
- Ebook reader with customizable fonts
- Cross-device bookmarking
- Full text search
- Background audiobook playback
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An ebook and audiobook app designed exclusively for purchases made at simonandschuster.com. Welcome to the Simon & Schuster books app, powered by Glassboxx. We are delighted to offer you an easy and secure way to enjoy your ebook and audiobook purchases. No password required – you can either use our social sign on with Apple or Google, or simply log in with the email address used to buy the book and enter the verification code sent to your email – and your content awaits in the ‘My books’ area of the app, with formats clearly labelled. With the content in the cloud, downloading requires an initial internet connection. Once downloaded, you can access your books and enjoy them offline. THE EREADER ALLOWS FOR: • Page book-marking, opening the title at the right place when you pick up, even across multiple devices • Font-size and font face changes, as well as dyslexic-friendly font • Page colour themes (white, dark, and sepia) • Full text search • Highlighting • Annotations THE AUDIO-PLAYER WILL: • Auto-save your current position in the book – so that you can pick up right where you left off, even if listening on different devices • Allow for skip forward/backward to recap where relevant • Offer sleep timer option • Play on lock-screen, enabling easy access to playback controls • Play in background whilst browsing other apps • Play immediately, and download in the background (provided internet access is available) • Display accompanying materials for the audiobook • Integrate with Apple Car Play • Connect to Airplay devices
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: BookBub at 54% against Simon & Schuster Books's 0%. BookBub also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Simon & Schuster Books's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
BookBub holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BookBub has 961 ratings behind it against 116, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of BookBub's written reviews are positive against 0% of Simon & Schuster Books's.
BookBub ships an update every 3 weeks, Simon & Schuster Books every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BookBub | Simon & Schuster Books |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (961 ratings) — better | 4.4 (116 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 54.4% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 961 — better | 116 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #77 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Pubmark Inc. | Glassboxx Limited |
Customer experience
BookBub
Simon & Schuster Books
Bugs and requests
BookBub
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes or freezes during use
- Sign-up and login issues
- Incompatibility with certain devices or operating systems
Requested features
4 requests- Add support for Kindle and other ebook platforms
- Implement search and filtering options
- Allow users to manage their reading lists and leave reviews
- Improve email subscription management
Simon & Schuster Books
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BookBub
No in-app purchases
Simon & Schuster Books
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is BookBub free?
Is Simon & Schuster Books free?
Which has better reviews, BookBub or Simon & Schuster Books?
Do BookBub or Simon & Schuster Books have ads?
Which is updated more often, BookBub or Simon & Schuster Books?
Other comparisons
