Shakespeare vs Save the Cat!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shakespeare
Access the complete works of Shakespeare, including plays, sonnets, and poems. Features include a powerful search, integrated glossary, note-taking, and customization options for a rich reading experience.
- Complete works of Shakespeare
- Powerful search and concordance
- Integrated glossary with definitions
- Add and share personal notes
- Customizable reading experience
- Scene breakdowns and character descriptions
- Modern translations and lexicons
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“It’s really great!” —Kenneth Branagh, actor and director “I can't remember a time it wasn't on my iPhone. So feature rich!" —Stephen Fry, actor and writer “‘The app’s the thing.’ Hamlet was almost right. Great to see Shakespeare Pro superplaying with Shakespeare’s plays.” —David Crystal, linguist and author of Shakespeare's Words “The Shakespeare Pro app is simply terrific and filled with loads of wonderful information!” —Ken Ludwig, Tony and Olivier Award Winning Playwright Shakespeare Pro® includes the complete works of Shakespeare (41 plays, 154 sonnets and 6 poems, including apocrypha) and search the concordance to find the exact word or phrase you’re looking for (with “relaxed” searching to find words close to your search term). Shakespeare Pro is packed with these impressive features: ••• QUALITY TEXTS are a top priority and our team spent years compiling and editing the best references available. In the updated editions, the text is even more clear and each individual character is uniquely identified. ••• FIRST FOLIOS AND QUARTOS in original spelling show the works as they were originally published in Shakespeare’s time. ••• AN INTEGRATED GLOSSARY, based on the bestselling lexicon by David & Ben Crystal, Shakespeare’s Words™ is included. Simply tapping on a word will display its definition in context (not just a general definition). ••• ADD YOUR OWN NOTES AND SHARE THEM with your students, classmates, friends, and colleagues. Organize your notes into notebooks for use in the classroom, theatre, or just to remember key facts. Then share them via email or AirDrop. ••• POWER SEARCH THE WORKS by customizing multiple parameters like gender, genre, work, language, line form, soliloquies, and more. ••• CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE by choosing from a variety of color themes, change the font family and size, display long or short character names, jump around to different scenes, and view line numbers (*read the note below about line numbering). ••• BOOKMARK YOUR FAVORITE PARTS in addition to remembering the last page you viewed. Even copy/paste that great line. ••• DETAILED SCENE BREAKDOWNS give you an overview of the scenes within each play, their locations, and the characters present in each. ••• CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS help you better understand the actions and motivations of every character—all 1,155 of them. ••• MODERN TRANSLATIONS and lexicons to help you better understand Elizabethan English (extra add-ons). ••• GET THE FACTS by reading up on Shakespeare’s life, view data and chronology about his works, and an overview of scansion terminology or rhetoric. Character Arc Visualizers show individual character arcs or allow for comparison of multiple characters. ••• SHAKE YOUR DEVICE for Shakespeare himself to display a random memorable quote or insult. Or get a new random quote every day. ••• BROWSE THE GALLERY of famous Shakespeare portraits. ••• TEACHER CURRICULUM makes it easy for teachers to introduce students to Shakespeare's works. ••• COMPLETE APOCRYPHA is the most comprehensive breakdown of 14 plays Shakespeare may have had a hand in. ••• BARDFIND™ is the easiest way to find a Shakespeare theatre or venue anywhere in the world. These are just a few highlights of the great things in Shakespeare Pro. If you’re a student, professor, actor, or just plain love the Bard, this must-have app ensures you have the complete works at your fingertips. Like the new features? Having trouble and need support? Let us know at support@playshakespeare.com or at http://support.playshakespeare.com.
Save the Cat!
This app helps writers structure stories for screenplays, novels, and TV episodes using a proven methodology. It guides you through developing loglines, genres, beat sheets, and scene organization with features for emotional arcs and character development.
- Develop logline and title
- Choose from 10 story genres
- Complete Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (BS2)
- Organize scenes with 'the Board'
- Track character arcs
- Create emotional changes per scene
- Sync files across devices
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All new version, built from the ground up using Apple's standard, master-detail style for full compatibility with iOS functionality including Dark Mode. Even if you don't own the desktop version of Save the Cat!®, you can still use this amazing tool, touted as the "secret weapon" of the working writer, to help build better, more powerful stories, with greater resonance and emotional impact. Whenever your creative juices start flowing you'll have this revolutionary app, which is based on Blake Snyder's best-selling books and software, at your fingertips. You'll delight in the ability to structure your screenplay, teleplay, stageplay or novel the Save the Cat!® way. By incorporating the methods, tips and tactics found in the Save the Cat!® series of books on story structure, this application will help you to: * Develop a powerful Logline and Title * Choose one of the 10 unique Save the Cat!® Genres * Complete a Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (BS2) with variations for screenplays, novels, and 1/2 hour and 1 hour tv episodes. * Use “the Board” to create cards for each scene and arrange them in the perfect order and to track character arcs and other important aspects of your story. Just long-press on a scene or other element in the Board then pick what you want to insert at that point. * Add sequences to combine multiple scenes. * Add labels to the Board to keep track of important points. * Create Emotional Changes for each and every scene * Create Set-ups and Payoffs as your protagonist progresses through the story Sync your files across devices. This is a manual process so you're in complete control as to when you post and download your changes. Just create an account and login on all your devices. If you had a Save the Cat! account for the website or for when you purchased STC, that will not work here. You'll need to create a new account. You can even add one or more writing partners to your project and sync your changes with them if you have the Premium or Pro level. Enter the username for their new STC account. The free version allows you to add projects and work on your title, logline, genre, and the beat sheet. Many of the features listed below require an in-app purchase. Essentials has all the basic functionality you need to develop a screenplay, novel, or tv episode with characters, locations set-ups, and pay-offs. Premium adds the ability to track things or objects, and relationships. You'll also be able to develop a novel by chapters instead of using a beat sheet. Pro adds the ability to develop an entire series of movies or novels that use all the same characters, locations, things, and relationships and to track their stories across the entire series. You can also develop an entire tv series with multiple seasons. Other cool updates include the ability to have multiple versions of your beat sheet and multiple versions of your board for each beat sheet. Much improved script typing. And, if you're working on a novel, just type in your manuscript with proper formatting. All new facts section keeping track of important facts ("Bible" for tv writers) for characters, locations and other entities. Add important elements for characters, locations and other entities that you need to track through the story. Add the character or entity to the Board and track those items through the story. As always you can add attachments such as photos, pdf's, and other important research documents so you have everything at your fingertips.
