Comparison

Shakespeare Pro vs Helper Helper

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

Head to head
About

Shakespeare Pro

Access the complete works of Shakespeare, including plays, sonnets, and poems. Features include a searchable concordance, integrated glossary, note-taking and sharing capabilities, and customizable reading options. Explore character details, historical context, and original spellings.

Highlights
  • Complete works of Shakespeare
  • Searchable concordance
  • Integrated glossary with definitions
  • Add and share personal notes
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Character descriptions and arcs
  • Original First Folios and Quartos
Features
Read full description

“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.

About

Helper Helper

This platform connects volunteers with local community service opportunities. It streamlines event organization for coordinators and makes it easy for volunteers to discover and sign up for events.

Highlights
  • Connects volunteers to experiences
  • Simplifies coordinator efforts
  • Helps find and schedule events
  • Community service platform
Features
Read full description

Helper Helper is a community service app that connects volunteers to meaningful experiences in the community. Helper Helper simplifies the organizational efforts for volunteer coordinators and helps volunteers easily find and schedule events.

Screenshots

Shakespeare Pro4 screens
Helper Helper4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Helper Helper at Free against Shakespeare Pro's $12.99. Helper Helper also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 25) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). Shakespeare Pro's advantage is review sentiment (87% vs 59%). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

Helper Helper is free to download; Shakespeare Pro costs $12.99 up front. Shakespeare Pro sells 24 one-off in-app purchases. Helper Helper asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Shakespeare Pro against 4.8 for Helper Helper. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.7K and 2.5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Shakespeare Pro's written reviews are positive against 59% of Helper Helper's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shakespeare Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, Helper Helper every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Shakespeare Pro versus Helper Helper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShakespeare ProHelper Helper
Price$12.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (1.7K ratings) — better4.8 (2.5K ratings)
Positive reviews87.0% of reviews — better59.3% of reviews
Number of ratings1.7K2.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size416 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPlayShakespeare.comHelper Helper, L.L.C.

Customer experience

Shakespeare Pro

All ratings1,662 ratings
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.4%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews355 reviews
Positive87.0%
Neutral6.5%
Negative6.5%

Helper Helper

All ratings2,106 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.8%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews27 reviews
Positive59.3%
Neutral3.7%
Negative37.0%

User reviews

Shakespeare Pro

From 1.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Comprehensive Shakespeare collection
  • 📚 Helpful features like glossary, character summaries, and search
  • 💻 Convenient to have all works in one app
  • 🎨 Well-designed and easy to use
  • 🤓 Invaluable resource for students and Shakespeare enthusiasts

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Difficulty searching Folio texts
  • 📝 Lack of note-taking functionality
  • 🔔 Persistent requests for reviews can be annoying
  • 🔤 Some inaccuracies in modern language translations

Helper Helper

From 2.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Efficient for tracking volunteer hours
  • 💡 Helpful for finding volunteer opportunities
  • 🔍 Good for organization and administration

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Slow processing of approval requests
  • 🔍 Inconvenient for volunteer supervisors to approve hours
  • 🔍 Lack of ability to enter date ranges for long-term volunteering
  • 🔍 Difficult to sign up without being part of an organization

Bugs and requests

Shakespeare Pro

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes on launch after recent update
  • Glossary feature not working as expected
  • Quote of the day widget not functioning properly
  • Formatting issues when reading in certain orientations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to take notes and highlight text
  • Improve search functionality, especially for Folio texts
  • Provide more detailed character and plot summaries
  • Include links to video/audio performances of the plays
  • Offer more language options (e.g., original spelling, modern translations)

Helper Helper

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login issues, app not working for some users
  • Compatibility problems with older devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to link accounts among family members
  • Improved color contrast and readability on stats page
  • Support for more languages (e.g., Spanish)

In-app purchases

24 purchases

Shakespeare Pro

One-time24
  • Modern translation: AYLI$1.99
  • Modern Translation (M4M)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (Much Ado)$1.99
Show 21 more
  • Modern Translation (Tempest)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (2GV)$1.99
  • Modern translation: A&C$1.99
  • Modern Translation (Henry 5)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (JC)$1.99
  • Modern translation: COE$1.99
  • Modern Translation (Pericles)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (Othello)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (TN)$1.99
  • Modern Translation (Macbeth)$2.99
  • Modern Translation (RJ)$2.99
  • Modern Translation (Hamlet)$2.99
  • Schmidt's Lexicon$3.99
  • Glossary by C. T. Onions$3.99
  • Glossary by Alexander Dyce$3.99
  • All Apocrypha Plays$7.99
  • All Lexicons$9.99
  • Course: Intro to Shakespeare$9.99
  • Course: Shakespeare for Kids$9.99
  • Modern Translation (All)$17.99
  • Shakespeare Ultimate$49.99
None

Helper Helper

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shakespeare Pro free?
Shakespeare Pro costs $12.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Helper Helper free?
Helper Helper is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shakespeare Pro or Helper Helper?
Shakespeare Pro is rated higher. Shakespeare Pro averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while Helper Helper averages 4.8 from 2.5K ratings.
Do Shakespeare Pro or Helper Helper have ads?
Neither Shakespeare Pro nor Helper Helper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shakespeare Pro or Helper Helper?
Shakespeare Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, and Helper Helper every 5 weeks. Most recently, Shakespeare Pro was updated on October 29, 2026 and Helper Helper on October 26, 2026.

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