Gutenberg Book Reader vs The Complete Shakespeare
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Gutenberg Book Reader
Access over 60,000 classic books from Project Gutenberg with elegant formatting and customizable reading options. Enjoy synchronized audiobooks, read-along features, and the ability to export books with your notes and bookmarks.
- Vast Project Gutenberg library
- Elegant text and image presentation
- Graceful page turning/scrolling
- Customizable color and contrast
- Synchronized audiobooks and read-along
- Headset controls for audiobooks
- Export books with bookmarks and notes
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Beautiful images, elegant formatting, graceful page turning or scrolling, and precisely customized color and contrast. 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. Number of Books: No other apps have more Gutenberg books, and many competitors are missing some classic Gutenberg books. 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). Listening: There are more than 6,000 human-read audio books. In addition. Full control through headset: pause, play, skip to next/previous track, forward/backward seeking. 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 your bookmarks and the notes that you insert in the book to anyone and any device, or save it in google drive, one drive, or iCloud.
The Complete Shakespeare
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Shakespeare's complete works — 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and every narrative poem — in a clean, native iOS reader designed to feel like Apple built it. Read every play in full, navigate by act and scene, browse the sonnets by first line, and follow the long narrative poems as continuous, scrollable pages. The reading experience uses Apple's typography, Dynamic Type, and the iOS edit menu; with no clutter, no ads, nothing to log into. Select any passage with iOS's standard text selection and tap "Explain" in the menu to get just that line or speech explained, with proper context: the speaker, the scene, the surrounding lines. Everything happens on-device. There are no accounts, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases. One price, one app, the complete canon. Search every line of every work — find "wherefore art thou Romeo" or "to be or not to be" instantly across 114,000+ lines. Includes the complete plays (Tragedies, Comedies, Histories, Romances), all 154 Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, A Lover's Complaint, and The Passionate Pilgrim. Source texts are public domain editions. Requires iPhone with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or later) for the Explain feature. The reader, search, and complete library work on every iOS 26 device.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is chart position: Gutenberg Book Reader at #162 against The Complete Shakespeare's unranked. Gutenberg Book Reader also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). The Complete Shakespeare's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $2.99). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Gutenberg Book Reader costs $2.99 and The Complete Shakespeare $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Gutenberg Book Reader | The Complete Shakespeare |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (19 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 47.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | #162 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | himalaya-soft | Samuel Rulon-Miller |
In-app purchases
Gutenberg Book Reader
No in-app purchases
The Complete Shakespeare
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Gutenberg Book Reader free?
Is The Complete Shakespeare free?
Do Gutenberg Book Reader or The Complete Shakespeare have ads?
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