Cengage Read vs Calm Drive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cengage Read
Access and study your digital textbooks from anywhere. This app allows students to read, take notes, highlight, bookmark, and use text-to-speech for a flexible learning experience on the go.
- Read eTextbooks on the go
- Take notes and highlight
- Bookmark important sections
- Text-to-speech functionality
- Search keywords
- Navigate via table of contents
Read full descriptionHide full description
Read your eTextbook and study on the go with the Cengage Read app. Cengage Read lets students study whenever – and wherever – they want. Take notes, highlight and bookmark info, have the text read out loud with text-to-speech and easily search keywords and jump to pages with the table of contents. Just log in with your Cengage username and password to get started.
Calm Drive
This app transforms everyday drives into structured practice sessions. It provides real-time feedback on driving smoothness and offers detailed post-drive reviews of your performance and areas for improvement. Enhance your driving skills with personalized coaching and progress tracking.
- Smoothness feedback (braking, acceleration, turning, speed)
- Detailed post-drive reviews
- Driving Insights and trends
- Skill missions and achievements
- CarPlay companion
- Multi-language support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Calm Drive turns ordinary trips into structured driving practice. Mount your iPhone securely, start while parked, and review clear evidence after the drive. During a drive, Calm Drive combines location and motion signals to provide a simple smoothness view and short coaching cues. After parking, you can review your route, notable moments, score factors, recent trends, achievements, and the skills to practice next. Key features: - Smoothness feedback for braking, acceleration, turning, and speed stability - Detailed post-drive reviews with route and event context - Driving Insights across your latest scored trips - Skill missions, weekly goals, progress history, and achievements - A privacy-safe CarPlay companion for glanceable information - English, Russian, Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese - Local route-retention controls and privacy-safe diagnostic export Calm Drive Plus adds the CarPlay companion, full coaching and history, reports and export, every theme, and an ad-free parked experience. Calm Drive is a coaching aid, not a navigation app or a safety certification. Posted road signs, traffic laws, and safe driving decisions always take priority. Set up and review the app only while parked. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Calm Drive at 5.0 against Cengage Read's 4.2. Calm Drive also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). Cengage Read's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, 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. Calm Drive sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Cengage Read asks for nothing beyond the download.
Calm Drive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cengage Read has 4.2K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Cengage Read ships an update every 2 months, Calm Drive every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cengage Read | Calm Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (4.2K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 19.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4.2K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cengage Learning | Maxim Semenov |
Bugs and requests
Cengage Read
Reported bugs
4 issues- Frequent crashes and sign-outs
- Inconsistent highlighting and note-taking functionality
- Inability to view full pages and content
- Text-to-speech feature not working properly
Requested features
4 requests- Improve text formatting and layout
- Add split-screen support for note-taking
- Enhance accessibility features like text-to-speech
- Integrate assignment and due date tracking
Calm Drive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Cengage Read
No in-app purchases
Calm Drive
- Calm Drive Plus$0.991 Month
