Comparison

Amazon Kindle vs Bound

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

Head to head
About

Amazon Kindle

Access a vast library of eBooks, magazines, and comics on your mobile device. Customize your reading experience with adjustable text, brightness, and page-turning options. Look up words, track progress, and sync across devices.

Highlights
  • Read purchased eBooks
  • Access Kindle Unlimited
  • Customizable text and display
  • Built-in dictionary and lookup
  • Track reading progress
  • Sync reading across devices
  • Listen to Audible books
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

READ ANYTIME, ANYWHERE On the bus, on your break, in your bed—never be without a book. Kindle books you have purchased on Amazon will automatically appear in your app. Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime members can select and download Kindle books directly in the app. FIND YOUR NEXT GREAT READ • Read the books you buy on Amazon in the Kindle app. Choose from over six million Kindle books (including those with Audible narration), magazines, and comics and start reading in seconds. Explore Amazon Charts best sellers and titles across genres like romance, science fiction, children’s books, self-help, religion, nonfiction, and more—and try any book with a free sample straight from the Kindle app. • Kindle Unlimited members can enjoy unlimited reading and listening, with the freedom to explore over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and current magazines. • Over 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and more included with Amazon Prime. GO BEYOND PAPER Turn your iPhone or iPad into a book with the free Kindle app—so you can read anytime, anywhere. Explore these reading features in the Kindle app: • Read your way. Customize your text size, font type, margins, text alignment, and orientation (portrait or landscape)—and choose whether to turn pages from left to right or continuously scroll. Read comfortably day and night with adjustable brightness and background colors. Go to the Aa menu in your book to get started. • Look up words, people, and places while you read. Breeze through words you don’t know and characters you can’t remember with the built-in dictionary, X-Ray, Wikipedia lookup, instant translations, and search within your book. Simply tap and hold a word to view its definition, or use the Google and Wikipedia links to get more information. • Track your reading progress. See what percent of the book you’ve read, real page numbers (for most top titles), and how much time you have left in the chapter or book based on your actual reading speed. • Bookmark places you want to revisit, and make highlights and take notes throughout your book. Open My Notebook to see all your notes in the same place. • Hop, skim, and jump with Page Flip. Flip between pages or get a bird’s-eye view of your book with Page Flip—don’t worry, we’ll save your place. • Zoom in on high-definition color images in Kindle books, magazines, comics, and manga. • Sync your books across devices. When you’re reading a book, the Kindle app will automatically sync where you left off—along with any bookmarks, highlights, or notes—so you can start reading on one device and pick up where you left off on another. • When you can’t read, listen. Switch seamlessly from reading your Kindle book to listening to the Audible book, all within the Kindle app. • Get notified when authors you love have new releases. By using this app, you agree to Amazon’s Conditions of Use (www.amazon.com/conditionsofuse) and Privacy Notice (www.amazon.com/privacy).

About

Bound

Listen to your DRM-free audiobooks with a modern interface. Import files from cloud services or your computer, manage your library, and enjoy features like automatic playback saving, adjustable speed, and chapter support. Includes CarPlay integration and a sleep timer.

Highlights
  • Import from cloud services (Dropbox, OneDrive)
  • Web uploader via WiFi
  • Automatic playback position saving
  • Adjustable playback speed (0.5x-3.0x)
  • Chapter support
  • Sleep timer
  • CarPlay support
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Listen to your favorite DRM-free audiobooks with Bound. Bound allows you to import audio files from various cloud services and play them back in a beautiful modern interface. Bound will automatically save your listening position so that you never lose your place. Supported Audio File Types (DRM-free only): .mp3, .m4a, .m4b, .aac Download - Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive. - Apple Files. - Web Uploader for importing from your computer via WiFi. Manage - Move audio files between books. - Change cover art. - Sort based on author, title, recently added, and recently played. - Rename title and author. - Choose between a number of fun themes. - Dark mode support. Play - Automatically saves playback location as you progress through the book. - Independently configure seek forward and seek backward times. - Chapter support for audio files with embedded chapters (.m4a / .m4b / OverDrive .mp3). - Change playback speed from 0.5X to 3.0X. - Smart Rewind when returning to your book after a while. - Sleep Timer with configurable time or at the end of a chapter. - Manually bookmark locations that you want to return to. - CarPlay support. If you enjoy using Bound, please consider writing a review.

