Comparison

Gutenberg | eBook Reader vs Vellum

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

Head to head
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/

About

Vellum

A beautifully designed app to track your reading progress, organize your library, and set reading goals. It helps you focus on reading more by providing insights into your habits and progress without unnecessary distractions.

Highlights
  • Organize books into custom shelves
  • Scan ISBNs to add books
  • Import Goodreads libraries
  • Track live reading sessions
  • Set and track reading goals
  • View reading calendar and stats
  • Customizable themes
Read full description

Your reading tracker shouldn’t feel like a website from 2004. Vellum is a beautifully designed reading tracker for people who want to read more - not spend time fighting through cluttered screens, noisy feeds, and pointless gamification. Giving your books a clear place to live, remembering where you left off, and turning the time you make for reading into something you can see and feel proud of - that's what makes Vellum special. YOUR SHELF, SORTED Search for books, scan an ISBN, and organize your library into shelves for what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next. You can even bring your Goodreads library with you. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Start a live reading session when you sit down with a book and focus, or quickly add pages and time afterward. Vellum keeps your place, your reading history, and your progress together, so you can spend less time updating an app and more time reading. READ MORE, WITHOUT THE PRESSURE Choose a goal for books, pages, or reading time. When life gets in the way, Vellum gives you intelligent but simple suggestions for what it would take to catch up. Follow your streaks and watch real progress build - without turning your book into an annoying game. SEE YOUR READING LIFE TAKE SHAPE A few pages before bed. A long afternoon with a new book. The book you finally finished. Vellum’s Reading Calendar, beautiful stats, and Reader Personality help you look back on the reading you made time for, notice your habits, and see the progress that is easy to miss day to day. MAKE IT YOURS Choose a theme that feels right and enjoy a focused reading tracker designed to feel at home on your iPhone. Vellum has the tools you need, but puts them where they belong - not all in your face at once. Vellum is free to download. Vellum Pro unlocks premium features through an auto-renewable monthly or yearly subscription. Available purchase methods depend on your App Store storefront. Apple subscriptions can be managed in your App Store account. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Gutenberg | eBook Reader4 screens
Vellum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Vellum at none against Gutenberg | eBook Reader's 6. Vellum also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.5). Gutenberg | eBook Reader's advantage is ratings volume (761 vs 7) and device support (3 vs 1). On price and monetization model 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. Vellum asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Vellum holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gutenberg | eBook Reader has 761 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Gutenberg | eBook Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of Vellum's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gutenberg | eBook Reader ships an update every 6 weeks, Vellum every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Gutenberg | eBook Reader versus Vellum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGutenberg | eBook ReaderVellum
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (761 ratings)5.0 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews69.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings761 — better7
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.2
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWebron Software LTDJonathan Barnette

Customer experience

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

All ratings745 ratings
Positive89.1%
Neutral3.0%
Negative7.9%
Written reviews66 reviews
Positive69.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative24.2%

Vellum

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and 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

Vellum

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

Vellum

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gutenberg | eBook Reader free?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Vellum free?
Vellum is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gutenberg | eBook Reader or Vellum?
Vellum is rated higher. Gutenberg | eBook Reader averages 4.5 out of 5 from 761 ratings, while Vellum averages 5.0 from 7 ratings.
Do Gutenberg | eBook Reader or Vellum have ads?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader shows ads; Vellum does not.
Which is updated more often, Gutenberg | eBook Reader or Vellum?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader ships an update every 6 weeks, and Vellum every 9 days. Most recently, Gutenberg | eBook Reader was updated on October 29, 2026 and Vellum on October 24, 2026.

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