Comparison

Fable vs Simple Reader

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

Head to head
About

Fable

Connect with fellow readers and TV enthusiasts in a vibrant community. Track your reading progress, discover new titles, and participate in online book and TV clubs. Set goals, get personalized stats, and share your reviews.

Highlights
  • Track reading and watch lists
  • Personalized reading statistics
  • Daily reading streaks and goals
  • Create and join book/TV clubs
  • Discover new books and shows
  • Import Goodreads/Kindle data
  • Customizable book reviews
Features
Read full description

Join a community of good people discussing great stories on Fable, an app designed to find, discuss, and track books and TV shows. Set reading goals, get personalized reading stats, discover new books and shows, and connect with fellow readers in online book clubs and TV clubs. TRACK YOUR READING LIFE: Stay organized with beautiful lists, reading goals, and daily streaks that encourage you to read more. - Organize the books you’re currently into, what’s on your TBR, what you finished, and DNFed - Import your book lists from Goodreads and Kindle to keep everything in one place - Build custom lists for all of your niche reading interests - Build watch lists for the TV shows you’re interested in, currently watching, finished, and more - Follow lists from other readers for inspiration, and share your own VIEW PERSONALIZED STATS: Learn more about yourself as a reader with deep insights, charts, and graphs about your reading history. - Import your lists from Goodreads or Kindle to power your reading stats - Visualize your progress to your annual reading goal - See your most-read authors and genres - See your longest reading streak - View your average book rating across all the books you finished BUILD A READING HABIT WITH STREAKS: Stay motivated with tools designed to help you tackle your reading goals. - Create daily reading streaks - Track your book progress daily based on the page or percentage read - Edit past streaks if you forget to log a day of reading - Add our home screen widget for one-tap access to your streaks - Set annual reading goals to challenge yourself - Get reminders to keep your reading streak alive CREATE BETTER BOOK REVIEWS: Share your perspective with customized book ratings and book reviews. - Import your lists and reviews from Goodreads - Rate and review books with half-stars (and update your Goodreads ratings with half-stars) - Add expressive tags to share exactly how the book made you feel - Add spice level ratings to your book reviews - Pair your book review with emoji reactions for further customization - Leave book reviews in your book club’s reflection room or on the book’s detail page JOIN BOOK & TV CLUBS: Explore thousands of free book and TV clubs for every niche interest, or start your own club to read or watch with friends or family. - Join your favorite BookTokkers’ book clubs, or start a buddy read to discuss books with friends - Find clubs led by TV recappers and reviewers from TikTok, YouTube, and elsewhere - Spark conversations with your club in organized, spoiler-free chapter rooms and episode rooms - Leave reviews in the reflection room at the end of the book or show - Read or watch at your own pace or follow the club’s suggested milestones DISCOVER NEW BOOKS & SHOWS: Find your next favorite book to read or show to watch. - Use Scout to get personalized book recommendations - Ask Scout to randomly select your next read from your TBR - Import your Goodreads or Kindle lists for even more personalization - Discover new books and shows from Fable’s editorial team - Follow friends’ lists in the For You feed for community recommendations BUY EBOOKS DESIGNED FOR INTERACTIVE READING: Experience an entirely new way to read books inside Fable’s custom ebook reader. - Join other readers who are “social reading” inside thousands of free book clubs - Annotate books with highlights, notes, tabs, comments, and reactions right inside the book - Respond to discussion prompts embedded inside the book - Discover thousands of free books to read inside the Fable app, or shop from our catalog of over one million interactive ebooks SHOW OFF WHAT YOU READ - Customize monthly Reading Wraps to highlight the books you read that month - Come back at the end of the year for an annual wrapup of your year in reading Terms of use: https://fable.co/terms

About

Simple Reader

Read full description

Make time to listen. Simple Reader is a focused audio player for the files you already own. Import audiobooks, lectures, recordings, and other audio from Files, then keep your place with simple playback controls and bookmarks. YOUR AUDIO, READY OFFLINE Import supported audio files into your private library and listen without an app account or internet connection. KEEP YOUR PLACE Save manual bookmarks, automatically bookmark when you pause, and resume from your furthest saved place. Choose a short rewind before a bookmark to ease back into your listening. LISTEN YOUR WAY Adjust playback speed from 0.5× to 2×, skip forward or back 10 seconds, and continue listening in the background with Lock Screen and Control Center controls. OPTIONAL BOOKMARK SYNC Connect Google Drive or iCloud to sync bookmark and progress metadata between compatible devices. Your audio files and file names stay on your device. Import the same audio file on each device to match its bookmarks. Simple Reader has no ads or subscriptions. Audio content is supplied by you. Optional cloud sync requires a Google or iCloud account.

Screenshots

Fable4 screens
Simple Reader2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Simple Reader at none against Fable's 10. Fable's advantage is chart position (#13 vs unranked). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Fable sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Simple Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Fable versus Simple Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFableSimple Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (83K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews67.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings83K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#13 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size207 MB4 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperFableCasey Mondoux

Bugs and requests

Fable

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Issues with updating currently reading status
  • Inconsistent behavior when adding new books
  • Notifications not always syncing properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to track reading progress across devices
  • Implement more filtering and sorting options for book lists
  • Allow users to customize book covers and details
  • Improve notification settings and controls
  • Add support for more book formats and sources

Simple Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Fable

Subscriptions2
  • Fable Plus Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Fable Plus Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time8
  • Stalked by the Kraken$3.99
  • The Very Secret Society of...$7.99
  • Quicksilver$9.99
Show 5 more
  • Artificial Wisdom$9.99
  • One Dark Window$9.99
  • The Seven Year Slip$13.99
  • Fourth Wing$14.99
  • Iron Flame$14.99
None

Simple Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fable free?
Fable is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Simple Reader free?
Simple Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Fable or Simple Reader have ads?
Neither Fable nor Simple Reader shows ads.

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