Comparison

Serial Reader vs Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

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

Head to head
About

Serial Reader

Read classic literature in daily, manageable segments. This app breaks down over 900 books into daily issues, each readable in 20 minutes or less, helping you build reading habits and tackle lengthy classics. Customize your reading experience with various themes, fonts, and sync options.

Highlights
  • Daily book installments
  • Over 900 classic books
  • Serialize your own EPUBs
  • Sync with Goodreads/Readwise
  • Word lookup
  • Reading streaks and badges
Features
Read full description

Read classic books in daily bite-sized bits!  Serial Reader helps you fit more reading into your busy life. Choose from more than 900 books — or add your own! — and the app delivers a new issue from the book every day. Build great reading habits and tackle daunting classic books. Each daily issue can be read in 20 minutes or less, making it easy to fit reading into your spare time! Picked as one of Apple's Best New Apps and Best New App Updates. "This free app will make you ridiculously well-read in 20 minutes a day" — Mashable "For those who are intimidated by thick, leather-bound tomes, Serial Reader is a good way to break it all down" — The Washington Post • Read hundreds of popular classic books for free • Large variety of themes & fonts • Serialize your own EPUB books • Sync to Goodreads and Readwise • Lookup words with quick dictionary & Wikipedia access • Earn fun badges and track your reading streaks Plus, with the Serial Premium upgrade: • Read tomorrow's issue early • Sync your reading across multiple devices • Save quotes & notes while reading • Save books to Read Later • Pause delivery of new issues • Pick specific delivery days and hours for new issues • Custom app icons "Serial Reader’s subscription format makes it a little bit more fun to crank through the classics" — Lifehacker "A useful tool that makes it easy in our modern world to make classic books part of your reading diet" — MacStories More than 900 books available in the app with new titles added each week. Every book is free to read! A preview of available books: Most Popular • Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen • A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens • The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald • Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky • War & Peace - Leo Tolstoy • Les Misérables - Victor Hugo • The Time Machine - H.G. Wells • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde • The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway American Lit • Moby-Dick - Herman Melville • Little Women - Louisa May Alcott • My Antonia - Willa Cather • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Adventure • The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas • Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson • Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe • The Odyssey - Homer • King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard Romance • Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte • Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy • Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare Science Fiction • The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne • A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs Horror • Dracula - Bram Stoker • The Dunwich Horror - H.P. Lovecraft • Frankenstein - Mary Shelley • The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe • The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers • The Wendigo - Algernon Blackwood Mystery • The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle • The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie • The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins Biography • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass • Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup Children's • Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll • The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame • Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery Fantasy • The Well at the World's End - William Morris • Time and the Gods - Lord Dunsany • The Wood Beyond the World - William Morris Philosophy • The Republic - Plato • Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes • Rights of Man - Thomas Paine Nonfiction • Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft • On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin • The Federalist Papers • The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Westerns • Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey • The Virginian - Owen Wister • Gunman's Reckoning - Max Brand Religion • King James Bible • The Dhammapada • The Quran Build great reading habits and finish classic books in days with Serial Reader!

About

Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

Access over 100,000 free public domain eBooks from Project Gutenberg. Enjoy a customizable reading experience with features like text-to-speech, auto-scrolling, and note-taking. Download books for offline reading on any device.

Highlights
  • Unlimited eBook downloads
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Text-to-Speech (TTS) mode
  • Auto-scrolling mode
  • Bookmark, highlight, and notes
  • Offline reading
Features
Read full description

Gutenberg Reader – The Ultimate Free eBook & Classic Book Reader Discover 100,000+ Free eBooks with Project Gutenberg If you love books, novels, and classic literature, this is the perfect eBook reader for you! With Gutenberg Reader, you can access over 100,000 free eBooks from Project Gutenberg, including timeless classics, historical texts, philosophy, poetry, and more. Enjoy reading legendary works from Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo, Emily Brontë, and many others—all legally available in the public domain. What is Project Gutenberg? Project Gutenberg is the largest digital library of free public domain eBooks, offering a vast collection of literature, philosophy, history, and poetry—completely free and legally accessible. Whether you're interested in classic novels, educational texts, famous speeches, or timeless stories, you'll find endless reading material at your fingertips. Top Features of Gutenberg Reader ・ Unlimited eBook Downloads – Download books for offline reading anytime. ・ Customizable Reading Experience – Adjust fonts, themes, colors, margins, and more. ・ AUDIO: Text-to-Speech (TTS) Mode – Listen to your favorite books while reading along. ・ Auto-Scrolling Mode – Hands-free reading without flipping pages. ・ Full-Screen Mode – Distraction-free reading with an immersive experience. ・ Bookmark, Highlight & Notes – Save quotes, mark passages, and take notes. ・ Big & Bold Fonts – Ideal for easy readability and accessibility. ・ Smart Resume Feature – Pick up reading right where you left off. ・ Optimized for All Devices – Works smoothly on both phones and tablets. Popular Free Books Available in Gutenberg Reader Discover a vast collection of classic literature, novels, and timeless books, including: ・ Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen ・ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll ・ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain ・ A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens ・ The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People – Oscar Wilde ・ The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman ・ Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ・ Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain ・ A Doll's House – Henrik Ibsen ・ Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka ・ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle ・ Moby-Dick – Herman Melville ・ Dracula – Bram Stoker ・ Grimms' Fairy Tales – Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm ・ The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde ・ Great Expectations – Charles Dickens ・ Ulysses – James Joyce ・ Emma – Jane Austen ・ Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad ・ Jane Eyre: An Autobiography – Charlotte Brontë ・ The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas ・ Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse ・ Dubliners – James Joyce ・ Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson ・ Les Misérables – Victor Hugo ・ Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes ・ Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie ・ Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen ・ The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky ・ Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman ・ The Souls of Black Folk – W.E.B. Du Bois ・ Beyond Good and Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche ・ Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë ・ A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle ・ Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky …and thousands more free eBooks! Why Choose Gutenberg Reader? With Gutenberg Reader, you can carry a massive digital library of classic books, novels, and free eBooks wherever you go. Whether you love fiction, history, philosophy, poetry, or educational texts, this app gives you unlimited access to some of the greatest literary works of all time—without ads and completely free! Start Reading Today! Download Gutenberg Reader now and explore the world’s greatest free eBook library. Whether you're a book lover, student, researcher, or casual reader, this app is your gateway to endless knowledge and literary adventures—all from the palm of your hand. Happy Reading!

