Penguin Random House Audio vs ChapterPals
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Listen to full-length audiobooks
- Download audiobooks for review
- Offline listening
- User-friendly audio player
- Sleep timer and variable speed
- Bookmark passages
- Share recommendations
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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.
ChapterPals
This app helps you track your reading progress and manage your book club. Organize your reading lists, log progress, and discover new books. It also facilitates book club discussions, voting on the next read, and tracking member progress.
- Track reading progress by page or percent
- Organize books into custom shelves
- Set and track reading goals
- Create and manage book clubs
- Vote on next book selections
- Chapter-based discussion threads
- Daily 'Guess the Book' puzzle
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Track every book you read, and keep your book club actually running. ChapterPals does both in one calm, friendly place. Most reading apps track books alone. Most club tools are a group text that slowly goes quiet. ChapterPals puts the two together, so the book you are reading and the people you are reading it with live side by side. TRACK YOUR READING Shelves for what you are reading, what you finished, and what you want to read next, plus custom shelves for anything else you want to keep. Log your progress by page or percent, rate books when you finish, and write reviews you will actually want to reread later. Set a reading goal and watch it fill in over the year. Already have a list somewhere else? Import it and pick up where you left off. Point your camera at a real bookshelf and ChapterPals will read the spines and find the titles, or scan a barcode to add a single book fast. Browse by genre, follow an author, or see a whole series in order. RUN YOUR BOOK CLUB Start a club in under a minute, or join one with an invite code from a friend. You can also browse public clubs by city, filter for in person or virtual, and search by the vibes you are after. Pick the next book together with a vote, so nobody has to be the one who decides. Set the night and the place, let everyone RSVP going, maybe or cannot make it, and add it to your calendar in a tap. See how far along everyone is, so nobody arrives half a book behind. Discussion threads stay organized by chapter, so you can talk about what you have read without spoiling what you have not. Stuck for something to say? Starter questions are ready when you need them. Every book your club has read together is kept as a history you can look back on. READ WITH FRIENDS Add pals and see what they are reading right now. Share a shelf, recommend a book straight to someone, and get a nudge when a friend finishes something you have been eyeing. AND A LITTLE FUN Guess the Book is a new puzzle every day. A blurred cover, five tries, and a fresh clue with every guess. Build a streak and compare notes with your club. Tier boards let you rank everything you have read exactly how you want, then share the result. ChapterPals is free to use, works on your phone and in your browser, and never sells your reading history. Reading is better with friends.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ChapterPals at 100% against Penguin Random House Audio's 11%. ChapterPals also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.9) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 months). Penguin Random House Audio's advantage is ratings volume (45 vs 5). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ChapterPals holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Penguin Random House Audio has 45 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 11% of Penguin Random House Audio's written reviews are positive against 100% of ChapterPals's.
Penguin Random House Audio ships an update every 3 months, ChapterPals every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Penguin Random House Audio | ChapterPals |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (45 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 11.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 45 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Penguin Random House LLC NY | Edward Buchholz |
Customer experience
Penguin Random House Audio
ChapterPals
In-app purchases
Penguin Random House Audio
No in-app purchases
ChapterPals
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Penguin Random House Audio free?
Is ChapterPals free?
Which has better reviews, Penguin Random House Audio or ChapterPals?
Do Penguin Random House Audio or ChapterPals have ads?
Which is updated more often, Penguin Random House Audio or ChapterPals?
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