In addition to the Kindle device, the Kindle brand also hosts the Kindle app for reading on phones and tablets. Like Apple Books, the Kindle app has a library full of eBooks and audiobooks, a wide range of customization features, and enough reading tracker tools to delight bibliophiles across the world.
But which is better? To settle the ongoing Kindle vs. Apple Books debate, we’ll dive into these apps and scrutinize their features, titles, customization options, pros, and cons.
apple books vs. kindle: features
Apple Books features
Apple Books originally launched in 2010 as iBooks. Since then, it has amassed a global readership of more than 100 million monthly users.
Here are Apple Books’ most popular features.
- Text-to-speech capabilities
- Audiobooks
- eBooks
- Customization options
- Hide or unhide purchases
- Library
- Notes
- Reading tracker
- Purchase sharing with family members
- Syncing capabilities
Kindle app features
The Kindle app is an offshoot of Amazon’s immensely popular Kindle eReader. You can use the Kindle app in conjunction with a Kindle device or use it as a standalone reading tool. Unlike Apple Books, the Kindle app is compatible with all kinds of operating systems, meaning you can find it on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the Samsung Galaxy Store.
Here are some of the Kindle app’s features.
- Accessibility tools
- Built-in dictionary and translations
- Customization options
- Library
- Notes
- Text-to-speech capabilities
- Syncs across Kindle devices
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kindle vs. apple books: titles
Apple Books titles
Apple Books has an impressive range of over eight million titles, including audiobooks and eBooks in every genre imaginable.
Kindle app titles
The Kindle app has over four million titles, including eBooks, audiobooks, comics, and even magazines.
🥇 Winner: Apple Books. Although the Kindle app has comics and magazines, Apple Books has double the number of eBooks and audiobooks, making it the clear winner.
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apple books vs. kindle: reading trackers
Apple Books reading trackers
Most bookworms enjoy tracking, rating, and analyzing their reading habits, so reading trackers are an important part of any eBook app.
Apple Books has a built-in reading tracker. This app allows you to track how many minutes you read per day, as well as how many books and audiobooks you finish each year. If you read a lot of PDFs and want them to count toward your reading goal, simply go to Settings > Books, then activate PDFs.
Apple Books sets an automatic reading goal of three books per year for each user, but you can personalize your reading tracker at any point.
Here’s how to do it.
- Tap Home
- Press Reading Goals
- Select a book cover or placeholder
- Choose Adjust Goal
Apple Books even has a feature called Coaching that sends you words of encouragement. To activate it, tap Home, go to your account, press Notifications, and turn on Coaching. This could be just what you need to motivate yourself to tick another book off your to-read list!
Kindle app reading trackers
The Kindle app has an even more extensive tracker. To access it, tap More, then press Reading Insights to see all sorts of statistics related to your reading habits.
Built-in incentives make reading feel personalized, encouraging readers to consistently visit the app to unlock rewards. For example, the Kindle Summer Challenge runs from July 1 to September 30. You can earn three levels (think of them as bronze, silver, and gold) for each achievement.
You have to read for 15 consecutive days to unlock the Bronze Reader achievement and complete one Kindle ebook to unlock the Bookish achievement. Readers can also unlock Streaks, encouraging them to return day after day.
This is only a small snapshot of the fun graphics, challenges, and statistics in the Reading Insights section.
🥇 Winner: Kindle app. This app plays on the action-reward cycle to provide book lovers with a daily dopamine hit, making it easier than ever before to hit reading goals.
kindle vs. apple books: customization
Apple Books customization
Apple Books has plenty of customization options.
- Auto-Night theme: Automatically transition from blue to yellow light at night.
- Background color: Switch from the standard white background to a sepia, granite, or black background.
- Brightness: Readjust the brightness slider to stop squinting.
- Font size: Find the perfect font size.
- Font: Choose from nine fonts, including Original, Athelas, Charter, Georgia, Iowan, Palatino, San Francisco, Seravek, and Times New Roman.
- Scrolling View: Switch from swiping to scrolling for a more intuitive experience.
To access these options, open the Navigation menu and tap the AA icon.
Here are a few on-page customization options.
- Create Bookmarks: Bookmark pages for later.
- Mark Highlights: Tap and hold a word, drag the selected area, and highlight the parts you want to remember. You can choose from yellow, green, red, blue, and purple, or even just underscore the selected words. Press Share to send your highlights to other apps and people.
- Take Notes: Tap and hold a word, drag the selected area, and create notes. To review your notes at a later date, just go to Navigation, tap the Contents icon, and select the Notes tab.
Kindle app customization
Kindle has many of the same on and off-page customization options. Just go to your preferred eBook, press the Aa icon in the top right-hand corner, and change the font, layout, themes, and more.
- Brightness: Slide the scale between light and dark.
- Change the font: Choose from eight fonts, including Amazon Ember Bld, Baskerville, Bookerly, Caecilia, Georgia, Helvetica, OpenDyslexic, and Palatino.
- Continuous Scrolling: Toggle on Continuous Scrolling to streamline your reading experience.
- Page color: Choose from white, yellow, green, and black backgrounds.
- Page layout: Increase space between lines of text and switch between left and center alignment.
- Switch themes: Easily switch between themes and even save your own presets.
Simply press and hold a word in an eBook to access these on-page features.
