Sparknotes App Reviews

I passed every essay/tests in English without reading the books, i just we not on spark notes on the day before and bam, Idk why people are but hurt that the app cost 5 dollars a year, 1 dollar a moth, 5 dollars for a year i spend more 3x more than that in a day. 5 dollars is really not that much

I use spark notes almost every day that I need to read a book at school. I normally would use the website. Since I used it a lot I decided to download the app, but I only found an app that u need to pay for. U get the same benefits as the website, so why would I pay for the app when I can use the website. Website>App

Why make the app free, but make it so that we have to pay to even use it?

Why pay for the app when online if free

I have to pay to use this app when I can simply do that on the browser?

I’m getting my GED and the teacher wants up to use this on our phones.Well they want money to use it not happy

This is an amazing app that I wish I had when I was in HS and College. Instead if I wanted cliff notes I had to go to a book store and purchase actually cliff notes. Yes the app costs money. Boo hoo. Don’t want to pay? The developer is generous enough to offer the information on their website for free. Want the convience the app provides? It’s going to cost a little. Think about all the $$ you waste on useless stuff every year compared to a service that will help make you less stupid than you are. Worth it IMO.

My school work is important, this is like buying textbooks again; I can't do this. I would rather go on the web to see the same thing that's on this app FOR FREE.

I love spark notes and was happy when I saw a banner saying they have an app. I use the mobile site and it works quite well and doesn't cost money. Being the logical human I am I thought: "Oh it is basically going to be a smoother version of the website!" But it turns out you need a membership to use the app. It's pretty cheap, but not worth a penny because the mobile site exists as well, and doesn't have any big problems.

I don’t want to pay

I don’t get why the website would allow us to access the notes and what they say for free while the app does not let us do anything unless we pay for it. I liked the website so I thought I should get the app but I could not do anything. The website is better than the app

This app is a FANTASTIC App for lazy unappreciated snobby students who take education for granted and fail to take advantage of the the English literature stories and become knowledgeable while helping them with passing the subject!! Seriously!!! How is $5 a year expensive!!! So sad the gum chewed by the very students who commented so negativity on this app as being expensive and not affordable is much more expensive than the price of this well put together app. Yet paying $5/year for an educational app a pinch got them?!!! I mean seriously?!!!$5. How is that expensive? So sad and pathetic. Only if they could fathom the hard work and dedication of what it takes to design an app and the time it with all the valuable content it took to make it!!! So sad. :-( This app is a fabulous and informative educational value pack for all students and none students alike. Helping them catch up on the English literature while enjoying to tap into the English lit, becoming a learned educated person. Trust me try it. It won't hurt or bite you!

It’s a free website, yet they want you to pay for a severely limited app.....enough said. Would have given it no stars if I could.

I saw this app and I knew that this is the same thing I used on my computer and I got really excited because I needed to write a paper and this WEBSITE has helped me before but once I downloaded the app they told me to get a membership. I thought this was just for something extra I can do but it turns out I can't do anything without the membership. I am really disappointed in the app. But the website is great, I recommend the website because it is free. The only thing is that it makes my computer lag a little bit but other than that it is great.

The only reason I gave this app 3 stars was because I love the Sparknotes website. It’s free and it gives me all the information I need to study in an easy to understand format that makes memorizing important plot points easy. The largest problem with the app is that you have to a subscription to get to information that you could get on the website for free. Please remove the paywall and just make us watch a Game of War ad like many other apps.

I am not a big reviewer of apps, but I had to on this one. I was so excited to see SparkNotes in an app, but disappointed to see all the negative reviews. But the negative reviews had nothing to do with the actual app, only charging the consumers a fee for the app. Hmmm. I had to check it out for myself, and I encourage consumers to do the same. This is a wonderful app for its easy use and NO ADS!! I will spend a whopping $4.99 after my one month free trial. That is less than the price of a Venti Frappacino at Starbucks, which lasts probably less than 30 minutes to consume. Skip your frap for one time and you would have paid for your app for a year. Priorities people! Even a "starving" student can do that!