Screenshots

Amazon Kindle4 screens
Bound4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Amazon Kindle at Free against Bound's $4.99. Amazon Kindle also leads on ratings volume (5.8M vs 2K) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). Bound's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 12) and chart position (#1 vs #4). On review sentiment, ads and device support 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

Amazon Kindle is free to download; Bound costs $4.99 up front. Amazon Kindle sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $13.99 per month. Bound asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Amazon Kindle holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Amazon Kindle has 5.8M ratings behind it against 2K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of Amazon Kindle's written reviews are positive against 73% of Bound's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Amazon Kindle ships an update fortnightly, Bound every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Amazon Kindle versus Bound: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAmazon KindleBound
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.9 (5.8M ratings) — better4.6 (2K ratings)
Positive reviews68.1% of reviews72.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.8M — better2K
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#4#1 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size198 MB48 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAMZN Mobile LLCDeadpan, LLC

Customer experience

Amazon Kindle

All ratings5,849,569 ratings
Positive97.6%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews8,291 reviews
Positive68.1%
Neutral8.7%
Negative23.1%

Bound

All ratings1,992 ratings
Positive90.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews518 reviews
Positive72.6%
Neutral7.9%
Negative19.5%

User reviews

Amazon Kindle

From 5.8M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 📚 Huge library of books
  • 📱 Portable and convenient
  • 🔍 Useful features like dictionary lookup and highlighting
  • 🌙 Adjustable reading settings (font, brightness, etc.)
  • 🔁 Seamless syncing across devices

Room to improve

  • 🛒 Cannot purchase books directly in the app
  • 🗂️ Difficulty organizing and managing large book libraries
  • 🔍 Inconsistent behavior when highlighting/taking notes
  • 🔄 Unreliable syncing between devices
  • 🔌 Drains device battery quickly

Bound

From 2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app!
  • 👍 Excellent audiobook player
  • 💡 Seamless cloud storage integration
  • 🚀 Efficient and reliable
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 🐛 Issues with cloud storage connectivity
  • 🐛 Inconsistent playback behavior
  • 🐛 Trouble with large audiobook files
  • 🐛 Missing features like folders/playlists

Bugs and requests

Amazon Kindle

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or freezes when switching between apps
  • Incompatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Dictionary lookup feature not working reliably

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to create and manage collections/folders for books
  • Option to easily see which books have been read vs unread
  • Improved highlighting and note-taking functionality
  • Better syncing between Kindle devices and apps
  • Dark mode and other customization options

Bound

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Audiobooks disappearing from library after device restart
  • Inability to delete audiobooks from library
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between apps
  • Playback issues with multi-part audiobooks
  • Problems with web uploader functionality

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add support for Apple Watch
  • Implement search and filtering options
  • Allow bookmarks with notes/labels
  • Add Chromecast support
  • Introduce dark mode
Show 1 more
  • Improve cloud storage management

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Amazon Kindle

Subscriptions2
  • Kindle Unlimited$13.991 Month
  • Kindle Unlimited1 Month trial$13.991 Month
One-time10
  • 140 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$1.39
  • 100 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$1.39
  • 140 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$1.99
Show 7 more
  • 368 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$3.49
  • 300 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$3.99
  • 368 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$4.99
  • 770 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$6.99
  • 770 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$9.99
  • 900 Tokens - Kindle Vella (US)$11.49
  • 2000 Tokens - Kindle Vella(US)$23.99
None

Bound

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Amazon Kindle free?
Amazon Kindle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bound free?
Bound costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Amazon Kindle or Bound?
Amazon Kindle is rated higher. Amazon Kindle averages 4.9 out of 5 from 5.8M ratings, while Bound averages 4.6 from 2K ratings.
Do Amazon Kindle or Bound have ads?
Neither Amazon Kindle nor Bound shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Amazon Kindle or Bound?
Amazon Kindle ships an update fortnightly, and Bound every 2 months. Most recently, Amazon Kindle was updated on September 24, 2026 and Bound on September 22, 2026.
Which is more popular, Amazon Kindle or Bound?
Amazon Kindle currently peaks at #4 in the App Store charts, and Bound at #1. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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