Comparison

Storytel vs Gutenberg | eBook Reader

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

Head to head
About

Storytel

Access a vast library of audiobooks and ebooks in various languages. Listen or read at your own pace, discover new stories, and enjoy exclusive content. Features include offline listening, personalized recommendations, and a dedicated kids mode.

Highlights
  • Massive audiobook and ebook library
  • Personalized recommendations
  • Offline listening and reading
  • Switch between listening and reading
  • Sleep timer and dark mode
  • Kids mode with parental controls
Features
Read full description

Welcome to a wide world of wonderful audiobooks, ebooks, and things that aren’t books but are still pretty great. Storytel is home to beloved stories, in-depth podcasts, and exclusive Storytel Originals. Whether you listen or read, you’ll find the right story for any moment. • Explore a massive library of stories in English and other languages • Jump freely from story to story until you find one you love • Build your bookshelf and get personalized recommendations • Find what fits your mood, like crime, feel-good, or self-development • Follow your favorite authors and series • Browse and share reviews and reactions • Try out that book your friend keeps talking about • Discover what’s trending in the culture LISTEN AND READ YOUR WAY • Listen to audio stories on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and CarPlay • Stream stories or download them for later • Switch between listening and reading anywhere in a book • Listen at your own pace: regular, sped up, or slowed down • Set bookmarks and attach your thoughts as notes • Drift off to dreamland with the sleep timer • Spare those pretty eyes with Dark Mode • See your stats and set a Listening Goal KIDS MODE INCLUDED • Let your kid find adventure in a space with just children’s stories • Show or hide children’s books in your bookshelf • Set your own pin code for parental control HOW IT WORKS Storytel is available in 25+ countries, including both local and international story treasures in different languages. A subscription gives you access to our ever-growing library of audiobooks, ebooks, and other stories. In-app subscriptions will be charged via your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the subscription period unless auto renewal is turned off in your iTunes account settings at least 24 hours before your subscription period runs out. When a free trial is offered, we will ask you to add a payment method when starting the trial. But don't worry – if you cancel before the last day of the trial you won't be charged. The content, languages and subscriptions available may vary by region. Some titles and offers shown above may not be available in your country or selected subscription plan. Terms and conditions: https://www.storytel.com/documents/terms-and-conditions Privacy policy: https://www.storytel.com/documents/privacy-policy Questions? Feedback? Speak to a real person! Reach us at support@storytel.com

About

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Access a vast library of public domain e-books and audiobooks from around the world. Explore tens of thousands of titles across numerous languages and categories, including classics and popular works.

Highlights
  • Vast public domain e-book library
  • Extensive audiobook collection
  • Thousands of titles available
  • Multiple languages supported
  • Categorized book selection
  • Top 50 e-books listed
Features
Read full description

This app contains the largest public domain e-book and audio book platforms in the world. This application brings a large collection of e-books and audio books to your phone and makes more than 50.000 e-books, 10.000 audio books available for you. Thousands of books from different categories and languages. Languages with more than 50 e-books, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog. Top 50 e-books: 1- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 2- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 3- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 4- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 5- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 6- Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 7 -The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated by John Collingwood Bruce 8- Why Men Fight by Bertrand Russell 9- Dracula by Bram Stoker 10- The Young Train Dispatcher by Burton Egbert Stevenson 11- Il Principe. English by Niccolò Machiavelli 12- Et dukkehjem. English by Henrik Ibsen 13- Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem 14- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 15- Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary 16- Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson 17- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 18- Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm 19- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 20- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 21- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American 22- Slave by Frederick Douglass 23- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie 24- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin 25- The Iliad by Homer 26- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare 27- Red Wagon Stories by Wells Hawks 28- War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy 29- The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana 30- The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for 31- Serious People by Oscar Wilde 32- Common Sense by Thomas Paine 33- Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the 34- German army which participated in the war 35- The Romance of Lust: A Classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous 36- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 37- Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville 38- The War in the East by Trumbull White 39- Ulysses by James Joyce 40- Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë 41- The Key to Theosophy by H. P. Blavatsky 42- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 43- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 44- The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 45- The Theory of Environment by Armin Hajman Koller 46- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 47- The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin 48- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 49- Webster & Tourneur by Cyril Tourneur and John Webster 50- Prestuplenie i nakazanie. English by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Top Audio Books: 1- Pride and Prejudice 2- Jane Eyre 3- Persuasion 4- Anne of Green Gables 5- Emma 6- Little Women 7- The Count of Monte Cristo 8- Mansfield Park 9- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 10- Wuthering Heights 11- The Woman in White 12- Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 13- A Little Princess 14- Moby-Dick 15- Sense and Sensibility 16- North and South 17- Dracula 18- The Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet Pimpernel 19- The 39 Steps 20- The Picture of Dorian Gray 21- Tess of the D'Urbervilles 22- David Copperfield 23- My Man Jeeves 24- The Invisible Man 25- A Christmas Carol 26- The Secret Garden 27- Northanger Abbey 28- Uncle Tom's Cabin 29- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 30- The Return of Sherlock Holmes 31- Middlemarch 32- A Room with a View 33- Agnes Grey 34- Wives and Daughters 35- Around the World in Eighty Days 36- The Metamorphosis 37- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 38- Don QuixoteDon Quixote 39- The Importance of Being Earnest 40- A Tale of Two Cities Terms of Use(EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Storytel4 screens
Gutenberg | eBook Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Gutenberg | eBook Reader at free with in-app purchases against Storytel's subscription. Gutenberg | eBook Reader also leads on review sentiment (69% vs 59%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). Storytel's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks). On price, in-app purchases 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. Storytel sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month and Gutenberg | eBook Reader sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Storytel holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Storytel has 11K ratings behind it against 713, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 59% of Storytel's written reviews are positive against 69% of Gutenberg | eBook Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Storytel ships an update weekly, Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Storytel versus Gutenberg | eBook Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStorytelGutenberg | eBook Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (11K ratings) — better4.5 (713 ratings)
Positive reviews58.8% of reviews69.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings11K — better713
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#62 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size174 MB47 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperStorytel Sweden ABWebron Software LTD

