Comparison

Famous Books vs Gutenberg Project

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Digital copies of rare books
  • Zoomable high-resolution images
  • Browse manuscripts and printed works
  • Occidental and Oriental collections
  • View cultural heritage
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Gutenberg Project

Access over 60,000 classic books and 7,000 human-read audiobooks from Project Gutenberg. Enjoy a beautiful reading experience with synchronized audio and text, intelligent table of contents, and personalized recommendations based on user data. Export books with notes and bookmarks.

Highlights
  • Access 60,000+ classic books
  • 7,000+ human-read audiobooks
  • Synchronized read-along audio/text
  • Intelligent Table of Contents
  • Big data-driven recommendations
  • Export books with notes/bookmarks
Features
Read full description

【Premier Reader】: This app costs $6, and our users are paying for it each and every day. Why? It is the best Gutenberg Reader: beautiful images, elegant formatting, and graceful page turning. Contents live from Project Gutenberg with last-minute update, more than 60,000 most important books ever published in history. Plus more than 7,000 human-read audio books. 【Audio books】: There are more than 7,000 human-read audio books, all for the price of a cup of coffee. Alternatively you could pay $3-5 for a single audiobook as some of the "Audio app" would ask you to pay. 【Book recommendation】: Every app gives you a list of book recommendation, but where did they find the list? dreamed up in 'lala' land? We base our recommendation solidly on big data, tens of millions of pages actually read by our users. Downloading or page flipping has no effect on the ranking of our recommendation list. 【Number of Books】: No other apps have more Gutenberg books, and many competitors are missing some classic Gutenberg books, and many competitors use outdated data from Gutenberg. 【Reading】: Texts and images are presented by a sophisticated book reader: beautiful presentation, graceful page turning, and the most intelligent Table of Contents (better than any other book reader for the same book). 【Read-along】: Audio and Text are synchronized when possible. You can read, listen, or read-Along, and switch between them at will. 【Export】: Export a book together with bookmarks and the notes you inserted into the book to anyone and any device, or save it i the cloud (google drive, one drive, or iCloud). * The PAID version "Gutenberg Books" allows unlimited reading and listening.

Screenshots

Famous Books4 screens
Gutenberg Project4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Famous Books at 94% against Gutenberg Project's 41%. Famous Books also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Gutenberg Project's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume, 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

Both are free to download. Gutenberg Project sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Famous Books asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Famous Books holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 30 and 43 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 94% of Famous Books's written reviews are positive against 41% of Gutenberg Project's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Famous Books ships an update every 7 months, Gutenberg Project every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Famous Books versus Gutenberg Project: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFamous BooksGutenberg Project
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (30 ratings) — better3.3 (43 ratings)
Positive reviews94.3% of reviews — better40.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3043 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size238 MB26 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperBayerische Staatsbibliothekhimalaya-soft

Customer experience

Famous Books

All ratings30 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews88 reviews
Positive94.3%
Neutral4.5%
Negative1.1%

Gutenberg Project

All ratings43 ratings
Positive53.5%
Neutral9.3%
Negative37.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive40.7%
Neutral6.8%
Negative52.5%

Bugs and requests

Famous Books

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Gutenberg Project

Reported bugs

16 issues
  • 504 bad gateway errors
  • App not working at all
  • App not showing any pages
  • Search doesn't find anything but error 404
  • Stopped working, will not load catalog
Show 11 more
  • Close when attempt to open current book
  • Could not download more than four pages
  • Downloaded books became confused
  • Every time you touch the screen wrong it flips the page
  • Sets you back to page one
  • Deleted all offline books and audiobook
  • Missing offline books
  • Cannot read the description of the book
  • Books open at the end
  • Too many redirects
  • Most buttons go to an 'email a friend' page or 'Access forbidden'

Requested features

10 requests
  • Ability to choose favorite colors for reading
  • Paid premium version with custom color combinations
  • Sourcing more Gutenberg sites
  • Option to make text black on white
  • Continuous ad at bottom or top instead of full page
Show 5 more
  • Less stylized page turn option (swipe or continuous scroll)
  • One app for finding, downloading, and reading
  • Ability to search Audiobooks by Genre
  • Ability to favorite and build a library
  • Night reading mode facility

In-app purchases

None

Famous Books

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Gutenberg Project

One-time2
  • Unlimited Reading$2.99
  • Unlimited Listening$2.99

Questions

Is Famous Books free?
Famous Books is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Gutenberg Project free?
Gutenberg Project is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Famous Books or Gutenberg Project?
Famous Books is rated higher. Famous Books averages 4.7 out of 5 from 30 ratings, while Gutenberg Project averages 3.3 from 43 ratings.
Do Famous Books or Gutenberg Project have ads?
Neither Famous Books nor Gutenberg Project shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Famous Books or Gutenberg Project?
Famous Books ships an update every 7 months, and Gutenberg Project every 2 months. Most recently, Famous Books was updated on November 1, 2026 and Gutenberg Project on November 6, 2026.

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