MackinVIA vs Destiny Discover
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MackinVIA
Access your school's digital library, including eBooks and audiobooks. This reader app provides instant access to your checked-out materials, notes, and favorites, with powerful tools for annotation and offline reading.
- Offline access to downloaded resources
- Bookmarking and note-taking
- Highlighting and search within books
- Customizable text and audio controls
- Integrated dictionary and citation tools
- Table of Contents and page view options
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Explore your school’s eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital resources with the MackinVIA Reader, an easy-to-use app that’s fully integrated with your MackinVIA Backpack. The MackinVIA Reader gives you instant access to your favorites, checkouts, and notes, and you’re always one tap away from searching your school’s MackinVIA for more titles. Features include: -Bookmarks -Note-taking -Highlighting -Search within the book -Citations -Merriam-Webster™ dictionary -Customizable text size and font -Text-to-speech -Audio controls -Table of Contents -Single or dual page view -Download resources for offline access To get started, simply enter your school’s name along with your MackinVIA Backpack username and password.
Destiny Discover
Access your school library's digital and print resources from anywhere. Search for eBooks and physical books, read online, or download for offline access. Ideal for students and teachers seeking educational materials and leisure reading.
- Access school library catalog
- Search for Follett eBooks
- Read eBooks online
- Download eBooks for offline access
- Search for print materials
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The Follett Destiny Discover® app is your personalized gateway to all of the great content provided by your school’s library. Whether you are a student or teacher looking for leisure reading/entertainment, or materials to support homework or lesson planning, the Destiny Discover app is for you! • Easily find and login to your school library’s catalog of materials. • Search for Follett eBooks provided by your school library. • Read eBooks while you’re online, or download them to your device when you check them out for offline access. • Search for print materials like books in your school library. Please note: your district or school needs appropriate licensing for Destiny® Library Manager (version 18.0 or later) to use this app. When using the Destiny Discover app your server needs to setup to communicate over SSL. If you are hosted with Follett do not worry, we handle this for you. If not and you cannot connect to your school, please contact your librarian, and have them work with the district to change the setting.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MackinVIA at 3.4 against Destiny Discover's 2.0. MackinVIA also leads on review sentiment (56% vs 14%) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MackinVIA holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 161 and 131 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 56% of MackinVIA's written reviews are positive against 14% of Destiny Discover's.
MackinVIA ships an update every 3 months, Destiny Discover every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MackinVIA | Destiny Discover |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (161 ratings) — better | 2.0 (131 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better | 13.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 161 — better | 131 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 727 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mackin Book Company | Follett School Solutions, LLC |
Customer experience
MackinVIA
Destiny Discover
User reviews
MackinVIA
From 161 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Good for audiobooks
- 👍 Useful for school
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Great for teachers and students
- 👍 Good selection of books
Room to improve
- 🐛 Login issues
- 🐛 App crashes
- 🐛 Slow loading times
- 🐛 Content not accessible on multiple devices
- 🐛 Inconsistent performance
Destiny Discover
From 131 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📚 Access to ebooks and audiobooks in one app
- 🔍 Quick search functionality for books
- ⬇️ Ability to download books for offline reading
- ✅ Checkout and return features work smoothly
- 🎧 Audiobook playback generally functional
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent 'Unable to process request' errors
- ❌ Login and authentication issues
- 🔌 App crashes and freezes regularly
- ⏱️ Slow loading times and performance lag
- 🚫 Inconsistent functionality across devices (Android vs iOS)
Bugs and requests
MackinVIA
Reported bugs
20 issues- Not logging in
- Sent back to App Store during sign-in
- App not loading
- School not appearing in sign-in options
- App immediately says user doesn't have it after getting off
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Cannot download update from iTunes
- App gets stuck opening to a white screen
- Cannot access downloaded books on other devices
- Keeps signing out
- App crashes before sign-in window on older iPads
- Audio freezes, glitches, or bugs out
- Audio skips around and freezes
- App crashes when trying to read a book
- Cannot get into a book due to 'on another device' error
- Resource downloaded to another device error
- App crashes after latest update
- Downloaded books cannot be opened (corrupted file)
- Active session error prevents usage
- Newest update has made the app glitchy
- Login doesn't work after logging in from school
Requested features
10 requests- Add more book series
- Add graphic novels/manga
- Make books unlimited
- Add voiceover support
- Improve turning pages motion
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Improve font adjustment
- Add a section to see checked-out books
- Improve advanced search functionality
- Allow bookmarks to stay in place
- Fix issues with downloaded books on multiple devices
Destiny Discover
Reported bugs
14 issues- Unable to process request error on login and school selection
- Cannot find school in database during login
- App signs out users without notification
- Book title previews and details won't load
- Checked out books not visible in library
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Cannot access saved favorites from online version
- Favorite button missing from app tabs
- Search results won't load or display
- App freezes and crashes frequently
- Password reset not working
- iPad web version unstable
- Highlighting near frame edges triggers toolbars
- Restricted content access issues
- Error messages on every login attempt
Requested features
14 requests- Hold/reserve functionality for books
- Advanced search and filtering by genre, publication date, popularity
- Browse collections without search terms (new arrivals, popular titles, awards)
- Default search to print collection instead of ebooks
- Guest login option for casual browsing
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Audiobook speed controls with standard speeds (0.75x, 1.0x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2.0x)
- Favorites/bookmarks feature accessible from app
- Reading level and grade level filters
- Digital library card in Apple Wallet
- Search by author with linked results
- Ability to edit recently read list
- Create and access reading lists
- Highlighting and annotation features without toolbar interference
- Expand school database options
In-app purchases
MackinVIA
No in-app purchases
Destiny Discover
No in-app purchases
