# Readwise — user reviews > 321 indexed App Store user reviews of Readwise by Readwise, Inc, rated 4.80/5 from 1,512 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readwise/id1476885528/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/readwise/id1476885528.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,364 · 4★ 83 · 3★ 23 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 35 ## What do users think of Readwise? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Powerful spaced repetition - 📚 Seamless integration with reading apps - 🔍 Helpful AI-powered features - 🗓️ Useful daily review routine - 🧠 Boosts knowledge retention - 🎨 Visually appealing interface **Cons** - 💰 Expensive subscription - 🔌 Sync issues with some platforms - 📱 Subpar mobile app experience - 🕰️ Lack of flexibility in daily review - 🔍 Limited search functionality **Commonly reported bugs** - Frequent app crashes - Sync failures with certain accounts - Unreliable highlight capture **Most requested features** - Add support for more reading apps - Improve sync and import capabilities - Introduce more customization options - Enhance search and organization tools - Develop a more intuitive mobile interface ## Newest reviews (15 of 321) ### 2/5 — abhorrent app redesign ruins brilliant service *2026-08-18* I’ve been a paid member of the service (for about 3-4 years) and find it extremely helpful and I love it, but the lates app redesign is an excellent example how unnecessary redesign can ruin otherwise great app. There was literally no need or sense in redesigning like that. Nothing, nothing has improved user experience in any way. Fonts are smaller, background is distracting, interface is messier, streak stats are tiny icon in the corner and then just a couple of weeks worth of tracking presented as weird calendar. Please stop your UI designers from ruining your service. It has one pure purpose, don’t mess with it. ### 3/5 — I don't get it *2026-02-21* Should be called "highlights". That's all it does, collect highlights then show them to u later. Article collection apps (Instapaper etc) already do highlights well, so it's mainly for ebooks. But not manual highlights directly in the pdf or epub file. So it's only for corporate book apps like kindle with a shareable highlights function. For physical book readers, digital article readers, & even ebook raw file readers it's redundant. But what's the hype on highlights anyway? Usually they are lacking without the wider context, a self-written summary works better for learning. Anyone who reads too many books too fast to remember needs to rethink their process anyway, not save short out-of-context blurbs to cycle thru them later on. I make highlights in physical books, why would I want them removed from the book & collected/shuffled with highlights from other books? Makes no sense. Plus the effort of photographing dozens of pages from each book, yeah right. Better off just reviewing the books on storygraph or w.e, read thru ur reviews later to remember, & flip thru the full book checking ur highlights for a more in-depth reminder. There could be useful info u stumble across that u didn't highlight before, why dump all non-highlighted parts of the book? ### 5/5 — Finally an app made for serious readers! *2025-12-22, version 2.26.1* If your memory is half as bad as mine when you can’t remember what you read 5 minutes ago, this app is totally for you. Try it for free. You’ll purchase it. ### 3/5 — Too much ai *2025-12-16* I wish there was less emphasis on ai and more emphasis on improving the basics. Offline support. Dynamic type support. Making the UI feel native, especially for picking up previous days. ### 5/5 — A gem to be kept *2025-11-29, version 2.26.1* I finally bought the subscription, and I couldn't be happier. For all of you who read to feel alive, for all those who used to use the Pocket app, I assure you that using Readwise and its accompanying app, Reader, will level up your experience tenfold. Keep up the great work, team Readwise. ### 5/5 — Love it but expensive *2025-11-26* I love Readwise. But at $11 / month, the price is a bit steep. I wish there was more flexibility in the pricing. For example, a lifetime option or a better annual price. ### 5/5 — Themed Reviews *2025-11-22, version 2.23.1* I rarely write reviews, but I had to come give this app five stars for the constant support and updates that the constantly do especially the new Themed Reviews their pose from my highlight and create a collection of highlights that fall on a certain theme and provide it at the end of the week. That provides