Gutenberg Project vs Loyal Books
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Gutenberg Project
Access over 60,000 classic books and 7,000 human-read audiobooks from Project Gutenberg. Enjoy a beautiful reading experience with synchronized audio and text, intelligent table of contents, and personalized recommendations based on user data. Export books with notes and bookmarks.
- Access 60,000+ classic books
- 7,000+ human-read audiobooks
- Synchronized read-along audio/text
- Intelligent Table of Contents
- Big data-driven recommendations
- Export books with notes/bookmarks
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【Premier Reader】: This app costs $6, and our users are paying for it each and every day. Why? It is the best Gutenberg Reader: beautiful images, elegant formatting, and graceful page turning. 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. 【Audio books】: There are more than 7,000 human-read audio books, all for the price of a cup of coffee. Alternatively you could pay $3-5 for a single audiobook as some of the "Audio app" would ask you to pay. 【Book recommendation】: Every app gives you a list of book recommendation, but where did they find the list? dreamed up in 'lala' land? We base our recommendation solidly on big data, tens of millions of pages actually read by our users. Downloading or page flipping has no effect on the ranking of our recommendation list. 【Number of Books】: No other apps have more Gutenberg books, and many competitors are missing some classic Gutenberg books, and many competitors use outdated data from Gutenberg. 【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). 【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 bookmarks and the notes you inserted into the book to anyone and any device, or save it i the cloud (google drive, one drive, or iCloud). * The PAID version "Gutenberg Books" allows unlimited reading and listening.
Loyal Books
Access a vast collection of free audiobooks and eBooks to enhance your reading experience. Discover new titles through user reviews, featured lists, and top charts. Enjoy offline listening and reading with downloadable content.
- Thousands of free audiobooks
- Tens of thousands of free eBooks
- Offline listening and reading
- Adjustable playback speed
- Book reviews and ratings
- Book discovery tools
- Books in multiple languages
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Make reading fun again! Create your own library from thousands of free audiobooks and eBooks. Read reviews from other users and stream audiobooks or download to listen offline. With featured books and top charts you'll quickly be on your way to enjoying the best free books available. Features: • Listen to 7,000+ audiobooks • Read 35,000+ eBooks • Adjustable playback speed • Download for offline use • Book reviews & ratings • Fun ways to discover books • Books in 25+ languages • Find children's books, fiction, mysteries and more
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Loyal Books at 4.4 against Gutenberg Project's 3.3. Loyal Books also leads on review sentiment (72% vs 41%) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Gutenberg Project sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Loyal Books sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Loyal Books holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Loyal Books has 361 ratings behind it against 43, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 41% of Gutenberg Project's written reviews are positive against 72% of Loyal Books's.
Gutenberg Project ships an update every 2 months, Loyal Books fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Gutenberg Project | Loyal Books |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (43 ratings) | 4.4 (361 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 40.7% of reviews | 71.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 43 | 361 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | himalaya-soft | Twist Idea LLC |
Customer experience
Gutenberg Project
Loyal Books
Bugs and requests
Gutenberg Project
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Loyal Books
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashing or freezing on certain devices
- Playback issues with chapters stopping unexpectedly
- Syncing/navigation problems when browsing books
Requested features
4 requests- Add more modern and popular book titles
- Improve continuous playback across chapters
- Introduce a sleep timer feature
- Optimize performance and reduce battery drain
In-app purchases
Gutenberg Project
- Unlimited Reading$2.99
- Unlimited Listening$2.99
Loyal Books
- Remove Playback Banner Ads$0.99
- Remove All Banner Ads$2.99
Questions
Is Gutenberg Project free?
Is Loyal Books free?
Which has better reviews, Gutenberg Project or Loyal Books?
Do Gutenberg Project or Loyal Books have ads?
Which is updated more often, Gutenberg Project or Loyal Books?
Other comparisons
