RYA Books vs BookFunnel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RYA Books
Explore enhanced digital books with interactive features like animations, videos, and tools. Try free tasters before purchasing full editions, supporting RYA training courses for various boating levels. Optimized for tablets and smartphones.
- Interactive eBooks
- Embedded animations and videos
- 360° tools for navigation and regulations
- Animated examples for VHF procedures
- Tidal curve simulation tool
- Bookmarking and note-taking
- Free taster versions
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We have enhanced our digital editions (where possible) to bring the content to life by embedding animations, video and interactive tools to help illustrate the key points and skills from our popular books. Download this free app to browse the eBook editions – you can also try free taster versions of many eBooks, so you can try before you buy. These eBooks are a great resource supporting our world famous RYA Training Courses such as those within the trademark RYA Yachtmaster Scheme, the RYA Powerboat Scheme and the RYA Dinghy Sailing & Windsurfing Schemes among others. You will find eBooks of essential and recommended titles along with plenty of further reading and development, whether you’re starting to sail by taking a Competent Crew course, taking things further with a Day Skipper course or taking your RYA Yachtmaster exam – whatever you need, we’ve got it covered! There are great examples throughout our range of our use of interactive content in areas such as seamanship, boat handling, passage planning, knots and stability but you’ll find something very special in our editions for: • Collision Regulations – where we've developed over twenty interactive 360° lights and shapes tool to provide readers a more realistic way of viewing how vessels will actually present themselves in a wide variety of contexts, at four different times of day covering both day and night. • VHF – where we’ve created animated examples of the voice procedures in the RYA VHF Handbook and also linked the content to sample questions to help students pass the RYA SRC exam. • Navigation – where we’ve developed a special tool to replicate using the tidal curves in the RYA Training Almanacs to help students taking shorebased navigation courses. Although these eBooks are designed for tablets, we’re still keeping smart phones very much in mind. This way, you’ll still be able to access the enhanced interactive content on the smaller devices even if you feel you wouldn't read a book on something so small. There’s plenty for instructors as well with not only the interactive content, that can be used as demonstrations and enhanced learning on and off the water. There are also a whole host of useful features, (which we’re always evolving) such as bookmarking, note taking and inter-edition linking that will help you manage the content you want to support the way you teach. This updated version of the app now includes a wider range of boating categories to make it easier for you to navigate all the new content that we are regularly adding: • Sail • Dinghy • Sail Racing • Sail Cruising • Windsurfing • Power • Powerboating • Motor Cruising • Personal Watercraft • Inland Waterways
BookFunnel
Access and read your digital books and audiobooks from a single library. Organize your collection, customize reading settings, and enjoy a built-in reader and audiobook player. Sync your progress across devices for a seamless reading experience.
- Manage digital book library
- Send books to favorite reading apps
- Built-in reader
- Customizable reading settings
- Audiobook player
- Sync reading progress across devices
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MANAGE YOUR BOOKS Your BookFunnel library is at your fingertips! Search and sort through all of your BookFunnel books and send them right to your favorite reading app. Or, save time and space, and read right in our all new reader! HOW DOES IT WORK Most books you receive from a BookFunnel author are added to your library automatically. Or, you can enter the book’s download code into the app and add it manually. Tapping any book cover in the app will open it instantly You can also get instructions on downloading the book to a different device entirely. READ COMFORTABLY Read in our app or cloud reader and customize the settings for your comfort. Choose your ideal font type and text size, line spacing, and margins. Tap any book cover in your library to open it in our reader and get started. START LISTENING NOW Our brand-new audiobook player has the features you expect— bookmarks, download quality, and a beautiful, easy-to-navigate player. The BookFunnel app also gives you the ability to fine-tune the settings you really care about, including playback speed, custom skip-back and skip-forward buttons, and a sleep timer. READ WHERE YOU LIKE Sync your books across devices and never lose your place. When you’re reading a book in our app, BookFunnel will automatically mark your last page read and zing you back to it the next time you open the book, so switch freely between your phone and tablet and back again.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: BookFunnel at 3.7 against RYA Books's 2.5. BookFunnel also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 38) and ratings volume (427 vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. RYA Books sells 37 one-off in-app purchases. BookFunnel asks for nothing beyond the download.
BookFunnel holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BookFunnel has 427 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 27% of RYA Books's written reviews are positive against 46% of BookFunnel's.
RYA Books ships an update every 3 months, BookFunnel every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RYA Books | BookFunnel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (2 ratings) | 3.7 (427 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.0% of reviews | 45.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 427 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #71 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 110 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Royal Yachting Association | BookFunnel |
Customer experience
RYA Books
BookFunnel
Bugs and requests
RYA Books
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
BookFunnel
Reported bugs
5 issues- Inability to swipe pages on iPad
- Books disappearing from library
- Inconsistent behavior when pausing/resuming audiobooks
- Corrupted book downloads
- Unreliable 'send to Kindle' functionality
Requested features
5 requests- Continuous scroll option
- Ability to add notes to bookmarks
- Integration with other reading apps (e.g., Audible, Apple Books)
- Support for CarPlay and other in-car integrations
- Improved book organization tools (e.g., series, collections)
In-app purchases
RYA Books
- Guide to Boating Knots (E-G60)$3.99
- First Aid (E-FAB)$6.99
- Instructor Handbook (E-G27)$9.99
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- Handy Guide to CEVNI (E-G106)$9.99
- Intro to Radar (E-G34)$9.99
- Euro Waterways Regs (E-G17)$9.99
- Training Almanac North (E-TAN)$9.99
- Stability and Buoyancy (E-G23)$9.99
- Yachtmaster Quizzes (E-G79)$11.99
- ICC Handbook (E-G81)$12.99
- Racing Rules of Sailing ERRS25$12.99
- Day Skipper Practical(E-DSPCN)$12.99
- Day Skipper Shorebased (E-DSN)$14.99
- Yachtmaster Shorebased (E-YSN)$14.99
- Comp Crew Skills (E-CCPCN)$14.99
- Collision Regulations (E-G2)$14.99
- Intro to Navigation (E-G77)$14.99
- Astro Navigation Handbook (E-G78)$14.99
- Day Skipper Shorebased(E-G113)$14.99
- Start to Race (E-G66)$14.99
- Passage Planning (E-G69)$17.99
- Dinghy Techniques (E-G93)$17.99
- Boat Safety Handbook (E-G103)$17.99
- Day Skipper – Motor (E-G97)$19.99
- Advanced Powerboat (E-G108)$19.99
- Diesel Engine (E-G25)$19.99
- VHF Handbook (E-G31)$19.99
- Yachtmaster Handbook (E-G70)$19.99
- Navigation Handbook (E-G6)$19.99
- Day Skipper Sail (E-G71)$19.99
- Multihull Handbook (E-G92)$19.99
- Offshore Sailing (E-G87)$19.99
- Sail Trim Handbook (E-G99)$19.99
- Boat Handling Sail Power E-G68$19.99
- Electrics Handbook (E-G67)$19.99
- Weather Handbook (E-G133)$19.99
- Manual of Seamanship (E-G36)$22.99
BookFunnel
No in-app purchases









