Comparison

Bookworm Reads vs Penguin Random House Audio

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

Head to head
About

Bookworm Reads

Track your reading, connect with friends, and join a vibrant community of book lovers. Organize your library, discover new titles, and participate in reading challenges. Customize your unique worm avatar and share your literary journey.

Highlights
  • Track and categorize books
  • Create custom bookshelves
  • See friends' reading activity
  • Rate, review, and discuss books
  • Create and join book clubs
  • Participate in reading challenges
  • Customize worm avatar
Features
Read full description

Bookworm Reads is a book tracker & joyful community app. On Bookworm, you can track your books, see what your friends are reading, rate, review, and discuss books, create and join book clubs, and be a part of a vibrant digital community of readers. We're like Goodreads but for the girls, gays, and theys. Plus, you get to be a worm. Discover new books to save to your library, create your own customizable bookshelves, send and receive book recommendations from friends, and join community reading challenges. The best part of all: dress up your wormy avatar from a variety of outfits, hats, accessories, and more! Import your Goodreads data: Say goodbye to Amazon-owned Goodreads, and keep your bookshelves just as you left them. Import from Goodreads and start using Bookworm. Simple, beautiful, book tracking. Track & categorize your books into bookshelves: books you want to read, have read, are currently reading. Plus, create your own custom bookshelves. Your 5-star club, books you DNF (did not finish), abandoned, repeat reads; whatever your heart desires. Add as many shelves as you want--no power-tools required. Join community reading challenges. Set a reading goal for yourself and let your friends cheer you on. The number of books you set as your goal is only visible to you. Upon joining, you get the option to give your wormy a badge to show you're participating in the community challenge. And, you can edit your goal number as the challenge continues. Share book recommendations. Send recommendations to friends and get them in return. Get notified whenever someone starts reading the book you recommended, and check out their review when they finish. All books recommended to you get saved to a bookshelf so you'll never lose them. Create, organize, and join book clubs. Find like-minded readers and host discussions in the app. You can create collaborative shelves, where everyone in the club can add to your shared to-read shelf, or you can do the choosing and let readers to follow along. Get started by joining Thee Bookworm Book Club--the Bookworm-wide club. Dress up your wormy avatar. Hands down the best feature on Bookworm Reads: dress up your wormy avatar! Choose from outfits, wigs, accessories, and more to keep your wormy as fresh as you are. Get creative, and change your outfit as much as you want! You can also buy a real life bookworm bookmark + sticker pack to keep your books adorned with Bookworm swag. Social sharing included. Share books to your instagram story with pre-made, gorgeous backgrounds. You can tweet, text, email, or whatever kind of sharing you'd like with everything on Bookworm. From books, to posts, to your wormy's outfit, share on whatever platform is your favorite. Features: • track & categorize your books into bookshelves: books you want to read, have read, are currently reading • plus, create your own custom book categories. for example, create a bookshelf for books you couldn't finish, or your favorite books you want everyone to read • join reading challenges: set a goal for yourself and get that lil dopamine hit every time you finish a book • recommend books to friends and get notified when they read your suggestion • organize your book club: set your books, your next meeting info, and host discussion in your club • discover new clubs: join one of the many public book clubs to find new reading buddies • design your wormy's outfit • share all of this to social media • import from Goodreads, Storygraph, Libib, or wherever you track your books. No need to start over! Bring your Goodreads/Storygraph data right into Bookworm. Download Bookworm Reads, create your wormy, and join the community!

About

Penguin Random House Audio

Access and listen to a vast catalog of audiobooks from Penguin Random House. Designed for publishing industry professionals, it allows for downloading review copies and offline listening. Features include a user-friendly player, bookmarking, and sharing capabilities.

Highlights
  • Listen to full-length audiobooks
  • Download audiobooks for review
  • Offline listening
  • User-friendly audio player
  • Sleep timer and variable speed
  • Bookmark passages
  • Share recommendations
Read full description

Listen to full-length audiobooks from the Penguin Random House Audio catalog, including thousands of adult, children’s, and young adult titles. Book reviewers, booksellers, librarians, and other publishing industry professionals can create an account to download audiobooks for review or promotion. Accounts are subject to verification and approval. • Listen to audiobook samples and access review copies of new and past releases. • Offline listening with downloaded content. • Simple and easy to navigate audio player. • Sleep timer and variable narration speed. • Add favorites for easy retrieval. • Bookmark your favorite passages. • Easy-to-use chapter navigation. • Share recommendations through email or messaging apps.

Screenshots

Bookworm Reads4 screens
Penguin Random House Audio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bookworm Reads at 77% against Penguin Random House Audio's 11%. Bookworm Reads also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.9) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Penguin Random House Audio's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ads 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. Bookworm Reads sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Penguin Random House Audio asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bookworm Reads holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookworm Reads has 1.1K ratings behind it against 45, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Bookworm Reads's written reviews are positive against 11% of Penguin Random House Audio's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookworm Reads ships an update every 3 weeks, Penguin Random House Audio every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Bookworm Reads versus Penguin Random House Audio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookworm ReadsPenguin Random House Audio
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1.1K ratings) — better2.9 (45 ratings)
Positive reviews77.3% of reviews — better11.1% of reviews
Number of ratings1.1K — better45
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB38 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperBookworm Reads CLUBPenguin Random House LLC NY

Customer experience

Bookworm Reads

All ratings1,061 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews88 reviews
Positive77.3%
Neutral9.1%
Negative13.6%

Penguin Random House Audio

All ratings44 ratings
Positive31.8%
Neutral27.3%
Negative40.9%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive11.1%
Neutral41.7%
Negative47.2%

Bugs and requests

Bookworm Reads

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Inability to permanently delete user profiles
  • Signup process issues with 'Accept' button not working
  • Inconsistent display of book covers and information
  • Frequent crashes and app freezes
  • Syncing issues with imported book data

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to track reading progress
  • Improve accessibility for visually impaired users
  • Introduce more customization options for user profiles
  • Expand search capabilities to include more book details
  • Integrate with other popular book platforms

Penguin Random House Audio

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bookworm Reads

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly subscription14 Days trial$49.991 Year
None

Penguin Random House Audio

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bookworm Reads free?
Bookworm Reads is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Penguin Random House Audio free?
Penguin Random House Audio is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bookworm Reads or Penguin Random House Audio?
Bookworm Reads is rated higher. Bookworm Reads averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Penguin Random House Audio averages 2.9 from 45 ratings.
Do Bookworm Reads or Penguin Random House Audio have ads?
Neither Bookworm Reads nor Penguin Random House Audio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bookworm Reads or Penguin Random House Audio?
Bookworm Reads ships an update every 3 weeks, and Penguin Random House Audio every 3 months. Most recently, Bookworm Reads was updated on November 7, 2026 and Penguin Random House Audio on November 3, 2026.

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