Not too many titles

I've used the Sparknotes website before for Anthem by Ayn Rand and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and it's very helpful. But I don't understand why there needs to be a price to an app when we could easily look up the website and use that instead. I recommend you just use your web browser on your phone to look up Sparknotes rather than buying this app, because the website works just as well and it's free.

I only got this app for the translation from the original text to more readable modern text, I signed up to pay every month just for this feature, I opened the app only to find that the no fear literature feature I’m looking for is not included. This app is very disappointing, why does it not include the translation when the free online website does! The only reason I even wanted to get the app was because the website wasn’t working, and now I have no way of reading my book! 😠

Design looks flawless. Easy to use. But you crushed my hopes and dreams when I couldn't even use the app without paying! Even ads are acceptable if you went revenue. I'm just heading back to the website until this app improves. Gosh, you let me down. ~Owen, a thoughtful student

When I was reading a book I didn’t understand I used Sparknotes to get through the book. Very helpful!

It’s amazing for me being a high school student I get caught up in other things and sometimes I just need a quick summary, but there is one flaw you can copy text sometimes my friends fall behind too and they’re not privileged like me to be able to pay for this and still since I can’t copy I can still screenshot so please just add coping text

This is an awesome website for studying and final exams, so i thought i’d go ahead and download the app. To my surprise i had to pay to do anything on the app. It’s not fair to make me pay for the app but then let others use the website for free and have unlimited boundaries. The app is supposed to have upgrades from the website and be easier to use but i’m this case it’s not. I wouldn’t recommend downloading this unless you are willing to pay (being a student i don’t really want to pay for something like this). Stick with the website.

This is the biggest waste of time. It makes you pay for a membership. Biggest rip off out there.

I can't even use it without paying for subscription

Don’t bother. This app is subscription based. Pretty dumb since the website is FREE. Would give this zero stars if I could.

I cannot recommend this app enough! Spark notes is extremely helpful for when it's 11 PM and you need to know certain information, if you need to prep for a test, or if you're just having a hard time identifying something within the text. The subscription is defiantly worth it.

If you want to use the app you have to pay even though in the App Store it says its free. It’s not!!!

So many negative reviews from people who are angry that they'd have to pay a little bit of money for something they'd like to use. I don't get it. It's not expensive. It's 5 bucks per year for a ton of useful info. Why do people think it's such an outrage that not everything is free? Maybe they are kids who don't have parental permission to buy apps? That might explain it. Or maybe they just think $5 per year really is too much (but that's odd if they paid for an iPhone ...) The negative reviewers don't seem to be complaining about the app' quality; it seems they are mostly just mad that they can't get what they want for free. Anyway app seems good so far. You can't select text though -- which means you can't look up words, nor copy text, nor take notes by sharing text with another app. I suppose they are trying to protect their content from copying. I would understand that concern, I guess. But whatever the reason, it's still a problem -- that is, it still limits the app's usefulness, even if they had an understandable reason for removing the basic text-selecting function.

Literally nothing about this app justifies it being subscription-based, especially considering that all the information is available for free on the site. The app is actually decent but I'm giving it 1 star on principle because of the money-grabbing.

The other day I was talking to my guidance counselor about my summer reading and the best way to review for the quiz on the book that my school requires us to take. she suggested this and i downloaded it here to my phone to use it here and it tells me i need a subscription. i don't have any money that isn't already used towards other school supplies. this is ridiculous.

Didn’t help me at all.

