Comparison

Serial Reader vs Concord Reader +

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

Concord Reader +

Access a vast digital library of theatrical scripts and sheet music. Enhance your reading experience with interactive notes and highlighting. Seamlessly sync your progress and notes across all your devices.

Highlights
  • Access over 2,000 plays and musicals
  • Interactive notes and highlighting
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Group access for classrooms/rehearsals
  • Digital sheet music
Features
Read full description

Introducing Concord Reader+, a new interactive ePlay Reader service from Concord Theatricals that puts the world’s best scripts and sheet music at your fingertips. With over 2,000 plays and musicals available, you can explore the largest digital collection of theatrical works in the world on your mobile device, tablet or computer. Concord Reader + features include: INSTANT ACCESS ePlays, Perusals and Digital Sheet Music from Concord Theatricals will automatically appear in your Concord Reader+ app and will work on all popular tablets and smart phones. INTERACTIVE READING Once you access your ePlay or Perusal, keep your thoughts organized with our interactive features. You can enhance your experience by adding notes, highlighting dialogue, and much more. UNINTERRUPTED READING ACROSS DEVICES Concord Reader+ picks up where you left off. Across mobile devices, tablets and computers, Concord Reader+ stays up to date with your bookmarks and notes no matter where you are. ENHANCE THE CLASSROOM OR REHEARSAL ROOM Now, with group access capabilities, script distribution is as easy as pressing a button. Teachers and directors can access a full a set of ePlays for your cast and creative team. Once a group license is redeemed, students and/or cast members receive a code granting access to the ePlay! ABOUT CONCORD THEATRICALS Concord Theatricals is the world’s most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection. Our unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Ken Ludwig, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder and August Wilson. We are the only firm providing truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class production.

Screenshots

Serial Reader4 screens
Concord Reader +4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Serial Reader at 95% against Concord Reader +'s 14%. Serial Reader also leads on rating (4.8 vs 1.8) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 21). Concord Reader +'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.6). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Concord Reader + asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Serial Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Serial Reader has 4.1K ratings behind it against 21, 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 14% of Concord Reader +'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and June 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Serial Reader versus Concord Reader +: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSerial ReaderConcord Reader +
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.1K ratings) — better1.8 (21 ratings)
Positive reviews94.9% of reviews — better14.3% of reviews
Number of ratings4.1K — better21
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.611.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB101 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperMichael SchmittConcord Music Group, Incorporated

Customer experience

Serial Reader

All ratings4,082 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews215 reviews
Positive94.9%
Neutral1.4%
Negative3.7%

Concord Reader +

All ratings21 ratings
Positive19.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative81.0%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative85.7%

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

Concord Reader +

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

Concord Reader +

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Serial Reader free?
Serial Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Concord Reader + free?
Concord Reader + is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Serial Reader or Concord Reader +?
Serial Reader is rated higher. Serial Reader averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Concord Reader + averages 1.8 from 21 ratings.
Do Serial Reader or Concord Reader + have ads?
Neither Serial Reader nor Concord Reader + shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Serial Reader or Concord Reader +?
Serial Reader ships an update every 3 months, and Concord Reader + every 3 months. Most recently, Serial Reader was updated on September 30, 2026 and Concord Reader + on June 10, 2026.

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