Comparison

Shakespeare Audio Library vs Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Shakespeare Audio Library

Access the complete audio works of William Shakespeare, including plays and poetry. Stream content for free with samples, or upgrade for unlimited access to the entire library without taking up device storage. Works on both iPhone and iPad.

Highlights
  • Complete works of Shakespeare
  • Audio versions of plays
  • Shakespearean poetry
  • Famous monologues and dialogues
  • Streamed content (no storage)
  • Works on iPhone and iPad
Features
Read full description

*Get it once in the app store, and will work on both your iPad and iPhone* Audio version of the complete works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Includes his entire collection of plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Richard III. Also included is his poetry and a collection of excerpts of famous monologues and dialogues from his plays. Will work on your iPad as well as your iPhone (see instructions below). HOW IT WORKS Download the app for free and listen to samples of these works. Upgrade to the full version to have unlimited access to the complete audio library. These MP3s are streamed, not downloaded, so they take up no storage space on your device. A connection is required for the MP3 to play properly. To own these MP3s to manage yourself, go to our website and join the download service. REINSTALL OR PUT ON iPAD If you need to reinstall this app or wish to add it to another iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, download the free version, select the "Upgrade" button, and go through the purchase process again. If using the same iTunes account, you will not actually be charged again. HAVING PROBLEMS? *If you experience any problems, first try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. You have to go through the purchase process again, but you are not actually charged again if using the same iTunes account* To learn more about our other audio apps, or to download our MP3 libraries, visit www.catholicvault.com.

About

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Access a vast library of public domain e-books and audiobooks from around the world. Explore tens of thousands of titles across numerous languages and categories, including classics and popular works.

Highlights
  • Vast public domain e-book library
  • Extensive audiobook collection
  • Thousands of titles available
  • Multiple languages supported
  • Categorized book selection
  • Top 50 e-books listed
Features
Read full description

This app contains the largest public domain e-book and audio book platforms in the world. This application brings a large collection of e-books and audio books to your phone and makes more than 50.000 e-books, 10.000 audio books available for you. Thousands of books from different categories and languages. Languages with more than 50 e-books, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog. Top 50 e-books: 1- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 2- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 3- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 4- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 5- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 6- Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 7 -The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated by John Collingwood Bruce 8- Why Men Fight by Bertrand Russell 9- Dracula by Bram Stoker 10- The Young Train Dispatcher by Burton Egbert Stevenson 11- Il Principe. English by Niccolò Machiavelli 12- Et dukkehjem. English by Henrik Ibsen 13- Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem 14- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 15- Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary 16- Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson 17- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 18- Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm 19- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 20- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 21- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American 22- Slave by Frederick Douglass 23- Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie 24- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin 25- The Iliad by Homer 26- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare 27- Red Wagon Stories by Wells Hawks 28- War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy 29- The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana 30- The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for 31- Serious People by Oscar Wilde 32- Common Sense by Thomas Paine 33- Histories of two hundred and fifty-one divisions of the 34- German army which participated in the war 35- The Romance of Lust: A Classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous 36- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 37- Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville 38- The War in the East by Trumbull White 39- Ulysses by James Joyce 40- Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë 41- The Key to Theosophy by H. P. Blavatsky 42- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 43- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 44- The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 3 (of 4) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 45- The Theory of Environment by Armin Hajman Koller 46- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo 47- The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin 48- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 49- Webster & Tourneur by Cyril Tourneur and John Webster 50- Prestuplenie i nakazanie. English by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Top Audio Books: 1- Pride and Prejudice 2- Jane Eyre 3- Persuasion 4- Anne of Green Gables 5- Emma 6- Little Women 7- The Count of Monte Cristo 8- Mansfield Park 9- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 10- Wuthering Heights 11- The Woman in White 12- Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 13- A Little Princess 14- Moby-Dick 15- Sense and Sensibility 16- North and South 17- Dracula 18- The Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet Pimpernel 19- The 39 Steps 20- The Picture of Dorian Gray 21- Tess of the D'Urbervilles 22- David Copperfield 23- My Man Jeeves 24- The Invisible Man 25- A Christmas Carol 26- The Secret Garden 27- Northanger Abbey 28- Uncle Tom's Cabin 29- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 30- The Return of Sherlock Holmes 31- Middlemarch 32- A Room with a View 33- Agnes Grey 34- Wives and Daughters 35- Around the World in Eighty Days 36- The Metamorphosis 37- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 38- Don QuixoteDon Quixote 39- The Importance of Being Earnest 40- A Tale of Two Cities Terms of Use(EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Shakespeare Audio Library4 screens
Gutenberg | eBook Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Gutenberg | eBook Reader at 4.5 against Shakespeare Audio Library's 3.8. Gutenberg | eBook Reader also leads on review sentiment (69% vs 33%) and ratings volume (713 vs 4). Shakespeare Audio Library's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Shakespeare Audio Library sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Gutenberg | eBook Reader sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gutenberg | eBook Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gutenberg | eBook Reader has 713 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Shakespeare Audio Library's written reviews are positive against 69% of Gutenberg | eBook Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shakespeare Audio Library ships an update every 7 months, Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 6, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Shakespeare Audio Library versus Gutenberg | eBook Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShakespeare Audio LibraryGutenberg | eBook Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (4 ratings)4.5 (713 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews69.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4713 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWGQM Partners, LLCWebron Software LTD

Customer experience

Shakespeare Audio Library

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

All ratings713 ratings
Positive89.2%
Neutral2.8%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral6.2%
Negative24.6%

Bugs and requests

Shakespeare Audio Library

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Search returns no results or irrelevant results
  • Books listed on Project Gutenberg not appearing in app
  • App fails to download certain books
  • Reading progress not saved between sessions
  • Continuous scroll instead of page-by-page display
Show 2 more
  • Search function completely non-functional for some users
  • App crashes or becomes unresponsive

Requested features

10 requests
  • Improved search functionality with better filtering
  • Better book organization and categorization system
  • Dictionary/word definition feature
  • Improved paragraph spacing and text formatting
  • Page-by-page navigation instead of chapter-based
Show 5 more
  • Ability to delete books from library
  • Bookmark and reading progress saving
  • More non-fiction and contemporary book titles
  • Author search by first and last name
  • Reduced or optional advertisements

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Shakespeare Audio Library

One-time1
  • Shakespeare Full Library$2.99
6 purchases

Gutenberg | eBook Reader

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Weekly Subscription$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Subscription3 Days trial$4.997 Days
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Subscription$24.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium$39.99
  • Lifetime Premium$39.99

Questions

Is Shakespeare Audio Library free?
Shakespeare Audio Library is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Gutenberg | eBook Reader free?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Shakespeare Audio Library or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader is rated higher. Shakespeare Audio Library averages 3.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Gutenberg | eBook Reader averages 4.5 from 713 ratings.
Do Shakespeare Audio Library or Gutenberg | eBook Reader have ads?
Gutenberg | eBook Reader shows ads; Shakespeare Audio Library does not.
Which is updated more often, Shakespeare Audio Library or Gutenberg | eBook Reader?
Shakespeare Audio Library ships an update every 7 months, and Gutenberg | eBook Reader every 6 weeks. Most recently, Shakespeare Audio Library was updated on June 6, 2026 and Gutenberg | eBook Reader on September 23, 2026.

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