- Browse through Wikipedia: Browse through the Wikipedia tool to learn more about a person, place, or concept.
- Create a note. Write a note to record thoughts, feelings, and themes.
- Look up dictionary definitions: Use the dictionary tool to immediately find definitions.
- Make Highlights: Choose between red, blue, yellow, and orange highlighters to make words and quotes stand out.
- Translate languages: Use the translate feature to improve your vocabulary.
- Share quotes. Select quotes, format them, and share them with apps and friends.
- Search the eBook. Search for words and phrases in your eBook.
🥇 Winner: Kindle app. When it comes to customization, Kindle vs. Apple Books is a no-brainer. The Kindle app has far more customization options, and the Wikipedia, Dictionary, and Translate tools invite readers to discover a new world beyond their eBook.
apple books vs. kindle: accessibility
Apple Books accessibility
Apple Books is designed to work with EPUB files, IBA files, and audiobooks. You can also open, edit, and save PDFs on the app. This feature is ideal for people who need to sign documents, annotate literary texts, and grade work.
To sync Apple Books across all Apple devices, simply go to Settings > [Name] > iCloud, then activate Drive and Books.
Unfortunately, Apple Books is only available on iOS.
Kindle app accessibility
The Kindle app supports plenty of file types, including EPUBs, PDFs, Microsoft Docs, HTML, RTF, and Text files. You can also leverage the power of Amazon’s wireless Send-to-Kindle service to transfer files of up to 200 MB each from your iOS or Android device to your Kindle Library.
Dyslexic readers and audiobook listeners can switch to OpenDyslexic, a font specifically designed to combat the common symptoms of dyslexia.
Compared to Apple Books, the Kindle app is compatible with a far wider range of systems. It’s available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the Samsung Galaxy Store.
🥇 Winner: Kindle app. Kindle wins another round of Kindle vs. Apple Books; the range of file types, data sharing options, and extra accessibility features make it an attractive option for technologically savvy bookworms.
kindle vs. apple books: price
In the battle of Apple Books vs. Kindle, one question remains: how much do these apps cost?
Apple Books price
Apple Books gives you a free sample of every eBook and audiobook, recreating a bookshop browsing experience from the comfort of your iPhone or iPad. Additionally, you can browse through the Special Offers & Free section to find cut-price deals.
The free section is flooded with everything from classics such as 1984, Wuthering Heights, and Dracula, and modern thrillers like The Girls in the Snow.
You can also get the best reads of the summer for much less than the paperback versions. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Mythos, and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed are all available for less than $1.50.
Other eBooks are more expensive but still cheaper than a physical copy. You can expect to pay around $8 for eBooks. Once you’ve bought the book, it stays in your library forever.
Kindle app price
Similarly, the Kindle app provides a selection of free books. Right now, you can get free samples of classics, including Pride and Prejudice and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or keep your finger on the pulse of current events with samples from modern eBooks.
Amazon Prime members can browse through a catalog of free eBooks exclusively for Prime members. They also get a free pre-released eBook once a month.
If you’re not an Amazon Prime member, you can purchase the eBooks and audiobooks separately or sign up for a Kindle Unlimited subscription. The subscription costs $11.99 per month and includes millions of eBooks and audiobooks. If you’re an avid reader, it might be worth investing in this subscription.
🥇 Winner: Kindle app. The Kindle app offers an impressive number of free books, especially for Prime members. Even the monthly subscription is affordable, making it ideal for bookworms who want to get their money’s worth.
kindle vs. apple books: pros and cons
Apple Books
Pros
- Comprehensive reading tracker: Apple Books has all the tracking features you would expect from a reading app.
- On and off-page customization options: You can take notes, highlight phrases, and create bookmarks.
- Share purchases with family members: Once you’ve set up Purchase Sharing, you can give your family access to all your eBooks and audiobooks.
Cons
- Only available on iOS: Apple Books is exclusive to iOS, which excludes millions of Android and Windows users.
Kindle app
Pros
- Access Kindle books, even without a Kindle: If you don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars for a Kindle eReader, just download the Kindle app.
- Affordable subscription: You can download and read eBooks without ever getting a Kindle Unlimited subscription. But if you do want to access more books, you can subscribe for the affordable price of $11.99 a month.
- Compatible with all devices: You can find the Kindle app on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the Samsung Galaxy Store.
- Research features: Find a word or quote on Wikipedia, Google, or the dictionary with just one tap.
- Visually appealing reading tracker: The Kindle app displays reading statistics and challenges in a fun, eye-catching way that appeals to visual readers.
Cons
- Can’t buy books in-app: The iOS and Android Kindle apps don’t allow in-app purchases.
Overall Winner: The Kindle App
In the wider literary sphere, Apple Books vs. Kindle is still up for debate. But in this case, the Kindle app stands head and shoulders above Apple Books.
The Kindle app, which is not to be confused with the Kindle device, offers a customizable, intuitive, trackable, and affordable reading experience. The developers have covered every base; there’s a decent amount of tools to satisfy readers who want to review their progress, those who want to keep notes on their favorite characters, and even bibliophiles who want to research as they read.
It isn’t without flaws. It’s frustrating to exit the app, open a browser, and purchase eBooks and audiobooks online. Although it’s a few extra steps, iOS users might feel like it disrupts their reading experience.
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