Comparison

O'Reilly vs Readwise

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

Head to head
About

O'Reilly

Access a vast library of expert-led books, videos, and courses on business and technology trends. Learn online or offline, sync progress across devices, and personalize your reading experience. Discover and organize content with playlists for easy access.

Highlights
  • Offline access to books, videos, and courses
  • Cross-device progress syncing
  • Content discovery and playlist creation
  • Personalized text display and night mode
  • Search across all learning materials
  • External keyboard support
Features
Read full description

Build the skills you need for the job you have—or the one you want. With the O’Reilly app paired with a membership, you’ll get access to thousands of books, videos, and courses trusted by tech practitioners around the world. Whether you’re a developer, data professional, or technology leader, O’Reilly helps you stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. Here are just a few ways you can use the O’Reilly app to learn today’s most critical skills: • Explore the latest in programming, AI, cloud, DevOps, and cybersecurity, with content from the people actually putting the technology to work—plus in-depth content on leadership, soft skills, and much more. • Read best-selling books and early releases from leading publishers. O’Reilly has the largest collection of titles and is the exclusive digital home for all O’Reilly and Pearson tech books. • Listen to thousands of audiobooks to keep the learning going while you multitask. • Watch live events and training sessions, or dive into 5,000+ courses on-demand. • Use playlists to save and organize content you’re exploring, and share them with your friends and coworkers. • Learn on the go, anywhere, with downloadable content and progress syncing across devices. • Quickly find the resources that will help you solve the problems you encounter in your day-to-day work with AI-powered search, plus AI overviews (with citations) to get up to speed on the basics. Powerful tools to support your learning: • Recommendations based on your interests and history • Playlists to organize the content you want to learn • Deep search to find answers fast across 75K+ titles, 3.7K+ audiobooks, 30K+ hours of video, and much more • Highlights and notes to capture key ideas • Adjustable reading settings including font size and night mode • Playback speed controls for faster learning Get started with one of our most popular skills: • AI and machine learning • Software development and programming • Data engineering and data science • Cloud, DevOps, and infrastructure • Cybersecurity • Product management and leadership The O’Reilly app works best with a membership. Learn more at oreilly.com.

About

Readwise

This app helps you retain more of what you read by centralizing and revisiting your highlights from various reading platforms. It uses spaced repetition and active recall techniques to improve memory and offers features like tagging, note-taking, and OCR for physical books.

Highlights
  • Synchronize highlights from multiple platforms
  • Daily review habit via app and email
  • Spaced repetition and active recall
  • Tag, note, and search highlights
  • OCR for paper book highlights
  • Convert highlights to flashcards
Features
Read full description

Readwise helps you get the most out of what you read by making it fun & easy to revisit your highlights from all your favorite reading platforms in one place. Quickly synchronize your highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper, Pocket, Medium, Goodreads, and even paper books. Then start building a daily review habit using the app and daily email. By reviewing your highlights every day, you'll retain dramatically more and you'll finally stop forgetting all the details from books you just finished! --- “Readwise is my favorite new service this year. Save highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, and now tweets... one of the best long-term personal learning tools I’ve come across.” — Caleb Hicks “Besides my Kindle, Readwise has been the most influential tech for improving my reading process.” — Blake Reichmann “If you use Kindle or Instapaper or just enjoy keeping and reading highlights, please sign up to Readwise. It will become one of your cherished services.” — Christopher Galtenberg --- ACTUALLY USE YOUR HIGHLIGHTS Highlighting is great, but why bother if you're never going to see any of your highlights again? Readwise makes it easy to quickly liberate all your highlights into one place, ensuring that you'll actually see and use them, including highlights from: • Amazon Kindle • Apple iBooks • Instapaper • Pocket • Medium • Goodreads • Twitter • Physical Books (using OCR) • Manual Input • CSV Upload STOP FORGETTING WHAT YOU READ How often do you finish a book, only to forget the key ideas two weeks later? We don't remember things by just reading them once. Readwise solves this problem using scientifically proven learning techniques called Spaced Repetition and Active Recall. Readwise resurfaces the right highlights at the right times using a daily email and an app. Readwise even makes it possible to convert your best highlights into flashcards for added retention. TAG, NOTE, SEARCH, AND ORGANIZE With your highlights all in one place, Readwise enables you to organize and connect these ideas in new ways. Use search to find a highlight instantly; use tag to organize highlights within your library; use notes to add your own annotations. HIGHLIGHT PAPER BOOKS Readwise also makes it possible to take highlights from your physical books and papers using your phone’s camera. Just snap a pic, highlight with your finger, and have your favorite highlights saved forever. --- If you are not already a Readwise subscriber, you can get started immediately with a 30-day free trial with no credit card upfront. At the end of the trial, you will not be charged unless you choose to subscribe to Readwise Full or Readwise Lite. Price may vary by location. Manage your subscription from your dashboard. --- Support: Check out readwise.io/faq or email us at hello@readwise.io Privacy Policy: https://readwise.io/tos Terms of Service: https://readwise.io/privacy