a nice clean view of certain themes that I have highlighted across different places. ### 5/5 — Great app. Poor performance. *2025-10-18, version 2.17.2* It’s a little pricey for what it does and the app has some small UI annoyances, but reminding myself of “ahha” moments I had 6 years ago while reading a book is delightful and increases the value I get from reading. ### 5/5 — Get Real *2025-10-11, version 2.17.2* How are you going to better yourself by just doing things the old way? ### 5/5 — Amazing App *2025-09-20, version 2.17.2* I love this app. The way it surfaces my highlights. I find so useful. Before using this, I would make highlights and hardly ever look back at them, but now I read them every single day. I found that I see the patterns in many of the things that resonate with me because of this app. ### 5/5 — Best app on my phone *2025-09-20, version 2.17.2* This is easily the most fruitful, consistently life-improving app in my phone. I especially look forward to Sunday reviews. Thank you! ### 5/5 — Gospel *2025-09-19* Best gd app on the gat dang planet ### 5/5 — Thank you *2025-09-13, version 2.15.3* I have been exporting my highlights into Google in order to use their LM. But it has always been glitchy and problematic . Your new AI research feature is a game changer for me as an academic researcher. Thank you, Readwise!! ### 4/5 — Nothing else like it *2025-09-07, version 2.15.3* The service this app provides is unmatched, I’ve looked. I read a ton of books and love to highlight my fav parts and find such joy in reading random highlights every day, chosen for me by the app. My only major complaint is that I doesn’t sync with Libby, my library app. So I have to read my books in Kindle if I want to use this app to its fullest. If they added Libby I’d be set for life! ### 4/5 — Duplicate note issue *2025-08-21* There is an issue when creating a note in the iOS app everything I write is duplicated after I press done ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Everything now locked behind a paywall *2026-08-13* The most recent update has been detrimental to the usability of this app locking ~95% of features behind an expensive subscription. It is now minimum £70 a year just to be able to use the main previously free features such as syncing highlights from Kindle. You even have to pay to manually add notes by typing or photo scan. If you are not willing to cough up the money don’t bother with this app. While the app is good for organising book notes, I will be deleting and moving to a free alternative as soon as I find one as it is just unaffordable to have yet another subscription. If they just locked proper premium features behind a paywall as before it would have been understandable. But no, Mr greedy corporation locks the most basic functions of the app behind a paywall and completely ruin the app for previous free version users unless they pay. Do better Readwise! **Developer response:** To clarify, Readwise has always been a paid service after the 30-day free trial, so the recent update didn’t move previously free features behind a new paywall. We’re a small, bootstrapped team making ad-free reading software. You can read more about why we’ve chosen to keep Readwise paid here: https://blog.readwise.io/why-were-bootstrapping-readwise/. If you have any questions, reach us anytime at hello@readwise.io. ### 1/5 — not work *2026-02-12* can't proceed initial setup. damn app. ### 1/5 — Stop making me pay for features I don’t want *2025-10-21, version 2.17.2* $70 just for Readwise feels like it exists solely to make people feel better about the $120 to get the tier that includes Reader. Even if you look at the most expensive competitors in the read-it-later space, $70 would be at the top tier. So why is Reader priced like a top tier read-it-later service when you’re just syncing and resurfacing Kindle highlights? Genuine question, because I am all for supporting development teams, but this seems outrageously expensive. ### 1/5 — Heads up for apple books users *2025-10-12, version 2.17.2* They claim in the app store view that you can "synch from" ibooks. When you get to the app they then tell you you can only do it one highlight at a time and then provide a cumbersome method. Even then it simply didn't work for me. It is possible that my ipad/iphone are out of date, I'm not sure, but even if it did sork it would be very clumsy. Misleading ### 1/5 — Was amazing but doesn’t work anymore *2025-08-07, version 2.12.8* I’ve used the Readwise app on my iPad for about a year. It seems like every update breaks the app and I have to