Screenshots

Serial Reader4 screens
Gutenberg Reader + Many Books4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Serial Reader at 95% against Gutenberg Reader + Many Books's 45%. Serial Reader also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.6) and ads (none vs shown). Gutenberg Reader + Many Books's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, monetization model and device support 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. Serial Reader sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Gutenberg Reader + Many Books asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Serial Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Serial Reader has 4.1K ratings behind it against 118, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Serial Reader's written reviews are positive against 45% of Gutenberg Reader + Many Books's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Serial Reader ships an update every 3 months, Gutenberg Reader + Many Books every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Serial Reader versus Gutenberg Reader + Many Books: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSerial ReaderGutenberg Reader + Many Books
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.1K ratings) — better3.6 (118 ratings)
Positive reviews95.2% of reviews — better44.7% of reviews
Number of ratings4.1K — better118
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB20 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperMichael SchmittHaven Tran

Customer experience

Serial Reader

All ratings4,104 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews227 reviews
Positive95.2%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.5%

Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

All ratings116 ratings
Positive62.1%
Neutral7.8%
Negative30.2%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive44.7%
Neutral2.6%
Negative52.6%

User reviews

Serial Reader

From 4.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Bite-sized reading
  • 📚 Wide selection of classics
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 💰 Free with affordable premium upgrade
  • 🎉 Motivating achievements and badges

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues across devices
  • 🔍 Limited customization options
  • 🕰️ Inflexible delivery schedule
  • 🤔 Lack of modern/non-classic book selection

Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

From 118 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💰 Free access to classics
  • 📚 Large library of classic books
  • 📖 Ability to adjust text (font, size)
  • 🎧 Audiobook option available
  • 🔖 Bookmark functionality

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App hangs often
  • 🐛 Speed of moving text uncontrollable
  • 😵 Difficult to navigate/understand
  • 🖼️ No illustrations shown
  • 🚫 No summary before download

Bugs and requests

Serial Reader

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App crashes when changing fonts
  • Issues with new chapter delivery not working

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more modern/non-classic book options
  • Improve sync functionality across devices
  • Allow more customization of reading experience
  • Provide flexible delivery schedule options

Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • App hangs often
  • Speed of moving text uncontrollable
  • Illustrations do not show up
  • Does not sync between separate devices
  • Search function is not working correctly
Show 11 more
  • Ads are intrusive
  • App support link is broken
  • Books keep getting deleted
  • Takes ages to load, still doesn't load
  • No download functionality
  • Does not display Umlauts
  • Words are split at random
  • Search button renders incorrectly
  • Reports 404 on book downloads
  • Many bugs, unable to read books
  • Too many ads

Requested features

9 requests
  • Fix app hanging issues
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow users to rate & review books
  • Add book summaries before download
  • Fix illustrations not showing
Show 4 more
  • Sync between separate devices
  • Improve paragraph formatting for dyslexia
  • Fix books deleting overnight
  • Make UI more modern and intuitive

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Serial Reader

One-time5
  • Tip Jar - Essay$1.99
  • Serial Premium$2.99
  • Tip Jar - Short Story$4.99
Show 2 more
  • Tip Jar - Novel$9.99
  • Tip Jar - Epic$14.99
None

Gutenberg Reader + Many Books

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Serial Reader free?
Serial Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Gutenberg Reader + Many Books free?
Gutenberg Reader + Many Books is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Serial Reader or Gutenberg Reader + Many Books?
Serial Reader is rated higher. Serial Reader averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Gutenberg Reader + Many Books averages 3.6 from 118 ratings.
Do Serial Reader or Gutenberg Reader + Many Books have ads?
Gutenberg Reader + Many Books shows ads; Serial Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, Serial Reader or Gutenberg Reader + Many Books?
Serial Reader ships an update every 3 months, and Gutenberg Reader + Many Books every 3 weeks. Most recently, Serial Reader was updated on October 26, 2026 and Gutenberg Reader + Many Books on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons