UW vs Cengage Read
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
UW
Navigate campus, stay updated on news and events, and access essential student resources. Find computer labs, manage your accounts, and track wellness information. This app simplifies campus life for students.
- Campus news and events
- Outdoor navigation
- Computer lab information
- Wellness tracking
- Account management integration
- Health app integration
Read full descriptionHide full description
The Parkside app is designed for students to help with campus life. Relevant and important information can be found here. Always get lost between the buildings? Do not know where to go to use a computer? Afraid of missing or forgetting an interesting event or news? Then this app is for you! Features Included: News article viewing Events article viewing Outdoor navigation Computer Lab Information Ranger Wellness Linked to Navigate Linked to eAccounts This app integrates with the health app and the information from within it. Your health data from the phone will be used.
Cengage Read
Access and study your digital textbooks from anywhere. This app allows students to read, take notes, highlight, bookmark, and use text-to-speech for a flexible learning experience on the go.
- Read eTextbooks on the go
- Take notes and highlight
- Bookmark important sections
- Text-to-speech functionality
- Search keywords
- Navigate via table of contents
Read full descriptionHide full description
Read your eTextbook and study on the go with the Cengage Read app. Cengage Read lets students study whenever – and wherever – they want. Take notes, highlight and bookmark info, have the text read out loud with text-to-speech and easily search keywords and jump to pages with the table of contents. Just log in with your Cengage username and password to get started.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cengage Read at 4.2 against UW's 2.4. Cengage Read also leads on ratings volume (4.2K vs 8). UW's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18). On price, update cadence, 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.
Cengage Read holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cengage Read has 4.2K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two.
UW ships an update every 4 months, Cengage Read every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UW | Cengage Read |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.4 (8 ratings) | 4.2 (4.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 19.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 4.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 18 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | University of Wisconsin-Parkside | Cengage Learning |
Customer experience
UW
Cengage Read
Bugs and requests
UW
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Cengage Read
Reported bugs
4 issues- Frequent crashes and sign-outs
- Inconsistent highlighting and note-taking functionality
- Inability to view full pages and content
- Text-to-speech feature not working properly
Requested features
4 requests- Improve text formatting and layout
- Add split-screen support for note-taking
- Enhance accessibility features like text-to-speech
- Integrate assignment and due date tracking
In-app purchases
UW
No in-app purchases
Cengage Read
No in-app purchases
