Comparison

Principles In Action vs Readwise

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

Head to head
About

Principles In Action

Explore life and work principles from a renowned investor through interactive case studies, video footage, and assessments. Discover personalized guidance and compare insights with friends to achieve your goals.

Highlights
  • Interactive case studies
  • Behind-the-scenes video footage
  • PrinciplesYou Assessment
  • Personality test
  • Daily principle from Ray
  • Digital 'Coach' for principle guidance
  • Personal principle development section
Features
Read full description

Principles In Action is a free app that brings to life Ray Dalio’s best-selling book Principles: Life & Work. It combines the complete text of the book with behind-the-scenes video footage and interactive case studies of the principles in action during his time leading Bridgewater Associates Ray is one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, and he’s sharing the unconventional principles that helped him create unique results in life and business because he believes they can help any person or organization better achieve their goals. In addition to the book and supporting cases, the app also includes: • Take the PrinciplesYou Assessment in app to view results and add friends to compare. • Compare your assessment with your friends and see their results. • Read Ray's latest articles and reflections on the economy and markets. • Daily principle from Ray to help you get more out work and life. • Highlighted case-of-the-week and related principles. • Search function across all content in the app, including the full set of principles. • Converse with Digital Ray, Ray's AI twin which has been trained on tens of thousands of items from Ray's content library. • Dedicated section in the app for you to highlight, favorite, develop and record your own and others’ principles. • Additional content from Ray including studies on economics along with regular long form articles published on social media. Principles: Life & Work has been recommended by Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, Marc Benioff, Mark Cuban, Mike Bloomberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Systrom, Jamie Dimon, and others.

About

Readwise

This app helps you retain more of what you read by centralizing and revisiting your highlights from various reading platforms. It uses spaced repetition and active recall techniques to improve memory and offers features like tagging, note-taking, and OCR for physical books.

Highlights
  • Synchronize highlights from multiple platforms
  • Daily review habit via app and email
  • Spaced repetition and active recall
  • Tag, note, and search highlights
  • OCR for paper book highlights
  • Convert highlights to flashcards
Features
Read full description

Readwise helps you get the most out of what you read by making it fun & easy to revisit your highlights from all your favorite reading platforms in one place. Quickly synchronize your highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper, Pocket, Medium, Goodreads, and even paper books. Then start building a daily review habit using the app and daily email. By reviewing your highlights every day, you'll retain dramatically more and you'll finally stop forgetting all the details from books you just finished! --- “Readwise is my favorite new service this year. Save highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, and now tweets... one of the best long-term personal learning tools I’ve come across.” — Caleb Hicks “Besides my Kindle, Readwise has been the most influential tech for improving my reading process.” — Blake Reichmann “If you use Kindle or Instapaper or just enjoy keeping and reading highlights, please sign up to Readwise. It will become one of your cherished services.” — Christopher Galtenberg --- ACTUALLY USE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS Highlighting is great, but why bother if you're never going to see any of your highlights again? Readwise makes it easy to quickly liberate all your highlights into one place, ensuring that you'll actually see and use them, including highlights from: • Amazon Kindle • Apple iBooks • Instapaper • Pocket • Medium • Goodreads • Twitter • Physical Books (using OCR) • Manual Input • CSV Upload STOP FORGETTING WHAT YOU READ How often do you finish a book, only to forget the key ideas two weeks later? We don't remember things by just reading them once. Readwise solves this problem using scientifically proven learning techniques called Spaced Repetition and Active Recall. Readwise resurfaces the right highlights at the right times using a daily email and an app. Readwise even makes it possible to convert your best highlights into flashcards for added retention. TAG, NOTE, SEARCH, AND ORGANIZE With your highlights all in one place, Readwise enables you to organize and connect these ideas in new ways. Use search to find a highlight instantly; use tag to organize highlights within your library; use notes to add your own annotations. HIGHLIGHT PAPER BOOKS Readwise also makes it possible to take highlights from your physical books and papers using your phone’s camera. Just snap a pic, highlight with your finger, and have your favorite highlights saved forever. --- If you are not already a Readwise subscriber, you can get started immediately with a 30-day free trial with no credit card upfront. At the end of the trial, you will not be charged unless you choose to subscribe to Readwise Full or Readwise Lite. Price may vary by location. Manage your subscription from your dashboard. --- Support: Check out readwise.io/faq or email us at hello@readwise.io Privacy Policy: https://readwise.io/tos Terms of Service: https://readwise.io/privacy

Screenshots

Principles In Action4 screens
Readwise4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Principles In Action at none against Readwise's 8. Principles In Action also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 72%) and ratings volume (6.1K vs 1.5K). Readwise's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, rating, 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. Readwise sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Principles In Action asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Principles In Action against 4.8 for Readwise. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.1K and 1.5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Principles In Action's written reviews are positive against 72% of Readwise's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Principles In Action ships an update every 2 months, Readwise every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Principles In Action versus Readwise: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrinciples In ActionReadwise
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (6.1K ratings) — better4.8 (1.5K ratings)
Positive reviews80.3% of reviews — better72.2% of reviews
Number of ratings6.1K — better1.5K
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size177 MB110 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperPRIOS, LLCReadwise, Inc

Customer experience

Principles In Action

All ratings6,064 ratings
Positive98.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative0.9%
Written reviews142 reviews
Positive80.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative12.0%

Readwise

All ratings1,513 ratings
Positive95.7%
Neutral1.5%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews324 reviews
Positive72.2%
Neutral7.7%
Negative20.1%

User reviews

Principles In Action

From 6.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Excellent content and resources
  • 👍 Helpful for self-development and growth
  • 🚀 Seamless integration with book
  • 🤩 Life-changing insights

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and loading issues
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns with data sharing
  • 🔍 Difficulty accessing saved progress
  • ⏱️ Slow app performance

Readwise

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful spaced repetition
  • 📚 Seamless integration with reading apps
  • 🔍 Helpful AI-powered features
  • 🗓️ Useful daily review routine
  • 🧠 Boosts knowledge retention

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔌 Sync issues with some platforms
  • 📱 Subpar mobile app experience
  • 🕰️ Lack of flexibility in daily review
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality

Bugs and requests

Principles In Action

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes
  • Inability to open book or case studies
  • Lost progress and saved data
  • Compatibility issues with older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Ability to export user-added principles
  • Improved sync across devices
  • Better integration with book content

Readwise

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Sync failures with certain accounts
  • Unreliable highlight capture

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more reading apps
  • Improve sync and import capabilities
  • Introduce more customization options
  • Enhance search and organization tools
  • Develop a more intuitive mobile interface

In-app purchases

None

Principles In Action

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Readwise

Subscriptions8
  • Readwise Lite Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Readwise Lite Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Readwise Full Monthly Plan$8.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Readwise Full Monthly$12.991 Month
  • Readwise Lite Yearly$52.991 Year
  • Readwise Lite Yearly$66.991 Year
  • Readwise Full Yearly$94.991 Year
  • Readwise Full Yearly$119.991 Year

Questions

Is Principles In Action free?
Principles In Action is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Readwise free?
Readwise is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Principles In Action or Readwise?
Principles In Action is rated higher. Principles In Action averages 4.9 out of 5 from 6.1K ratings, while Readwise averages 4.8 from 1.5K ratings.
Do Principles In Action or Readwise have ads?
Neither Principles In Action nor Readwise shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Principles In Action or Readwise?
Principles In Action ships an update every 2 months, and Readwise every 2 weeks. Most recently, Principles In Action was updated on September 22, 2026 and Readwise on September 24, 2026.

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