SIMS Student vs Cambridge Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SIMS Student
Access your school life details with this application. You must be invited by your school to use its features.
- Access school life details
- School-specific access
- Student portal
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SIMS Student gives students access to the details of their school life. Please note that you need to have been invited by your school in order to use this app.
Cambridge Reader
Access your Cambridge University Press ebooks offline on your mobile device. Download videos and audio to prepare for classes. Requires web registration and login details.
- Access Cambridge ebooks offline
- Download videos and audio
- View enhanced online content
- Requires web registration
- Supports iOS 11.0+
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Developed for Cambridge University Press online subscription services, the Cambridge Reader App allows you to access your Cambridge Elevate, Go and Cambridge Learn Premium ebooks wherever you are. Downloading the Cambridge Reader app allows you to: • Access all of your favourite Cambridge ebooks directly from your mobile device • Have confidence that your content will be there - even if you lose internet access • Prepare for classes by downloading videos and audio to the app in advance To use the app you first need to register your account on the web using a PC or Mac. The minimum OS version supported by the Cambridge Reader App is iOS 11.0. If you already have a student or teacher account, you can log in, view your books from a phone and download enhanced online content, including videos, files, interactive activities and image galleries. This app will work once you have been sent login details and accepted the EULA and Terms of Use online.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cambridge Reader at 2.6 against SIMS Student's 1.6. Cambridge Reader also leads on ratings volume (53 vs 9). SIMS Student's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Cambridge Reader holds the better App Store score, 2.6 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cambridge Reader has 53 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 12% of SIMS Student's written reviews are positive against 10% of Cambridge Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
SIMS Student ships an update every 2 months, Cambridge Reader every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SIMS Student | Cambridge Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.6 (9 ratings) | 2.6 (53 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 12.0% of reviews — better | 9.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 53 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 96 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Education Software Solutions Ltd | Cambridge University Press & Assessment (App) |
Customer experience
SIMS Student
Cambridge Reader
User reviews
SIMS Student
From 9 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Works well for some users
- 💡 Useful for timetables and homework
- 🚀 Loads quickly for some
- 👍 Easy to submit work and receive feedback
- 👍 Informs about attendance
Room to improve
- 🐛 Constantly logs out users
- 🐛 Fails to load or is very slow
- 🐛 Login issues (incorrect details, unauthorized access)
- 🐛 Password reset emails not sent
- 🐛 Homework not showing or disappearing
Cambridge Reader
From 53 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Useful textbooks and worked examples
- 👍 App is amazing (rare positive)
- 👍 So easy to use (rare positive)
- 👍 Good app. Works fine (rare positive)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Unusable app experience
- 🐛 App is slow and laggy
- 🐛 Randomly goes back a page
- 🐛 Doesn't fit screen properly
- 🐛 Cannot split screen
Bugs and requests
SIMS Student
Reported bugs
18 issues- App logs users out randomly
- App gets stuck on loading screen
- Timetables not showing with poor internet
- Cannot log in even with correct details
- Password reset emails are not sent
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- Homework tab never works
- App never loads
- Unable to access account
- App shows white screen on opening
- Unauthorized access error
- App not working on mobile data, only Wi-Fi
- Homework doesn't disappear after due date
- App crashes frequently
- Login authentication problems
- Parent app not linking accounts
- App not working on school Wi-Fi
- App not working after reinstalling
- Failed to load user profile
Requested features
9 requests- Allow offline timetable access
- Improve login process for non-English speakers
- Add option to delete old homework
- Auto-delete messages after a certain period
- Ability to manually delete messages
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Update for newer iPhone screen sizes
- More features beyond email functionality
- Option to mark homework as done before due date
- Show previous days on timetable
Cambridge Reader
Reported bugs
42 issues- Randomly goes back a page
- App doesn't fit screen
- Cannot split screen
- App glitches and freezes
- App crashes frequently
Show 37 moreShow fewer
- Books disappear or don't load
- Login issues (invalid credentials, password problems, spaces in password)
- App reloads after switching apps
- Textbooks not showing up
- Outdated codes
- Cannot register/add books
- Pages not loading
- App resets when closed
- Notes disappear
- Cannot scroll horizontally
- Lack of landscape mode
- Lack of zoom functionality
- App is slow and laggy
- App doesn't support split screen
- App quits unexpectedly
- Book codes not working
- Book codes need to be entered every time
- Cannot download more than a few books
- Page select/scroll bar is difficult to use
- Books not appearing in account after login
- App doesn't show full page
- Password reset not available
- App doesn't work on iPad
- App is worse than previous version
- Cannot zoom out
- App doesn't allow horizontal scrolling
- Updated version available but book doesn't update
- Cannot flip to next pages
- App pauses the screen
- Login loop with Cambridge.go account
- Book disappears after adding both workbook and student book
- Bookmark not showing
- App is not compatible with iPhone 7 screen size
- UI is clunky
- Page closes when touched the wrong way
- App is skunk
- User interface looks like ayoos
Requested features
11 requests- Add landscape mode for iPhones
- Allow split screen functionality
- Improve scrolling (horizontal and vertical)
- Fix page loading issues
- Enable note-taking within the app
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Improve zoom functionality
- Add animations
- Fix issues with adding books/resources
- Allow access to all subscribed titles on mobile
- Make the app fill the whole screen on iPad Pros
- Add password reset functionality
In-app purchases
SIMS Student
No in-app purchases
Cambridge Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SIMS Student free?
Is Cambridge Reader free?
Which has better reviews, SIMS Student or Cambridge Reader?
Do SIMS Student or Cambridge Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, SIMS Student or Cambridge Reader?
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