Boundless vs SWAN Libraries +
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Boundless
Access a vast collection of ebooks, digital audiobooks, and videobooks from your local library or school. Enjoy a seamless reading, listening, and watching experience with personalized recommendations and engaging reading programs.
- Discover ebooks, audiobooks, and videobooks
- Read, listen, and watch in one app
- Personalized recommendations
- Join library reading programs
- Track reading progress and earn badges
- Customizable reading experience
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Boundless by Baker & Taylor gives users the ability to discover and enjoy ebooks, digital audiobooks, video and videobooks from their library or school on mobile devices. • Read, listen, and watch all in one app • Supports eRead-Along and videobook content • Recommendations based on your interests • Join reading programs and challenges from your library • See your progress and earn badges for reading achievements • Notetaking, bookmarking, page layout and font controls Boundless is a digital content service from Baker & Taylor, the premier distributor of books and entertainment products to libraries. Boundless Library is a service from Baker & Taylor, the premier distributor of books and entertainment products.
SWAN Libraries +
Access your library account, search a vast catalog, and manage holds and renewals. Download ebooks and audiobooks directly to your device. This app connects you to a consortium of public, academic, school, and special libraries in the Chicagoland area.
- Manage library account
- Search library catalog
- Renew items
- Place holds
- Download ebooks
- Download audiobooks
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SWAN is a library consortium of public, academic, school, and special libraries in the Chicagoland area. Manage your account, search the catalog, renew and place holds on books, download ebooks and audiobooks, and more. Visit your library including: • Acorn (Oak Forest) • Addison • Alsip-Merrionette Park • Batavia • Bedford Park • Beecher • Bellwood • Bensenville • Berkeley • Berwyn • Bloomingdale • Blue Island • Bridgeview • Broadview • Brookfield • Calumet City • Calumet Park • Carol Stream • Chicago Heights • Chicago Ridge • Cicero • Clarendon Hills • Crestwood • Crete • Dolton • Downers Grove • Eisenhower (Harwood Heights and Norridge) • Elmwood Park • Evergreen Park • Flossmoor • Forest Park • Frankfort • Franklin Park • Geneva • Glen Ellyn • Glenside • Glenwood-Lynwood • Grande Prairie (Country Club Hills and Hazel Crest) • Green Hills (Palos Hills) • Harvey • Hillside • Hinsdale • Hodgkins • Homewood • Indian Prairie (Darien, Willowbrook, and Burr Ridge) • Itasca • Justice • Kaneville • La Grange • La Grange Park • Lansing • Lyons • Markham • McCook • Matteson • Maywood • Melrose Park • Messenger (North Aurora) • Midlothian • Nancy McConathy (Sauk Village) • North Riverside • Oak Brook • Oak Lawn • Oak Park • Palos Heights • Palos Park • Park Forest • Prairie Trails (Burbank and Nottingham Park) • Richton Park • River Forest • River Grove • Riverdale • Roselle • Schiller Park • South Holland • St. Charles • Steger • Stickney-Forest View • Sugar Grove • Summit • Thomas Ford • Thornton • Tinley Park • Town and Country (Elburn) • University Park • Westchester • Villa Park (Villa Park and Oakbrook Terrace) • Warrenville • West Chicago • Westmont • William Leonard (Robbins) • Wood Dale • Woodridge • Worth • National University of Health Sciences • Theosophical Society • Morton Arboretum
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Boundless at 4.4 against SWAN Libraries +'s 1.8. Boundless also leads on ratings volume (18K vs 73) and review sentiment (32% vs 13%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Boundless holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Boundless has 18K ratings behind it against 73, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 32% of Boundless's written reviews are positive against 13% of SWAN Libraries +'s.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Boundless | SWAN Libraries + |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (18K ratings) — better | 1.8 (73 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 32.4% of reviews — better | 13.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18K — better | 73 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 177 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Baker & Taylor | System Wide Automated Network |
Customer experience
Boundless
SWAN Libraries +
User reviews
Boundless
From 18K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast access to books
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to navigate
- 🔒 Separate profiles for kids and adults
- 🎨 Customizable reading experience
- 📚 Wide selection of content
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent freezing and crashes
- ⏱️ Slow loading times
- 🔍 Difficulty finding and accessing books
- 📱 Incompatible with some devices
- 🔌 Requires internet connection for offline use
SWAN Libraries +
From 73 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to look up books
- 👍 Can place holds easily
- 👍 Can see checked out books
- 👍 Get notified for pick up
- 👍 Digital library card available
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 🐛 Constantly logs out users