Customer experience

Storytel

All ratings11,009 ratings
Positive93.6%
Neutral2.6%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews1,460 reviews
Positive58.8%
Neutral10.4%
Negative30.8%

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

All ratings713 ratings
Positive89.2%
Neutral2.8%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral6.2%
Negative24.6%

User reviews

Storytel

From 11K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤗 Great app for listening to audiobooks
  • 💰 Affordable subscription
  • 📚 Wide library of books
  • 🌍 Supports multiple languages
  • 🎧 Good quality audio narration

Room to improve

  • 🌎 Limited availability of books in certain regions
  • 🔍 Difficult to search and find desired books
  • 🔀 Lack of chapter navigation and bookmarking
  • 🔇 Low audio volume in some books
  • 🔁 Repeated recommendations of already read books

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

From 713 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 📚 Extensive collection of classic literature
  • 💰 Free access to thousands of books
  • 👍 Easy to use interface
  • 📖 Page-turning feature mimics physical books
  • 🌙 Night mode for comfortable reading

Room to improve

  • 🔍 Search function is unreliable and confusing
  • 📱 Poor book organization and browsing
  • 💔 Missing many books found on Project Gutenberg website
  • 📺 Excessive and intrusive advertisements
  • ⚙️ Limited customization options for book format

Bugs and requests

Storytel

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes after updates
  • Subscription issues and inability to cancel
  • Offline mode problems and lost progress
  • Compatibility issues with certain devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more English language books
  • Improve search and filtering functionality
  • Introduce chapter-level navigation
  • Allow simultaneous reading and listening
  • Provide more language options

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Search returns no results or irrelevant results
  • Books listed on Project Gutenberg not appearing in app
  • App fails to download certain books
  • Reading progress not saved between sessions
  • Continuous scroll instead of page-by-page display
Show 2 more
  • Search function completely non-functional for some users
  • App crashes or becomes unresponsive

Requested features

10 requests
  • Improved search functionality with better filtering
  • Better book organization and categorization system
  • Dictionary/word definition feature
  • Improved paragraph spacing and text formatting
  • Page-by-page navigation instead of chapter-based
Show 5 more
  • Ability to delete books from library
  • Bookmark and reading progress saving
  • More non-fiction and contemporary book titles
  • Author search by first and last name
  • Reduced or optional advertisements

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Storytel

Subscriptions11
  • Storytel Select3 Days trial$1.491 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (India)3 Days trial$3.491 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Egypt)7 Days trial$5.491 Month
Show 8 more
  • Storytel Unlimited (Colombia)1 Month trial$5.991 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Turkey)1 Month trial$5.991 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Bulgaria)1 Month trial$7.991 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Poland)7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (SA)7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Mexico)7 Days trial$8.491 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (Spain)1 Month trial$9.491 Month
  • Storytel Unlimited (UAE)7 Days trial$9.991 Month
6 purchases

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Weekly Subscription$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$4.997 Days
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Subscription$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium$39.99
  • Lifetime Premium$39.99

Questions

Is Storytel free?
Storytel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Gutenberg | eBook Reader free?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Storytel or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
Storytel is rated higher. Storytel averages 4.7 out of 5 from 11K ratings, while Gutenberg | eBook Reader averages 4.5 from 713 ratings.
Do Storytel or Gutenberg | eBook Reader have ads?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader shows ads; Storytel does not.
Which is updated more often, Storytel or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
Storytel ships an update weekly, and Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. Most recently, Storytel was updated on September 24, 2026 and Gutenberg | eBook Reader on September 23, 2026.

Other comparisons