Helps with homework Just great app in general

Should be free like the website. Take this one star, s***** scammers

I love this app, I have to read Tom Sawyer for school. And it’s so confusing, but this app makes everything so much easier!!!! Thanks you so much SparkNotes!😍❤️❤️❤️

As a long time user of the Sparknotes website, the app is certainly a step up to use for ease. Unfortunately for the developers, however, as soon as my one month free trial is over it’s unlikely I will continue using the app. With a background in app development, I understand apps can be expensive to code, but I, as well as an overwhelming majority it seems, would do away with a subscription in a heartbeat. This is especially true considering the website offers the same thing but with the occasional ad. I feel the developers and customers would both be more satisfied if the app saw a price tag rather than a subscription. Perhaps rather, an option to disable ads? Unfortunately adds in a study environment are incredibly inefficient and would probably end up with less customers yet. More consumers = more money, even if it means the customers are paying more in the long run. Simply put, many paying little vs. few paying a lot over a long time. In conclusion—apologies on the lengthy review if you have stuck it out for this long—The app is really simple and clean to use, but the developers should look into other options for payment. This ultimately would leave everyone more satisfied.

You have to pay for this once you get it even though the online version is free. Sparknotes is great but only online not as an app. They should have a free choice that is paid by ads like most apps. Stick to the website

This is a great concept, but with no native iPad app it’s kinda useless for reading Shakespeare. If you want my $, get it together, SparkNotes.

When I discovered there was an app for sparknotes, I immediately downloaded it. To my inconvience, everything on the app you had to pay for. If the website is free then using the app should be too.

Me oh my! Once I saw this in the App Store I got very excited since I needed to understand a book from school that was assigned to me over a month ago that I still had not read a page of. Once I downloaded my spark I noticed something very very Very strange... I needed to buy a subscription!!! Now I don't know about u but I got very mad when I saw this. As the majority of people who use spark notes are kids I cannot believe the developer had the nerve to make it so we had to pay to see our notes. Thoroughly upset. How rude of him

This app is awful unless you want to pay for a subscription. Can't cancel it through the app. Should be free like the site but is not worth the time. Just use the website

I downloaded the app as an alternative for using the website but i needed java plug ins and my iphone cant do that. Soon as i saw the subscription payment, i thought this was wack. It doesnt make sense. Make the website free but not the app??? And i was only just going to use this app once for lang so just thinking about a subscription is really useless in my case.

First off you have an iPhone, second it’s 5 dollars per year! I love the app.

The online SparkNotes website is a savior to me. We are going over Romeo & Juliet in my classroom, and the website saves me the trouble of having to dig through the meaning of Shakespeare's writing. I saw that there was an app and i immediately tried to go download it. As soon as i opened the app they asked for you to. Buy a membership and i was not able to use the app. This cod easily be a five star app, if only they would be able to take away the membership status!!

So many one star reviews because this app requires a subscription. It is $5/year, and it is much more convenient and easier to use than the website on a phone. If you don’t want to pay the incredibly low subscription price, fine, use the website for free; but that doesn’t justify giving the app a one star review. I love this app and subscribe to it every year.

Literally can't do anything unless you have an account with a subscription, just use the website instead

Don't waste your time here the website is so much better on Google.

I downloaded the app and paid for it so that i could access the No Fear Literature that it has on the website, but it’s not on the app?? It was kind of disappointing because that’s what i really wanted to use the app for :(

They want you to pay for an app membership when you can just use the website for free. Deleted and I'll never try this app again.

it's a "free trial". it would be much easier if we didn't need to sign up.

Wow. What a money grab.

Excellent app!! These bad reviews are from people who obviously believe everything must be free and those who work to put it together deserve no wage? Amazing. What planet do these free loaders come from? Very fine app!

If you want to charge people for this app, do it upfront or at least let people know. I got it because I thought it would be easier than using the website on my iPhone. Turns out as soon as I downloaded the app they asked me to join for a fee. No thanks! I'll go back to using the website on my iPhone for FREE!

I would love to pay to start using the app but every time I go to buy it says “no products available” and I can’t select either subscription option. Please fix!

A free trial? Why? I get you want to make money, but just why? The website is free. So I'll be sticking to that. This is ridiculous. You can't do anything without signing in for a membership.

I just dont understand , what's the difference between the website and the app , if one can access data through the website for free , why make the app for money ?