O'Reilly vs Soroban Path
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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. • Discover best-selling titles and early releases from leading publishers, all in one digital library built for technology professionals. • 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.
Soroban Path
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Learn the Japanese abacus, then do the math in your head. Soroban Path teaches the soroban step by step. Every lesson starts with a short demonstration. Then guided beads show exactly where to move, and you try it yourself, with hints ready whenever you need them. Little by little the beads turn into a picture in your mind. That picture is why soroban students are so quick at mental math. MEET THE COMPLEMENTS When a sum does not fit on the beads, a complement steps in: the number that makes 5 or 10 together with it. Soroban Path teaches all 34 complement formulas - 5-complements, 10-complements and the mixed ones - and, just as important, when and why each one is needed. Knowing the reason is what turns memorized moves into real number sense. HOW IT WORKS - 46 short lessons in 10 units, from "Meet the Soroban" to "Mental Math & Flash" - Watch, follow the arrows, then try it on your own, with three levels of hints - Review that brings each complement formula back at just the right time, and a star for every one you know well - Already know some soroban? Take a short test and skip ahead - Four kinds of practice: Bead Drills, Soroban Sums, Flash Anzan and Listening Math - Instructions are read aloud, and one tap in any lesson turns the voice off when you need quiet - A weekly practice goal, with no lives, no penalties and no leaderboards - Certificates for finished units, and a progress report you can share FREE TO START The first 12 lessons and a starter set of practice levels are free, so you can try the whole way of learning before you buy anything. PREMIUM, ONE TIME Premium unlocks all 46 lessons, every practice level, every certificate and the full progress report. It is a single purchase: no subscription and no renewals. You can restore it on any device that uses the same Apple ID. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no ads and no tracking. Progress stays on the device, and the app works offline. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hirokishingu.github.io/soroban-site/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: O'Reilly at none against Soroban Path's 1. Soroban Path's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Soroban Path sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. O'Reilly asks for nothing beyond the download.
O'Reilly ships an update fortnightly, Soroban Path every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | O'Reilly | Soroban Path |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (34K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 46.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 34K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 64 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | O'Reilly Media, Inc. | Hiroki Shingu |
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
Soroban Path
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
O'Reilly
No in-app purchases
Soroban Path
- Soroban Premium$4.99