Screenshots

O'Reilly4 screens
Readwise4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: O'Reilly at none against Readwise's 8. O'Reilly also leads on ratings volume (34K vs 1.5K). Readwise's advantage is review sentiment (72% vs 46%) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 18.5). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Readwise sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. O'Reilly asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for O'Reilly against 4.8 for Readwise. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: O'Reilly has 34K ratings behind it against 1.5K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 46% of O'Reilly's written reviews are positive against 72% of Readwise's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
O'Reilly versus Readwise: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterO'ReillyReadwise
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (34K ratings)4.8 (1.5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.2% of reviews72.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings34K — better1.5K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.515.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size63 MB110 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperO'Reilly Media, Inc.Readwise, Inc

Customer experience

O'Reilly

All ratings33,870 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews353 reviews
Positive46.2%
Neutral13.9%
Negative39.9%

Readwise

All ratings1,513 ratings
Positive95.7%
Neutral1.5%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews325 reviews
Positive72.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative20.0%

User reviews

O'Reilly

From 34K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great resource for learning
  • 👍 Excellent content and library
  • 💡 Helpful features like playlists
  • 🚀 Offline reading and downloads

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy app with crashes and issues
  • 👎 Poor reading experience and navigation
  • 🔒 Frequent login issues
  • 👎 Inconsistent sync across devices

Readwise

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful spaced repetition
  • 📚 Seamless integration with reading apps
  • 🔍 Helpful AI-powered features
  • 🗓️ Useful daily review routine
  • 🧠 Boosts knowledge retention

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔌 Sync issues with some platforms
  • 📱 Subpar mobile app experience
  • 🕰️ Lack of flexibility in daily review
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality

Bugs and requests

O'Reilly

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Unreliable downloads and offline access
  • Login issues and loss of progress
  • Inconsistent behavior across updates

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved bookmarking and note-taking
  • Customizable text formatting and layout
  • Better search and content discovery
  • Seamless sync across devices

Readwise

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Sync failures with certain accounts
  • Unreliable highlight capture

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more reading apps
  • Improve sync and import capabilities
  • Introduce more customization options
  • Enhance search and organization tools
  • Develop a more intuitive mobile interface

In-app purchases

None

O'Reilly

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Readwise

Subscriptions8
  • Readwise Lite Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Readwise Lite Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Readwise Full Monthly Plan$8.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Readwise Full Monthly$12.991 Month
  • Readwise Lite Yearly$52.991 Year
  • Readwise Lite Yearly$66.991 Year
  • Readwise Full Yearly$94.991 Year
  • Readwise Full Yearly$119.991 Year

Questions

Is O'Reilly free?
O'Reilly is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Readwise free?
Readwise is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, O'Reilly or Readwise?
Readwise is rated higher. O'Reilly averages 4.7 out of 5 from 34K ratings, while Readwise averages 4.8 from 1.5K ratings.
Do O'Reilly or Readwise have ads?
Neither O'Reilly nor Readwise shows ads.
Which is updated more often, O'Reilly or Readwise?
O'Reilly ships an update every 2 weeks, and Readwise every 2 weeks. Most recently, O'Reilly was updated on October 13, 2026 and Readwise on October 12, 2026.

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