Apple Books alternatives

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 64 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R2] Apple Books 5/5 · US Pls be free: Bro I’m trying to read my summer book homework 😭😭😭 but I need to pay more just to read than this iPhone
2. [R3] Apple Books 3/5 · US I just think the books should cost less: I still think Libby is better because all the books are free
3. [R12] Apple Books 3/5 · US It’s pretty good: I like the books, love the app, but the cost of the books aren’t very cheap. I kind of wish the costs of the books were lower.
4. [R21] Apple Books 4/5 · US It’s good but: Some books were nice, but other books that I really liked but some books that I really liked cost money
5. [R1] Apple Books 1/5 · US Apple books: It has bugs and close app suddenly & lost its function
6. [R4] Apple Books 1/5 · US Syncing Problem: Why won’t it stop syncing to my backup ? I physically click it off and it says “no data” I then backup my phone, check and it’s still there ???
7. [R10] Apple Books 1/5 · US Hard to purchase books: It doesn’t always work when I wanna purchase a book
8. [R13] Apple Books 1/5 · US Heats up and drains battery: Just listening to an audio book with the screen off, my brand new iPhone gets warm and drained 10% battery in just 20 minutes. Apple! Come on! It’s YOUR app! Why is it so poorly optimized?!
9. [R15] Apple Books 3/5 · US Add a bookmark and notes feature to audiobooks: I really love Apple Books. I use this more often than other eReaders. How is it that despite how popular and important Apple Books is to readers everywhere, there is no way to add bookmarks or notes to an audiobook? Right now, I have to try to memorize chapters that have the information I need. I am constantly disappointed as this seems like a low
10. [R20] Apple Books 2/5 · US Missing a lot of important features: First is the reality that the records for books are not editable resulting in it being extremely difficult to coherently sort books by author. While audiobooks created by Amazon’s Audible brand are listenable in Apple Books, chapter breaks are not accessible in the Books App. There’s more, but you get the gist.
11. [R42] Apple Books 4/5 · US It needs annotations.: I love apple books and its accessibility-friendly interface with different viewing presets, line guide, and light/dark mode. The only thing missing from Books is annotation. I want the ability to create notes inside of the books app (maybe linked to the apple notes app) based on what I read. Annotation is an excellent way to integrate information as you read. Just a thought
12. [R6] Apple Books 3/5 · US Clunky after so many years: Good enough. A bit clunky with all the needless animations. Old version was more intuitive.
13. [R9] Apple Books 3/5 · US Book mark.: Stop messing with things that work. Put the bookmark in the top right corner like before. Don’t make things more difficult for us. It should be a 1 tap thing.
14. [R7] Apple Books 1/5 · US A BAD BOOK APP!!: So I was scrolling through the app, and I only had three recommendations and had mass of little options to read. This was very disappointing and I couldn’t enjoy a good book.. this had me completely petrified to write this review. i’m sorry if this affected your so-called business. This was absolutely tremendous and I will not stand for this absolutely ridiculous app a part of th
15. [R16] Apple Books 2/5 · US Great for reading books, lousy for finding new ones: Generally, I love being able to carry my library wherever I go or picking up wherever I left off even when on a different device (iPad, Macbook, iPhone) and read it at a font size and style that is comfortable. I really dislike searching for new books though, the search interface is generally weak and poorly designed for advanced searches.
16. [R24] Apple Books 1/5 · US books: i can’t read any books no books pop up and i can’t get over how ugly the app looks like make it cute or at least make it a cute color
17. [R28] Apple Books 1/5 · US No kindle: I have a bible that is better then this and kindle. When I highlight, the words should change color not the passage. And where is the red highlight. All the colors choosen are muttered, and all are almost the same same color. Pages stick. I look up the page isn’t turning but the page number at the bottom is. Close the app reopen and I’m 300 pages in a different direction. If you are g
18. [R51] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Worst app ever made by Apple: Just try doing a search / it’s the biggest piece of trash you could ever imagine. It is absolutely unfathomable how something that is used by so many people can be so unbelievably useless for things like search. Literally everybody who worked on this app should be fired.
19. [R54] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Can’t search for episodes: I can’t search any episodes for shows in this app. So if my favorite show had a topic or guest years ago, the only way to find that old one is to scroll and scroll and scroll. Crazy such a feature is missing.
20. [R55] Apple Podcasts 4/5 · US Great but…: This app works great. I’ve been using it for a long time but recently it’s had this glitch where without me touching anything it starts speeding up first two times speed then four then eight then 16 etc., and the only way to stop it is to manually delete and reinstall the app
21. [R57] Apple Podcasts 1/5 · US Do apple devs use this app?: This app lacks so many features other apps offer on their free tier. It makes it so confusing to listen to one podcast with only the unlistened episodes in any order new to old or old to new, it jumps to different podcasts when I want to listen a specific podcast episode after episode, it replays episodes I have already played…. I feel with a little bit of interest and
22. [R5] Apple Books 5/5 · US Books: There are lots of really good free books and it is rather easy to find them and it shows me how long I’ve read for and it has a lot of books I have been looking for but couldn’t find.
23. [R56] Apple Podcasts 3/5 · US Used to be better: Quit making changes! I use this app a lot. But now if I select one show from a podcast to download it leaves the podcast showing in my downloaded podcasts even though none are downloaded. I get tired of deleting and reloading the app.