Screenshots
Verdict
Shakespeare and Save the Cat! both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 74% of Shakespeare's written reviews are positive against 38% of Save the Cat!'s. Shakespeare also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (3.5K vs 472). Save the Cat!'s advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On price, rating, 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. Shakespeare sells 27 one-off in-app purchases and Save the Cat! sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Shakespeare against 4.7 for Save the Cat!. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shakespeare has 3.5K ratings behind it against 472, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of Shakespeare's written reviews are positive against 38% of Save the Cat!'s.
Shakespeare ships an update every 3 weeks, Save the Cat! every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shakespeare | Save the Cat! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (3.5K ratings) — better | 4.7 (472 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.1% of reviews — better | 37.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.5K — better | 472 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 416 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PlayShakespeare.com | Blake Snyder Enterprises |
Customer experience
Shakespeare
Save the Cat!
User reviews
Shakespeare
From 3.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Best app out there
- 👍 Excellent app
- 👍 Terrific app for Shakespeare lovers
- 👍 Remarkable level of detail and care
- 👍 Invaluable for actors and students
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes, buggy, unstable
- 💰 Nickel-and-diming for features
- 💰 Upgrade to pro is misleading
- 💰 Constant nagging to upgrade
- 🤔 Abbreviated character names
Save the Cat!
From 472 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✍️ Excellent script outlining tool
- 🎯 Effective Save the Cat methodology implementation
- 📱 Good mobile app functionality
- 🔄 Syncing between devices works well
- 🎨 Visual board feature enhances creativity
Room to improve
- 💰 Expensive subscription model with limited free features
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 🔐 Website login problems
- 📝 Poor UI/UX design and clunky interface
- 💾 Data loss and unsaved work issues
Bugs and requests
Shakespeare
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on launch or opening plays
- Scrolling and UI issues
- Incompatible with latest iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add modern translations
- Include line numbers
- Improve search and navigation
- Add more content like sonnets
- Sync purchases across devices
Save the Cat!
Reported bugs
12 issues- App crashes when opening Board feature
- Beat selection stuck in window mode
- Login credentials rejected on website
- Crashes every 10-15 minutes
- Unable to upload attachments
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- Text field entrapment - unable to exit beat field
- Work disappears without explanation
- iPad version won't sync to desktop version
- App not available in certain countries/regions
- Glitchy and unresponsive desktop version
- Manual save required - no auto-save on crash
- UI labels cut off in both orientations
Requested features
11 requests- Monthly subscription or free trial option
- Spanish language support
- Downloadable desktop app with same login credentials
- Printable outline/board export
- Scrivener export functionality
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- Larger font size adjustment
- Actual board layout with pinch-to-zoom on mobile
- Auto-save functionality like Google Docs
- Automatic app access with book purchase
- Desktop version for Mac with full feature parity
- Genre description snapshots in selection
In-app purchases
Shakespeare
- Modern Translation (AYLI)$1.99
- Modern Translation (Sonnets)$1.99
- Modern Translation (AWEW)$1.99
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- Modern Translation(Coriolanus)$1.99
- Modern Translation (CoE)$1.99
- Modern Translation (WT)$1.99
- Modern Translation (Othello)$1.99
- Modern Translation (Much Ado)$1.99
- Modern Translation (LLL)$1.99
- Modern Translation (Hamlet)$2.99
- Modern Translation (Macbeth)$2.99
- Modern Translation (R&J)$2.99
- Modern Translation (King Lear)$2.99
- Glossary by Alexander Dyce$3.99
- Glossary by C. T. Onions$3.99
- Schmidt's Lexicon$3.99
- Glossary by C. T. Onions$4.99
- All Apocrypha$7.99
- Course: Intro to Shakespeare$9.99
- All Apocrypha$9.99
- All Lexicons$9.99
- Course Shakespeare for Kids$9.99
- Upgrade to Shakespeare Pro$12.99
- All Lexicons$12.99
- Modern Translation (All Works)$14.99
- Modern Translation (All Works)$19.99
- Shakespeare Ultimate$59.99
Save the Cat!
- Essentials Monthly$2.991 Month
- Premium Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
- Pro Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
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- Essentials Subscription$21.991 Year
- Premium Subscription$29.991 Year
- Pro Subscription$39.991 Year
- Upgrade Premium to Pro$9.99
- Unlock Essentials$21.99
- Unlock Premium$29.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Unlock Pro$39.99
Questions
Is Shakespeare free?
Is Save the Cat! free?
Which has better reviews, Shakespeare or Save the Cat!?
Do Shakespeare or Save the Cat! have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shakespeare or Save the Cat!?
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