# Smart Comic Reader — user reviews

> 217 indexed App Store user reviews of Smart Comic Reader by Onne van Dijk, rated 4.90/5 from 539 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smart-comic-reader/id1511175212/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smart-comic-reader/id1511175212.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 498 · 4★ 25 · 3★ 5 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 10

## What do users think of Smart Comic Reader?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Panel-by-panel reading mode
- 👍 Seamless iCloud integration
- 🔒 No ads or data collection
- 👍 Clean, minimal UI
- 🚀 Fast and responsive
- 👍 Handles various comic formats

**Cons**

- 🐛 Occasional issues with panel detection
- 🔀 Difficulty exiting panel view
- 🔀 Inability to adjust cover size in grid view

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Deleted user's entire comic collection
- iCloud sync not working for some users
- