Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Wattpad vs Apple Books

Wattpad 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Wattpad
Apple Books 4.4★ · Free to download 70

Wattpad is better for users seeking a vast library of user-generated content and a strong community, despite its significant ad issues, while Apple Books is a more reliable, ad-free platform for purchasing and reading published books.

Full reviews: Wattpad · Apple Books

Wattpad offers a unique platform for reading and writing original stories and fanfiction, fostering a strong community, but is heavily criticized for its excessive ads and frequent bugs. Apple Books, while not directly comparable in content type, provides a stable, ad-free environment for consuming traditional published literature.

Head to head

Content & Variety edge: WattpadR11R17R41R47
Wattpad Wattpad is praised for its extensive library of user-generated stories, including fanfiction and original works, offering a wide range of genres and a platform for aspiring writers R11R17R47. Users appreciate the creativity of the writers and the ability to discover new stories R41.
Apple Books There are no specific reviews for Apple Books regarding its content variety in this dataset, as the reviews provided are exclusively for Wattpad.
User Experience (Ads & Paywalls) edge: Apple BooksR1R4R6R7
Wattpad Wattpad's user experience is severely hampered by an overwhelming number of ads, with many users reporting an ad after every chapter or even every few minutes, making the app 'unusable' and 'unenjoyable' R1R4R6R7. Some ads are described as 'scammy' and difficult to dismiss, often redirecting users to the App Store R4R7. Users express frustration over being forced to pay for a premium membership to remove ads and wish for a one-time purchase option .
Apple Books There are no reviews for Apple Books in this dataset, so no comparison can be made regarding its ad experience.
Reliability & Bugs edge: Apple BooksR2R3R14R18
Wattpad Wattpad users report numerous bugs and glitches, including keyboards not working for writers R2, stories being deleted or unadded from libraries R3, inability to comment or post updates R14, frequent logouts R18R48, blurry text or covers R33, issues with offline loading , and the app crashing when drafting stories . The home screen often fails to load , and some features like paging don't work on newer phones .
Apple Books There are no reviews for Apple Books in this dataset, so no comparison can be made regarding its reliability or bug issues.
Community & Social Features edge: WattpadR9R38R45R47
Wattpad Wattpad is valued for its community aspect, allowing readers to interact with writers and other readers through comments R47. However, recent changes like the 'Social Feed' are criticized for being cluttered, invading privacy by alerting followers to reading list additions or votes, and making announcements harder to find R9R38R45.
Apple Books There are no reviews for Apple Books in this dataset, so no comparison can be made regarding its community or social features.
Writing & Publishing Tools edge: WattpadR16R33R39R47
Wattpad Wattpad serves as a free publishing service for stories, which is appreciated by writers R47R48. However, writers face issues like blurry cover uploads R33, an outdated writing UI R48, and difficulties with the website's 'my stories' section R39. There are also concerns about AI-generated content and covers R16.
Apple Books There are no reviews for Apple Books in this dataset, so no comparison can be made regarding its writing or publishing tools.
Pick Wattpad if

You are looking for a vast library of original stories and fanfiction, enjoy interacting with a community of readers and writers, or want a platform to publish your own work R11R17R47.

Pick Apple Books if

You prioritize an ad-free reading experience, prefer a stable app without frequent bugs, and are primarily interested in reading published books rather than user-generated content.

Evidence note: The evidence for Apple Books is non-existent as all provided reviews are for Wattpad. The comparison is therefore heavily skewed towards Wattpad's user experience, particularly its negative aspects related to ads and bugs.

