NLB Mobile vs Books Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NLB Mobile
Access a vast collection of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers. Borrow physical items, take online courses, and manage your library account and family's accounts easily. Discover new digital resources and log in securely with QR Login.
- Read ebooks and audiobooks
- Access eMagazines and eNewspapers
- Take online courses
- Borrow physical library items
- Manage library accounts
- QR Login for easy sign-in
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This application is brought to you by the National Library Board, a Singapore Government Agency. Discover a world of learning with the NLB Mobile app, anywhere, anytime: • Read ebooks and listen to audiobooks • Read current eMagazines and eNewspapers • Access online courses • Borrow physical library items using your mobile device • Discover new digital resources and sign in to our websites easily with QR Login • Manage your library account, and also your family’s accounts
Books Reader
This app provides a seamless e-reading experience, managing your ebook collection and offering customizable reading settings. It supports various formats and includes features like bookmarking, note-taking, and a read/unread tracker.
- Supports multiple ebook formats (epub, fb2, mobi, PDF)
- Manages and organizes ebook collections
- Customizable text size, color, theme, and brightness
- Progress tracking and bookmarking
- Note-taking and excerpt selection
- Read/unread book tracker
- Filtering and search functionality
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Books Reader - its a perfect e-reading experience. Overdrive your reading skills everyday. For everyone reader we gift free books and e-reading collections. Books Reader is a laconic pocket library and intuitive tool for a perfect reading experience. Without extra fluff or complexity, it takes care of all the basic needs: managing your ebook collections, getting the text on the screen and letting you interact with it as you go at your prime reading. For a start, the app builds a library for you by rounding up all the book files stored on the device. Books Reader works with most popular ebooks formats (epub, fb2, mobi etc.), including zip archives. If necessary, you can tweak the list manually, by adding or removing specific titles for ibooks. However big your collection gets, browsing will remain easy thanks to a provided set of filters. Besides, the system is keeping track of your history to display the books in order of relevance. Viewing the book, you can adjust the settings for the best effect: change size and color of the text, pick the right theme and brightness level, use various controls options for turning pages. The combination of a progress bar, bookmarking and a search tool help to navigate the text effortlessly. Make sure to select the excerpts that stayed with you and import them to Notes with just a couple of taps. Books Reader offers: - A variety of ebook formats (epub, fb2,PDF, mobi and others); - Auto unpacking of zip archives; - A smart manager of the books stored on your device; - Read/unread books tracker; - Filtering system (by author, by date added or read, etc.); - Adjustable page/text settings (brightness, size, color, theme and more); - Several controls methods (scrolling, tapping or using buttons); - Marking pages and taking notes. Privacy Policy: https://villow.studio/privacy Term Of Use: https://villow.studio/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Books Reader at 4.7 against NLB Mobile's 3.3. NLB Mobile's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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. Books Reader sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. NLB Mobile asks for nothing beyond the download.
Books Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 35 and 22 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 41% of NLB Mobile's written reviews are positive against 38% of Books Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
NLB Mobile ships an update monthly, Books Reader every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | NLB Mobile | Books Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (35 ratings) | 4.7 (22 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.3% of reviews — better | 37.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 35 — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 123 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | National Library Board Singapore | Villow |
Customer experience
NLB Mobile
Books Reader
In-app purchases
NLB Mobile
No in-app purchases
Books Reader
- Regular donation$1.991 Month
- Regular donation$3.991 Month
- Regular donation$5.991 Month
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- Regular donation$9.991 Month
- Donation$1.99
- Donation$3.99
- Donation$5.99
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- Donation$9.99
- Custom Fonts & Themes$9.99
Questions
Is NLB Mobile free?
Is Books Reader free?
Which has better reviews, NLB Mobile or Books Reader?
Do NLB Mobile or Books Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, NLB Mobile or Books Reader?
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