Glose vs Bookshop.org
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Glose
This reading app enhances the experience with social features, allowing users to connect with others, share notes, and join online book clubs. Explore a vast ebookstore, read excerpts for free, and import your own EPUBs for offline access.
- Social reading and annotation sharing
- Access to 1 million ebooks
- Read up to 10% of any book for free
- Import your own EPUBs
- Offline reading capabilities
- Create and join online book clubs
- Generate and share quote cards
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The next-generation READING APP that makes reading AWESOME with features to keep you engaged and motivated. Pick a book in our choice of 1 million, start reading any book for free, connect with other readers and share notes, highlights, and conversation - and become a better reader. Build your bookshelf in seconds : Create a free reader profile, organize your books, create lists. Browse our ebookstore : 1 million ebooks in all categories. Best sellers, fiction, non fiction, young adult, business, education etc... with great discounts and free classics. Start any book for free! One touch and you’re into any book for free. Read up to 10% of the content before deciding to pursue and purchase the book. Also, upload an import your own epubs from Dropbox, your desktop of anywhere else! Read anywhere, anytime, online and offline. Glose stores your current reads so you can read them offline, in the bus, subway, in the depths of a mysterious forest or a far away galaxy. Join the Community : see what other people are reading, recommending, highlighting, and annotating. Read with your friends! Create reading groups to read with your friends and share highlights and annotations. Shared annotations in the margins of the text make reading more engaging and exciting. Post a note and see what other readers think. Start an online book club! Create a group, pick a name and image, invite people and choose books : you’ve got your online book club read to go - around the world! Make reading beautiful : create beautiful quote cards from the books you read. Choose a sentence that inspires you, choose a background photo, and share the quote card on social media. More about Glose : Reading for better learning : our unique features makes your reading more conducive to text analysis, memorization, and study. Glose is used in leading schools and universities to power distribution of reading material and discussion around text. Our bookstore features the works of Malcolm Gladwell, Walter Isaacson, Stephen King, John Green, Paulo Coelho, James Patterson, E.L. James, Suzanne Collins, Danielle Steel, David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, George R.R Martin, and many more ! • Read popular FREE ebooks by classic authors : Moby Dick, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tales from Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice and more. On Glose, reading becomes social. You can highlight your favorite quotes with one touch, archive them, share them on social networks, and annotate them. So join our community of readers who read, share, and discuss the books they love! Glose provides the most powerful reading experience online. • Customise your reading settings to personalise your experience : fonts, spacing, page structure, background color (might mode and more). • Always pick up your reading at the right page thanks to automatic synchronisation of your Reading activity on all devices. • Make new friends through books So what are you waiting for ? Don’t miss the inspiring conversations happening every day in Glose, and Download our app ! Connect with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GloseApp) Follow Glose on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Glose)
Bookshop.org
Read your ebooks and discover new titles while supporting independent bookstores. All ebook purchases made through this platform directly benefit local bookshops, ensuring their continued success in the digital age.
- Read ebooks from your library
- Browse millions of ebooks
- Add titles to wishlist
- Support local bookstores with purchases
- Connect seamlessly with Bookshop
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Bookshop.org’s mission is simple: We help local, independent bookstores thrive by giving more than 80% of our profits back to our network of 3,000+ stores. In our app, you can read millions of ebooks - and every purchase supports an independent bookstore near you! In the Bookshop app you can: - Read your ebooks in our customizable ebook reader. - Browse millions of titles and discover your next favorite read in romance, thrillers, mystery, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and more. - Organize your TBR into custom shelves. - Highlight in five different colors, and add notes to your highlighted passages. - Sort & filter highlights and notes by date created, book order, and more. - Save titles to your wishlist so you can read them later. - Shop knowing that over 80% of the profit goes directly to local, independent bookstores. We’re a Certified B Corp, and we’ve raised more than $50 million for independent bookstores nationwide since 2020. Download the Bookshop.org app to support bookstores, not billionaires.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bookshop.org at 57% against Glose's 27%. Bookshop.org also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). Glose's advantage is ratings volume (8K vs 2.1K) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bookshop.org holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8K and 2.1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 27% of Glose's written reviews are positive against 57% of Bookshop.org's.
Glose ships an update every 3 weeks, Bookshop.org every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Glose | Bookshop.org |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (8K ratings) | 4.8 (2.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.7% of reviews | 56.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8K — better | 2.1K |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #166 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 106 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Readwise, Inc | Bookshop, Inc. |
Customer experience
Glose
Bookshop.org
User reviews
Glose
From 8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth reading experience
- 👍 Intuitive interface
- 💡 Social features for sharing highlights
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔒 Lack of offline access to downloaded books
- 👎 Difficult to navigate and find your place
- 💤 Sluggish performance
- 📚 Inability to export or transfer purchased books
Bookshop.org
From 2.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Wonderful app
- 👍 Great alternative to Amazon
- 👍 Supports local bookstores
- 👍 Clean and pleasing interface
- 👍 Solid app for a new release
Room to improve
- 🐛 Formatting issues (lack of italics, poor paragraph spacing, etc.)
- 🐛 Buggy page turning and navigation
- 🔧 Limited customization options (fonts, themes, brightness, etc.)
- 🔧 Missing essential features (highlighting, note-taking, search, etc.)
Bugs and requests
Glose
Reported bugs
4 issues- Pages skipping or jumping unexpectedly
- Highlighting and note-taking features not working as expected
- Audiobook playback issues like skipping and glitching
- Login and account management problems
Requested features
4 requests- Bookmark and annotation management
- Customizable reading settings
- Seamless sync across devices
- Improved search and organization of library
Bookshop.org
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to remember last page read
- Scrolling issues and unexpected page skipping
- Formatting problems (stripped italics, weird paragraph spacing)
- Settings not persisting between app sessions
Requested features
7 requests- More font and theme options
- Ability to adjust line spacing, margins, and other formatting
- Implement highlighting, annotation, and note-taking features
- Add search functionality
- Improve page turning and navigation
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- Provide better dark mode/night reading experience
- Sync reading progress across devices
In-app purchases
Glose
No in-app purchases
Bookshop.org
No in-app purchases