go through a process to update the app and re-synch my Amazon books with the app. Since the last update, everything stopped working, and even though I’m trying to synchronize Amazon with the app, it’s not working. I tried uninstalling the app and reinstalling, and that didn’t fix the problem. So I feel like they stole from me, because I paid for a working product that suddenly stopped working for no reason. I’m going to cancel my subscription, which is a shame because when it worked, it was incredibly helpful. ### 1/5 — Impossible to get hold of their help dept *2025-06-21, version 2.12.5* Have been trying to get my educational discount enabled for weeks ! No response whatsoever on multiple channels I’ve tried. If this is level of service from their help dept , I’d avoid buying their app :( ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work well with Apple Books *2025-04-16, version 2.11.9* The app’s description implies it’s easy to get your highlights into the app from Apple Books. The reality is there is no way to sync your existing Apple Books highlights without doing so on a Mac. If you’re only using this app on iOS devices, you can only get a highlight into the app by *emailing* it to them, of all things. ### 1/5 — Don't give it your email. It's a Spam Machine. *2025-01-30* It’s incredibly frustrating that this tool keeps sending you emails without a proper way to unsubscribe. It’s especially annoying since it’s a focus-oriented tool. If you value your focus, skip this. ### 1/5 — 日本語kindleにつながらない *2024-12-25* 日本で使用できないものをどうして日本で配信したのか意味がわからない。使い物にならない。 ### 1/5 — Disappointing *2024-11-28, version 2.9.2* I like the idea behind Readwise but had two main disappointments: (1) lack do response from customer service (2) the lack of compatibility with open source applications, such as Calibre. It’s disappointing that Readwise is focused on partnership with paywall services to the exclusion of open-source community ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Love the redesign *2026-08-14* Awesome job! ### 5/5 — Love the 2.0 update *2026-07-23* I’ve been using Readwise together with Readwise Reader for a while now, and it’s a brilliant combo for reading and actually reviewing what you’ve read. The 2.0 update has genuinely changed things for me. It’s the first time the app has felt like somewhere I want to spend time, rather than a chore I do to feel virtuous about my reading habits. Recommended, especially if you actually want to remember what you read. ### 5/5 — Finally, an update. *2026-07-22* I have been subscribed to this app for years. It’s the best at what it does, but paying monthly for an app that was without significant updates for that long, and was really showing its age in annoying ways was more & more frustrating. Thankfully they are finally giving it a significant upgrade it is much better. I know the Reader app has more users, but here’s hoping this is a sign of frequent updates for the Readwise app as well. That is what got some of us into this ecosystem in the first place. ### 5/5 — Excellent way to reengage with your books! *2026-06-28, version 2.28.1* Readwise presents my Kindle highlights to me in a daily review. I’ve also hooked it up to Claude who reads from my personal/professional development books and provides me advice! It’s fantastic. Thanks Readwise! ### 5/5 — Fantastic app *2026-05-25, version 2.28.1* In the few apps I pay for. Helps me remember all of the highlights of the books. I’ve read in the past 10 years. Super helpful for learning. ### 5/5 — Finally an app made for serious readers! *2026-03-31, version 2.26.1* If your memory is half as bad as mine, when you can’t remember what you read 5 minutes ago, this app is totally for you. Try it for free. You’ll purchase it. ### 5/5 — Superb *2026-03-21* I use this for work all of the time. Superb at bringing my highlights to one place and allows me to chat with my highlights like my own AI. Absolutely wouldn’t live without it. ### 5/5 — Genial! *2026-03-13* Wärmste Empfehlung für alle Viel-Leser! Hätte ich gerne viel früher gefunden. ### 5/5 — My new fav *2026-03-13* Finally, an app that helped me remember what I actually read. Been using it for a while now, and it's amazing to have all highlights in one place. Love that they added audio reviews recently. ### 5/5 — The Real Deal *2026-02-07, version 2.26.1* I use this app every single day as a way to tap into the insights from all the books and articles I have read. This is one subscription on my must have list (which I am trying to pare down). --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*