- 🐛 Slow loading times
- 🐛 Filters do not work
- 🐛 Discover section is blank
Bugs and requests
Boundless
Reported bugs
4 issues- Books disappearing from user's shelf
- Inability to return or renew books
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between profiles
- Audiobook playback issues
Requested features
5 requests- Improved page turning and navigation controls
- Ability to adjust margins and font settings
- Offline access to downloaded content
- Better integration with other reading apps
- More detailed progress tracking and analytics
SWAN Libraries +
Reported bugs
63 issues- Category toggles are tricky and don't reflect changes immediately
- Pick up location changes don't seem to stick
- App logs users out constantly
- Discover section is blank, new content doesn't appear
- Filters to search for items no longer work
Show 58 moreShow fewer
- App works less than 50% of the time
- App is logged out every session, requires re-entry of library card number
- Cannot sign back in after being signed out
- Keyboard and Number pad do not work on login screen
- App takes forever to load
- App is impossible to customize
- App is clunky and has very little options
- App kicks users out for no reason
- App is generally unreliable
- App is not smart or intuitive
- App is buggy and unreliable
- App is consistently closing out and logs users out at random
- Filters for searches frequently don't work
- Buggy mediocre app
- Search requires retyping the entire field
- Filters by media format show results of filtered-out formats
- Filtering by library only shows home library and eVideo
- App crashes constantly
- App is slow
- App is signed out for no reason on a weekly basis
- App locks up iPhone before login
- App asks for Library Card # and return from keypad does NOT work
- App crashes on startup
- App is bricked after latest update
- Categories on discover page aren't linked or showing selected ones
- Tapping account icon and menus has a delay, leading to double taps
- Search filtering doesn't work
- Offline ecard access doesn't work
- Cannot select library location to get past initial screen
- Error when requesting certain holds
- App won't open
- App immediately crashes
- App crashes when it starts
- App won't open anymore, just crashes immediately
- Tapping holds crashes app
- App startup is cumbersome, requires selecting library each time and reading trivia screens
- Tapping my holds list keeps crashing the app
- Notifications are enabled but app says they are not
- App doesn’t support automatic iOS light/dark mode
- Correct login info returned as incorrect on first input
- Forgot PIN link returns a blank window
- Progress bar is choppy and not indicative of loading time
- Brightness doesn't return to original setting after using ecard
- Double/back to back loading icons at the start of future app launches
- App keeps crashing and/or losing account info during a session
- Old app was working fine, new app is a mess
- Filters are ignored
- App is extremely limited in functionality
- Categories like New DVDS do not open/populate
- App asks to allow notifications EVERY TIME
- For every book ordered, user has to input their library
- App is slow to start up
- App provides no convenient access to the library
- Facial recognition to open app should be available
- In notifications, enable all switch is confusing with individual alerts
- App is slow to load
- Have to force quit and go back in to see account info
- App is buggy
Requested features
38 requests- Fix the issue of being logged out every session
- Improve category toggles and make changes stick
- Fix discover section to show new content
- Make filters work correctly
- Add app support to website
Show 33 moreShow fewer
- Improve loading times
- Allow customization
- Add more options
- Fix the issue of being kicked out of the app
- Improve reliability
- Make the app smarter and more intuitive
- Fix glitching and bugs
- Improve loading screen experience
- Ensure changes to pick up locations stick
- Allow retyping search fields instead of full retype
- Fix filter results to match selected media formats
- Allow filtering by any library, not just home library
- Add self checkout option
- Add facial recognition to open app
- Improve notification enabling process
- Add variety to loading screen facts
- Add a report feedback option
- Improve backward compatibility for older iOS versions
- Add a spinner or hourglass for loading
- Make categories on discover page linked
- Allow users to select library every time or remember it
- Add a submit or go button after entering library card number
- Add a percentage to the progress bar
- Add more fun facts with variety
- Ensure brightness returns to original setting after using ecard
- Remove double loading icons
- Fix 'Forgot PIN' link to work
- Add option to create a new account
- Include all libraries in the pick-up location list
- Add a search guidance for users
- Make the app less annoying with notification prompts
- Add a dark mode option
- Improve the discover page functionality
In-app purchases
Boundless
No in-app purchases
SWAN Libraries +
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Boundless free?
Is SWAN Libraries + free?
Which has better reviews, Boundless or SWAN Libraries +?
Do Boundless or SWAN Libraries + have ads?
Which is updated more often, Boundless or SWAN Libraries +?
Other comparisons
