Comparison

OpenLibrary Browser vs Gutenberg | eBook Reader

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

Head to head
About

OpenLibrary Browser

Access a vast catalog of books directly from your mobile device. Search for titles, browse collections, and download public domain works for free.

Highlights
  • Search book catalog
  • Browse book collections
  • Download public domain works
  • Mobile client for OpenLibrary
Features
Read full description

A mobile client for the OpenLibrary website. Users can search and browse for books, and download available public domain works.

About

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Access a vast library of public domain e-books and audiobooks from around the world. Explore tens of thousands of titles across numerous languages and categories, including classics and popular works.

Highlights
  • Vast public domain e-book library
  • Extensive audiobook collection
  • Thousands of titles available
  • Multiple languages supported
  • Categorized book selection
  • Top 50 e-books listed
Features
Read full description

This app contains the largest public domain e-book and audio book platforms in the world. This application brings a large collection of e-books and audio books to your phone and makes more than 50.000 e-books, 10.000 audio books available for you. Thousands of books from different categories and languages. Languages with more than 50 e-books, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog. Top 50 e-books: 1- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 2- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 3- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 4- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 5- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 6- Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 7 -The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated by John Collingwood Bruce 8- Why Men Fight by Bertrand Russell 9- Dracula by Bram Stoker 10- The Young Train Dispatcher by Burton Egbert Stevenson 11- Il Principe. English by Niccolò Machiavelli 12- Et dukkehjem. English by Henrik Ibsen 13- Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem 14- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 15- Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary 16- Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson 17- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 18- Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm 19- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 20- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 21- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American 22- Slave by Frederick Douglass 23- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie 24- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin 25- The Iliad by Homer 26- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare 27- Red Wagon Stories by Wells Hawks 28- War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy 29- The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana 30- The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for 31- Serious People by Oscar Wilde 32- Common Sense by Thomas Paine 33- Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the 34- German army which participated in the war 35- The Romance of Lust: A Classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous 36- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 37- Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville 38- The War in the East by Trumbull White 39- Ulysses by James Joyce 40- Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë 41- The Key to Theosophy by H. P. Blavatsky 42- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 43- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 44- The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 45- The Theory of Environment by Armin Hajman Koller 46- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 47- The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin 48- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 49- Webster & Tourneur by Cyril Tourneur and John Webster 50- Prestuplenie i nakazanie. English by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Top Audio Books: 1- Pride and Prejudice 2- Jane Eyre 3- Persuasion 4- Anne of Green Gables 5- Emma 6- Little Women 7- The Count of Monte Cristo 8- Mansfield Park 9- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 10- Wuthering Heights 11- The Woman in White 12- Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 13- A Little Princess 14- Moby-Dick 15- Sense and Sensibility 16- North and South 17- Dracula 18- The Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet Pimpernel 19- The 39 Steps 20- The Picture of Dorian Gray 21- Tess of the D'Urbervilles 22- David Copperfield 23- My Man Jeeves 24- The Invisible Man 25- A Christmas Carol 26- The Secret Garden 27- Northanger Abbey 28- Uncle Tom's Cabin 29- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 30- The Return of Sherlock Holmes 31- Middlemarch 32- A Room with a View 33- Agnes Grey 34- Wives and Daughters 35- Around the World in Eighty Days 36- The Metamorphosis 37- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 38- Don QuixoteDon Quixote 39- The Importance of Being Earnest 40- A Tale of Two Cities Terms of Use(EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

OpenLibrary Browser4 screens
Gutenberg | eBook Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Gutenberg | eBook Reader at 69% against OpenLibrary Browser's 0%. Gutenberg | eBook Reader also leads on rating (4.5 vs 1.4) and ratings volume (713 vs 39). OpenLibrary Browser's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence 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. Gutenberg | eBook Reader sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. OpenLibrary Browser asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gutenberg | eBook Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gutenberg | eBook Reader has 713 ratings behind it against 39, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of OpenLibrary Browser's written reviews are positive against 69% of Gutenberg | eBook Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

OpenLibrary Browser ships an update every 3 months, Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
OpenLibrary Browser versus Gutenberg | eBook Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpenLibrary BrowserGutenberg | eBook Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.4 (39 ratings)4.5 (713 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews69.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings39713 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRobert WakefieldWebron Software LTD

Customer experience

OpenLibrary Browser

All ratings39 ratings
Positive7.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative92.3%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

All ratings713 ratings
Positive89.2%
Neutral2.8%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral6.2%
Negative24.6%

Bugs and requests

OpenLibrary Browser

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Search returns no results or irrelevant results
  • Books listed on Project Gutenberg not appearing in app
  • App fails to download certain books
  • Reading progress not saved between sessions
  • Continuous scroll instead of page-by-page display
Show 2 more
  • Search function completely non-functional for some users
  • App crashes or becomes unresponsive

Requested features

10 requests
  • Improved search functionality with better filtering
  • Better book organization and categorization system
  • Dictionary/word definition feature
  • Improved paragraph spacing and text formatting
  • Page-by-page navigation instead of chapter-based
Show 5 more
  • Ability to delete books from library
  • Bookmark and reading progress saving
  • More non-fiction and contemporary book titles
  • Author search by first and last name
  • Reduced or optional advertisements

In-app purchases

None

OpenLibrary Browser

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Weekly Subscription$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$4.997 Days
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Subscription$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium$39.99
  • Lifetime Premium$39.99

Questions

Is OpenLibrary Browser free?
OpenLibrary Browser is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Gutenberg | eBook Reader free?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, OpenLibrary Browser or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is rated higher. OpenLibrary Browser averages 1.4 out of 5 from 39 ratings, while Gutenberg | eBook Reader averages 4.5 from 713 ratings.
Do OpenLibrary Browser or Gutenberg | eBook Reader have ads?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader shows ads; OpenLibrary Browser does not.
Which is updated more often, OpenLibrary Browser or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
OpenLibrary Browser ships an update every 3 months, and Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. Most recently, OpenLibrary Browser was updated on September 9, 2026 and Gutenberg | eBook Reader on September 23, 2026.

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