Frequently asked

Does Wattpad have too many ads?
Yes, many Wattpad users report an excessive number of ads, often appearing after every chapter or every few minutes, which significantly detracts from the reading experience and makes the app 'unusable' for some R1R4R6R7.
Can you write and publish stories on Wattpad?
Yes, Wattpad allows users to write and publish their own stories, serving as a free publishing service, which is a feature appreciated by many users R47R48.
Are there many bugs in the Wattpad app?
Yes, Wattpad users frequently report various bugs and glitches, including issues with the keyboard for writers, stories being deleted or unadded from libraries, problems with commenting and posting, frequent logouts, and the app crashing R2R3R14R18.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 60 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. [R11] Wattpad 5/5 · US Improved my Lexile level.: Back in 4th Grade I was still learning English, and I lowkey had never been into reading, so my mom got mad and threatened to take away my phone if I didn’t improve my grades in English class. Basically when I discovered Wattpad I started reading so much more that I quickly improved my lexile (It was 2.5/4 before and I changed to a 4/4). The leaderboard system regarding
  2. [R17] Wattpad 5/5 · US Very informative and entertaining to use as a reading tool👍: I think it’s a very good app for readers of all types ENJOY 😊
  3. [R41] Wattpad 4/5 · US I like it but…: I really like using this app! I’m not a creative writer so I enjoy the stories that come out of other writers’ heads! I was weighing the pros & cons between this & Kindle since I already have an Amazon account. I decided to just give this a try. I have a suggestion for improvement: I wish it would not keep suggesting stories you’ve already read. Can they fix it so that stories in
  4. [R47] Wattpad 5/5 · US BEST app for fanfiction: I absolutely LOVE wattpad. The community is super kind, and it's definitely the first place I look when I want to find fanfiction to read. Whether it's for a show, movie, or book, wattpad has it all. I love that I'm able to post my own fanfics and stories on there too. Definitely one of my favorite apps🫶💗
  5. [R1] Wattpad 2/5 · US Ads: There is way too many ads it’s absolutely ridiculous, why do you need a ad after every freaking chapter it’s crazy that I can’t read a chapter without an ad. DO BETTER
  6. [R4] Wattpad 2/5 · US So many ad’s: Been using this app 11 years now, I’ve been though so many ups and downs with you wattpad. An ad after every chapter is ludicrous. And they’re the type of ad’s where it always takes you to the App Store so you have to swipe back into it. Why penalize me for being poor? Has our time together meant nothing? You have sold out and should be ashamed.
  7. [R6] Wattpad 3/5 · US get rid of the constant ads!!!: i’ve been using wattpad for about 6 years, i’ve always loved it! There used to be very few ads and now this new update gives you ads after EVERY chapter, it ruins the whole mood and is very annoying, i stopped using wattpad because of this..NO ONE wants to sit through ads every minute while reading.. and absolutely NO ONE wants to pay any money to get rid of them! T
  8. [R7] Wattpad 1/5 · US Too many ads: The ads on this app are ridiculous and make it impossible to use. The inability to scroll without an ad popping up makes the user experience unbearable. And of course, they make the ads impossible to dismiss without taking you to the sponsors page/website. Disgusting.
  9. [R2] Wattpad 4/5 · US Why??: Ok, please read this because I’m having a lot of trouble. I’m a writer on Wattpad and I don’t want to loose all of my progress. It said sign in again because my session expired but my keyboard? IS NOT WORKING!! I tap the writing space to put my email in, and the keyboard just goes back down just as quickly!! Please fix this, I need to get another chapter up soon and I forgot my google acco
  10. [R3] Wattpad 3/5 · US My story was deleted: It’s a really good app I love it but my most popular story got deleted and I can’t get it back sadly 😔
  11. [R14] Wattpad 5/5 · US bugs: i can't seem to reply to peoples comment let alone comment at all. sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't
  12. [R18] Wattpad 3/5 · US App issue: I have had this app for a while and for the past year or two, I have getting logged out by the app and most of the time can’t view the home page to finished reading the stories after I been logged out. I want to continue reading and it’s really annoying when I can’t continue reading the books I have started. Is there any way to stop this from happening?
  13. [R9] Wattpad 3/5 · US Becoming unusable: I love this app, don’t get me wrong, but it’s becoming so unusable as a person who writes, interacts with friends, AND reads. The social feed was introduced and it alerts all followers when you add something to a reading list, or vote for a chapter, or comment on any fic. And now, announcements have moved to the social feed which just gets mixed up in all the clutter and makes i
  14. [R38] Wattpad 4/5 · US Remove Social Feed: I love wattpad, but please for the love of God remove the Social Feed or at least let us opt out if we want what stories we vote on in the feed or not!
  15. [R45] Wattpad 3/5 · US Feels like a ghost town: I’m not sure if there’s new management at Wattpad or something must’ve happened but it’s just been going down hill. You guys added all these filtered and field for the writers but those fields haven’t been implemented into the actual explore search yet. Instead you added social feed which is kind of pointless and redundant and also an invasion of privacy. You should find s
  16. [R16] Wattpad 1/5 · US WHOLE BUNCH OF AI SLOP: EVERYTHING IS AI GENERATED NOBODY TRULY WRITES ANYMORE EVERYTHING IS STRAIGHT UP AI SLOP AND ADS ! WATTPAD IS MONEY HUNGRY AND FULL OF BS AI
  17. [R33] Wattpad 3/5 · US Hear me out!,: Listen I love wattpad and all the writers on here, it’s a great app for original books but my one and main issue, is that Everytime I try to make my cover for my own books, they always come out blurry when I use most editing apps, Canva, picsart, even Desygner the app you guys suggest to make a cover on, I search up how to make the covers not blurry or less even, and i do what It sa
  18. [R39] Wattpad 3/5 · US Website Glitching: The website keeps glitching. When I click on “my stories” it keeps taking me to the main page, rather than my own works. I’m trying to organize and update my works, but it won’t let me. Also, the new “series” addition is amazing, except that you can’t see it on your profile, so it defeats the purpose. I don’t know why it was added. I guess I could work out it by making “reading
  19. [R48] Wattpad 3/5 · US Horrible and Amazing: Dearfully, WATTPADs mobile services is actually wonderful, it’s a free publishing services for your stories and akin correlations. My issues with the services is a lot. Or maybe a few: firstly, whenever i had a long time no clicking on the app, it had logged me out, almost made myself afraid I had lost my account, not really a issue but still. Secondly, the writing UI, is ou

Synthesized from 60 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store