Famous Books vs Harvard Classics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Famous Books
Explore a curated collection of 52 rare and world-famous manuscripts, incunabula, and printed works from the Bavarian State Library. View high-quality digital copies, zoom in on details, and discover cultural heritage from the Occident and Orient.
- Digital copies of rare books
- Zoomable high-resolution images
- Browse manuscripts and printed works
- Occidental and Oriental collections
- View cultural heritage
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The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is one of the biggest and most important universal libraries worldwide. Its vaults accommodate some of the most precious and world-famous works of mankind’s written cultural heritage. The app "Famous Books. Treasures of the Bavarian State Library” presents an exquisite selection of these holdings: 52 splendid manuscripts, unique incunabula and rare, precious printed works from the Occident and the Orient Only very rarely can the public view the physical manifestations of these treasures in exhibitions. The brilliant, complete digital copies of the exhibits - formatted for presentation on iPad and iPhone - provide a fascinating insight into the treasures held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Users can browse through and freely zoom into the manuscripts and printed works from the first to the last page. Among the exhibits are, for example, the manuscript A of the Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs), the eight volumes of the Ottheinrich Bible, an edition of each the Gutenberg Bible and the World Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel, the Babylonian Talmud and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s epic poem Parzival.
Harvard Classics
Explore the history of religion, philosophy, civilization, and science through curated classic texts. This app offers a vast collection of essential readings, including the Harvard Classics, with options to read, listen, or follow along. Enjoy features like offline access, customizable reading settings, and integrated Wikipedia articles for deeper understanding.
- Curated classic texts
- Read, listen, or read-along options
- Offline access
- Integrated Wikipedia articles
- Customizable reading settings
- Bookmark and search functionality
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Guided by Dr. Eliot, the famed president of Harvard University, you will journey through the history of religion and philosophy, the history of civilization, and the history of classic science. Along the way, Dr. Eliot will introduce you to the books selected from the famed Harvard Classics. All classics you ever need to read in History and Civilization, in Philosophy and Religion, and in Science are collected in one app. Read, listen, or read-along these books of Harvard Classics, plus 50,000+ Gutenberg classics, on-line, off-line, anywhere, anytime. Text of each book is hand-reformatted for best reading experience, audio books done by experienced readers, and videos professionally presented. Inside each book, you can also explore an in-depth Wikipedia article about the author and the book, Most of the basic features for a book reader are also provided, include, page-turning, bookmarking, night reading, changing font size, changing background color, dictionary, and word and phrase looking up in search engine or Wikipedia.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Famous Books at 94% against Harvard Classics's 25%. Famous Books also leads on price (Free vs $2.99) and rating (4.7 vs 3.4). Harvard Classics's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 7 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On ratings volume, ads, 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
Famous Books is free to download; Harvard Classics costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Famous Books holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 30 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Famous Books's written reviews are positive against 25% of Harvard Classics's.
Famous Books ships an update every 7 months, Harvard Classics every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Famous Books | Harvard Classics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (30 ratings) — better | 3.4 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.3% of reviews — better | 25.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 30 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 238 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | himalaya-soft |
Customer experience
Famous Books
Harvard Classics
In-app purchases
Famous Books
No in-app purchases
Harvard Classics
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Famous Books free?
Is Harvard Classics free?
Which has better reviews, Famous Books or Harvard Classics?
Do Famous Books or Harvard Classics have ads?
Which is updated more often, Famous Books or Harvard Classics?
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