O'Reilly

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Last verified 5 Sep 2026

4.7 33823 ratings · App Store

1. 4/5A Great Resource As a Student

   I’m really grateful that my university grants their students’ free access to this database because this is a treasure trove of knowledge. My only complaints is the inconsistent categorization. The way that I find content is searching by keyword subject, but the problem that I have found is that some content you would have expected to see in a different category end up showing up in a different category. Sometimes this is understandable because that is what will happen with books that feature broader content which puts the book itself in a grey area for trying to determine what makes one of that book’s covered subjects more representative of what the book is about than the other subjects that were brought up. I can understand why categorizing can be problematic; however, I still feel like people need to be aware that they may miss out on content because some of it might be listed under a different subject than they were expecting.

   Darksummers · 5 Sep 2026

2. 5/5Just Like a Gym Membership

   Even an elite gym membership can feel like a steal when you actually use it—because the return goes far beyond the price. You’re not just paying for equipment; you’re investing in long-term health, energy, mindset, and the kind of environment that elevates how you show up in life. That same principle applies to O’Reilly (both the app and browser experience). On the surface, it’s a subscription. In reality, it’s a compounding engine for your career and your thinking. But just like the gym, it only works if you show up and put in real effort. If you engage with it intentionally—reading, watching, practicing, revisiting concepts—it becomes incredibly powerful. You’re not just consuming content; you’re building capability. Over time, that capability turns into confidence, better decisions, stronger technical instincts, and yes… higher earning potential. “The more you learn, the more you earn” is true—but it undersells what’s actually happening here. You start to: - Solve problems faster and with more creativity - See patterns others miss - Contribute meaningfully to teams, projects, and beyond - Build things that actually matter And that ripple effect extends outward. When you level up your skills, you become more useful—to your team, your company, and anyone your work impacts. So the real value of the O’Reilly subscription isn’t just in the content library—it’s in what you become if you consistently apply it. Use it lightly, and it’s just another subscription. Lean into it, and it becomes a career accelerant. Simple as that. If the topic is covered here, I’d choose this content over “free” options every time. And if you can get your company to pay for it—go ahead and pin another gold star on your jacket.

   makshield · 5 Sep 2026

3. 1/5Stop badgering to rate the app

   No side by side page layout. Please add this feature for the larger format iPads as landscape mode is easier on the hands. The app Keeps badgering me to give a rating on EVERY device I use every time I revert to the queue. Guess what? I have not used the app enough to know how useful it will be, so by pestering me in this fashion, you have earned yourselves a round zero rating (since I’ve only managed to experience annoying features so far). Congratulations. What brilliant designer thought that interrupting my workflow repeatedly to rate the app is a great idea? Finally, stop asking me to login. One login should suffice unless i am buying something through the app, which is not a feature at this time. If you must ask for credentials, then at least allow fingerprint or Face ID. Whether or not I renew my subscription will depend on content as well as how easy it is to use the app for learning new topics. And please eliminate these annoying interruptions to a learner’s workflow. I may revise my review once I’ve used the app for a few weeks.

   hmmm...nevermind · 5 Sep 2026

4. 5/5Downloads often hangs

   Great app but really hard to download content for offline. Most of the time the downloads hang forever after a few seconds. Pausing it and resuming often leads to a corrupted file, or even freeze and crash the app. I have this problem on both my iPhone XS and iPad Pro 2018 and the customer service was unfortunately not very helpful. They told me to uninstall and reinstall the app, which didn't fix it. This happen on both mobile or wifi connection and I can confirm that my internet connection isn't the problem (good latency and bandwidth, no pb to download netflix content, etc.) This seems like a bad implementation of the network stack of the app. Update Jan 10: App doesn't open anymore, get stuck at login. Had to uninstall and reinstall one more time. And to redownload all the contents :(

   martind81 · 5 Sep 2026

5. 2/5Needs improvement

   The catalog O’Reilly offers is invaluable but many hiccups with app crashing and log ins disrupt the continuity of reading across and within platforms. When using the desktop portal, the website requires me to log in each new day in spite of repeatedly checking the ‘remember me’ box. The mobile site isn’t much better, often loosing my log in information when accessing the site through links. The app has similar problems, it never remembers my place if I move from my safari to the app and rarely knows what book I was even looking at. Often I have to search for my reading material each time I access a particular chapter assigned by my school instead of just using their provided link 😤 Attempting to use the app once finding my desired reading material is just as frustrating. The app will not allow me to scroll across images, constantly opening them instead of panning down. This forces me to attempt grabbing the narrow spaces between the images. Worse than all of this is that if I leave the app for a long period of time, it will crash while running in the background but instead of rebooting will get stuck to whatever page I’m on and not allow me access any controls and will jump back to the top of the back if I shift the orientation of the phone. The only solution to this is to close the app and wait a few minutes before launching it again. Really disappointed in the mechanics of this platform and have noticed my teachers moving away from it as well in preference to Lynda to due it’s smooth utility.

   KraigBurgess · 5 Sep 2026

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