ReadGrow vs Selcouth
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ReadGrow
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ReadGrow is a book-centered reading companion designed for readers who want to retain more from every book they read. Whether you're reading fiction, nonfiction, books in your native language, or books in English, ReadGrow helps you track your reading journey, capture your thoughts, and keep your books, reading progress, and notes together in one place. For readers enjoying books in English, ReadGrow also includes built-in vocabulary collection with automatic IPA pronunciation and definitions, making it easy to expand your vocabulary naturally through reading while preserving the journey of every book you read.
Selcouth
Fill in missing words in classic literary passages to understand authors' intentions. Save favorite words and passages in a digital commonplace book. Enjoy a quiet, offline experience with no ads or tracking.
- Fill in missing words in literary passages
- Save words and passages to a commonplace book
- Offline play
- No ads or tracking
- One-time purchases for content collections
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selcouth (adj.) — strange, unusual, rare; unfamiliar; wondrous. I made Selcouth to spend more time with the authors I love. You get a passage from Dickens, Dostoevsky, or Cather, a few words missing, and you put them back. Try one, from Pride and Prejudice: "Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of ______. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast." honesty? virtue? humility? Austen wrote humility. That's the game. Just you and the passage, weighing the words the way the author did. There's a commonplace book for the words and passages you want to keep; any kept word can be revisited in context, across every book in your library. There are quiet game mechanics too (ranks, rare words to hunt), but the passage is the point, not the score. Thirty classics are free (more than 9,000 passages), with collections when you want more: Gothic & Weird, The Russians, The Sea, Story-Books, The English Novel, and more planned. Each collection is a one-time purchase, yours forever, never a subscription; the full library today is 187 books and more than 55,000 passages. If you'd rather spend ten minutes with Middlemarch than a feed, this is for you. — Zach P.S. No account, no ads, no tracking, works offline. iPhone and iPad, your commonplace synced through iCloud.
Screenshots
Verdict
ReadGrow and Selcouth are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. ReadGrow sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Selcouth sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | ReadGrow | Selcouth |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 221 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Chih-Yen Kuo | Zachary Proffitt |
In-app purchases
ReadGrow
- Aged Pu-erh$5.99
Selcouth
- The Russians$7.99
- The Sea$7.99
- Complete Library$24.99









