Comparison

Amazon Kindle vs Apple Books

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

Apple Books

Discover, read, and listen to millions of books and audiobooks. Browse curated collections, personalized recommendations, and bestsellers. Customize your reading experience with various themes and settings, and set reading goals to build a habit. Share your library with family.

Highlights
  • Discover millions of books and audiobooks
  • Personalized recommendations and curated collections
  • Customizable reading experience (fonts, themes, spacing)
  • Reading goals and progress tracking
  • Family Sharing for books and audiobooks
  • Apple CarPlay and Apple Watch integration
Features
Read full description

Apple Books is the best place to discover, read and listen to entertaining and informative books and audiobooks. Browse through top charts, personalised recommendations and expertly curated collections in the Book Store and Audiobook Store, or use search to easily find the perfect read or listen, no subscription needed. Track what you’ve read and want to read, and set your own reading goals—all in one app and across all your Apple devices. Explore millions of books and audiobooks • Check out today’s bestsellers, free books and special offers for readers of all ages, plus personalised recommendations. • Explore collections curated by the Apple Books team to find your next book or audiobook in your favourite genres, from mysteries and thrillers to romance, history, self-development and kids. • Sample any book or preview an audiobook to start enjoying the first few pages for free. • Keep track of the books and audiobooks you’re interested in with your Want to Read list. Customise your reading experience • Choose from a selection of reading themes, which include a variety of fonts and background colours. • Make your book easy to read by adjusting line height and letter spacing to your preference. • Use Auto-Night Theme and adjust your screen brightness to make reading more comfortable for your eyes. • Enable vertical scrolling to move continuously through books instead of flipping pages. Make reading a habit with Reading Goals • Set a reading goal to encourage yourself to read daily. • Track reading streaks and how many books you’ve read this year. • Get reminders and coaching to help you achieve your reading goals. Share with your whole family • Family Sharing lets you enjoy your books and audiobooks with your favourite people. Invite up to five family members. Apple CarPlay • Designed with safety in mind, the Audiobooks app in Apple CarPlay allows you to listen to audiobooks while driving. • Large buttons make it easy to start and stop, rewind or fast forward, and the simplified library helps you find your next audiobook while still keeping your eyes on the road. Apple Watch features • Use the Audiobooks app on Apple Watch to get back to your recent audiobooks or browse your library right from your wrist. • Use the Watch app on iPhone to choose which audiobooks to download to your Apple Watch. Requirements & store availability • iPhone requires iOS 12 or later. • iPad requires iPadOS 12 or later. • Content varies by country or region and may not be available on all devices.

Screenshots

Amazon Kindle4 screens
Apple Books4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Amazon Kindle at 4.9 against Apple Books's 4.4. Amazon Kindle also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (5.8M vs 89K). Apple Books's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 12) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Amazon Kindle sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $13.99 per month. Apple Books asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Amazon Kindle holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Amazon Kindle has 5.8M ratings behind it against 89K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Amazon Kindle's written reviews are positive against 52% of Apple Books's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Amazon Kindle ships an update every 2 weeks, Apple Books every 4 months. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Amazon Kindle versus Apple Books: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAmazon KindleApple Books
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (5.8M ratings) — better4.4 (89K ratings)
Positive reviews68.2% of reviews — better52.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5.8M — better89K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#4 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size196 MB17 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperAMZN Mobile LLCApple

Customer experience

Amazon Kindle

All ratings5,821,307 ratings
Positive97.6%
Neutral1.3%
Negative1.0%
Written reviews8,244 reviews
Positive68.2%
Neutral8.8%
Negative23.0%

Apple Books

All ratings88,701 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral4.1%
Negative10.4%
Written reviews2,751 reviews
Positive52.0%
Neutral10.7%
Negative37.4%

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

Apple Books

From 89K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Seamless integration across devices
  • 📚 Vast library of books available
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 🎧 Exceptional audiobook experience

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Books get deleted from local storage
  • 🐛 Unreliable syncing between devices
  • 🔒 Lack of audio closed captions
  • 🤔 Pricing concerns for some books
  • 🤔 Frustrating UI changes in recent updates

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

Apple Books

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Books randomly deleted from device
  • Syncing issues between iPhone and iPad
  • Scrolling and navigation glitches
  • Inconsistent font and formatting issues
  • Inability to download books over cellular data

Requested features

5 requests
  • Audio closed captions for audiobooks
  • Ability to organize books by series
  • Custom font and highlighter color options
  • Syncing for audiobooks across devices
  • Integration with book review platforms

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

Apple Books

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Amazon Kindle free?
Amazon Kindle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Apple Books free?
Apple Books is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Amazon Kindle or Apple Books?
Amazon Kindle is rated higher. Amazon Kindle averages 4.9 out of 5 from 5.8M ratings, while Apple Books averages 4.4 from 89K ratings.
Do Amazon Kindle or Apple Books have ads?
Neither Amazon Kindle nor Apple Books shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Amazon Kindle or Apple Books?
Amazon Kindle ships an update every 2 weeks, and Apple Books every 4 months. Most recently, Amazon Kindle was updated on September 24, 2026 and Apple Books on September 24, 2026.

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