Comparison

Short Stories* vs Cade

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

Head to head
About

Short Stories*

Features
Read full description

Inspirational Short Stories is a popular short story app, with a collection of 100+ inspirational short stories. It's for every one, which you can enjoy short stories while travelling, in short breaks and in free time. If you always wonder what to do in those 5-minute wait breaks, now you have the answer. Thought provoking short stories that will inspire you, enable better visualization and will allow you to explore hidden corners of your brain. This is also perfect you want to develop reading habit (there cannot be a better start than with inspirational short stories), but at the same time it's for everyone from intense to casual readers. Key features: # Collection of 100+ stories spread across multiple volumes. # Share your favorite short story with your friends/family, through social media/text/whatsapp/email etc. # Listen to the short stories with one click play button. # Three different reading themes to suit your eyes, along with choice of font (and text size). # Keeps track of read and unread stories, and sort accordingly. # Submit a short story and it will be published in the next release. # Contact developer directly from internal menu, for suggestions, feature requests, complaints, or even just say Hi! This inspirational short stories app is under active development, so please if you like or don't like anything, let us know before you give us a bad review. We promise we will get back to you at the earliest. If you have a feature to request or a bug to report ,please drop a mail at mala.softtechno@gmail.com. Also you can send inspirational short stories on this mail and we'll publish them in next release along with your name. We respond to every email. Thank you for trying out this beautiful short stories app. This app is free, and always will be. Thank you :)

About

Cade

Discover and create ultra-short fiction stories, designed for brief mobile interactions. This app explores a new literary format tailored to how people use their phones, challenging writers to tell complete narratives within 500 words.

Highlights
  • Ultra-short fiction stories
  • Brevity-focused literary format
  • Writer's challenge: complete stories in 500 words
  • Includes Isaac Asimov's mini-story
  • Designed for mobile interaction
Features
Read full description

A "Cade" is a self-contained super short fiction story that spans a maximum of 500 words. We embarked on this experiment due to two observations. Firstly, our current reading experience on smartphones is limited to transcribed literary formats, essentially reading printed books through reading apps. Secondly, our interactions with phones are predominantly brief, involving activities such as checking Instagram stories, reading news headlines, checking the weather, or engaging in quick chat messages. By combining these observations, we aimed to explore whether there was an opportunity to create a literary format specifically tailored to the way people interact with their phones, rather than the other way around. From the perspective of the writer, this format presents a challenge: Can you tell a complete story within 500 words? A similar challenge was posed to the renowned science fiction writer Isaac Asimov back in 1957. During a panel, he was asked to spontaneously write a story, resulting in a mini-story called "Insert knob A, in hole B," which consisted of only 350 words. In this spirit, we are reprinting Asimov's story as our first Cade, showcasing the brevity and creativity that can be achieved within this format.

Screenshots

Short Stories*4 screens
Cade4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cade at none against Short Stories*'s 1. Short Stories*'s advantage is iOS requirement (7.1 vs 14.0). 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. Short Stories* sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cade asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Short Stories* versus Cade: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShort Stories*Cade
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS7.1 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB31 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperRAVINDHIRAN SUMITHRALuca Columbu

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Short Stories*

One-time1
  • Short Stories Ads Free Version$2.99
None

Cade

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Short Stories* free?
Short Stories* is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cade free?
Cade is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Short Stories* or Cade have ads?
Neither Short Stories* nor Cade shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Short Stories* or Cade?
Short Stories* ships an update every 3 weeks, and Cade every 3 weeks. Most recently, Short Stories* was updated on November 11, 2026 and Cade on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons