Revel by Pearson vs Cengage Read
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Revel by Pearson
Access interactive course materials offline and online, with progress syncing across devices. Listen to audio versions of texts, complete quizzes, and set reminders to stay on track with deadlines.
- Offline course material access
- Cross-device progress syncing
- Audio playback of texts
- In-app quizzes
- Customizable reminders and notifications
- Highlighting and note-taking
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With the Revel app from Pearson, you can read, practice, and study anytime and anywhere—and set notifications so you never miss a due date again. The Revel app lets you access your interactive course materials on your tablet or mobile phone, offline and online. Your progress automatically syncs across all devices (including your laptop or desktop computer), so you can learn as you move throughout your day—on the train, on the bus, or whenever you have a moment—without breaking stride. Check out some of the ways the Revel app lets you learn where you want to, when you want to. - Download course materials to your devices and read, practice, and study even when you're offline - Listen and learn as you go with full audio of your text (available for most courses) - Complete assigned quizzes on your device to prep for class whenever you have a moment - Set your own reminders and notifications so you never miss a deadline again - Highlight key passages and take notes at your convenience
Cengage Read
Access and study your digital textbooks from anywhere. This app allows students to read, take notes, highlight, bookmark, and use text-to-speech for a flexible learning experience on the go.
- Read eTextbooks on the go
- Take notes and highlight
- Bookmark important sections
- Text-to-speech functionality
- Search keywords
- Navigate via table of contents
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Read your eTextbook and study on the go with the Cengage Read app. Cengage Read lets students study whenever – and wherever – they want. Take notes, highlight and bookmark info, have the text read out loud with text-to-speech and easily search keywords and jump to pages with the table of contents. Just log in with your Cengage username and password to get started.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Revel by Pearson at 4.7 against Cengage Read's 4.2. Revel by Pearson also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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.
Revel by Pearson holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8.9K and 4.2K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 12% of Revel by Pearson's written reviews are positive against 20% of Cengage Read's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Revel by Pearson ships an update every 3 months, Cengage Read every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Revel by Pearson | Cengage Read |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (8.9K ratings) — better | 4.2 (4.2K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 12.4% of reviews | 19.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8.9K — better | 4.2K |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 261 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pearson Education, Inc. | Cengage Learning |
Customer experience
Revel by Pearson
Cengage Read
User reviews
Revel by Pearson
From 8.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Convenient app for accessing textbook
- 👍 Good learning tool with interactive features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔍 Poor user experience and interface
- 🔇 Audio playback issues
- 📱 Not optimized for mobile devices
- 💾 Unreliable sync and data saving
Cengage Read
From 4.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to read textbooks
- 🚀 Convenient for on-the-go learning
- 👍 Useful for listening to audio while commuting
- 👍 Allows highlighting and note-taking
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and glitchy
- 🔥 Poor text formatting and layout
- 👎 Difficult to navigate and use
- 🔒 Login and account issues
- 🔍 Missing key features like split-screen and assignment tracking
Bugs and requests
Revel by Pearson
Reported bugs
5 issues- Orientation issues when switching between pages
- Highlighting and text selection problems
- Inconsistent audio playback controls
- Frequent crashes and freezes
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
4 requests- Add portrait mode and zoom options
- Improve highlighting and note-taking features
- Implement bookmark/progress saving
- Allow offline access to textbook content
Cengage Read
Reported bugs
4 issues- Frequent crashes and sign-outs
- Inconsistent highlighting and note-taking functionality
- Inability to view full pages and content
- Text-to-speech feature not working properly
Requested features
4 requests- Improve text formatting and layout
- Add split-screen support for note-taking
- Enhance accessibility features like text-to-speech
- Integrate assignment and due date tracking
In-app purchases
Revel by Pearson
No in-app purchases
Cengage Read
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Revel by Pearson free?
Is Cengage Read free?
Which has better reviews, Revel by Pearson or Cengage Read?
Do Revel by Pearson or Cengage Read have ads?
Which is updated more often, Revel by Pearson or Cengage Read?
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