Comparison

Serial Reader vs Tertulia

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

Tertulia

Discover your next favorite book with curated recommendations from across the web. Organize your reading lists and purchase books seamlessly. Enjoy the best bookstore membership for passionate readers.

Highlights
  • Book recommendations from social media, podcasts, and web
  • Reading list tracking
  • Seamless book purchasing (US only)
  • Bookstore membership benefits
  • Discover trending books
Features
Read full description

Welcome booklovers! Tertulia is a one-stop shop for finding your next great read, keeping track of your reading lists and purchasing books with the best bookstore membership for avid readers. Tertulia serves up book recommendations from across social media, podcasts, and the web — all in one app which incorporates seamless book purchasing (US only). If a book has moved someone enough to get them talking, you can find it, buy it, and share it on Tertulia.

Screenshots

Serial Reader4 screens
Tertulia4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tertulia at none against Serial Reader's 5. Tertulia also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). Serial Reader's advantage is review sentiment (95% vs 67%) and ratings volume (4.1K vs 507). On price, rating, 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. Tertulia asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Serial Reader against 4.7 for Tertulia. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Serial Reader has 4.1K ratings behind it against 507, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Serial Reader's written reviews are positive against 67% of Tertulia's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Serial Reader ships an update every 3 months, Tertulia weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Serial Reader versus Tertulia: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSerial ReaderTertulia
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4.1K ratings) — better4.7 (507 ratings)
Positive reviews95.1% of reviews — better67.2% of reviews
Number of ratings4.1K — better507
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB14 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperMichael SchmittTertulia, Inc.

Customer experience

Serial Reader

All ratings4,104 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews224 reviews
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.6%

Tertulia

All ratings507 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive67.2%
Neutral8.2%
Negative24.6%

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

Tertulia

From 507 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and efficient app
  • 👍 Visually appealing and user-friendly design
  • 💡 Excellent book discovery and recommendations
  • 👍 Convenient book tracking and management
  • 🚀 Quick delivery of purchased books

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitchy and slow performance issues
  • 🔍 Lack of detailed book descriptions
  • 💸 Overly commercial focus on selling books
  • 🔍 Inconsistent or missing order tracking/history

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

Tertulia

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Login and account issues
  • Disappearing user book lists
  • Inconsistent pricing and shipping information

Requested features

4 requests
  • iPad app version
  • Ability to rate and review books read
  • Improved personalized recommendations
  • Smoother scrolling and list management

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

Tertulia

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Serial Reader free?
Serial Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tertulia free?
Tertulia is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Serial Reader or Tertulia?
Serial Reader is rated higher. Serial Reader averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4.1K ratings, while Tertulia averages 4.7 from 507 ratings.
Do Serial Reader or Tertulia have ads?
Neither Serial Reader nor Tertulia shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Serial Reader or Tertulia?
Serial Reader ships an update every 3 months, and Tertulia weekly. Most recently, Serial Reader was updated on October 15, 2026 and Tertulia on October 11, 2026.

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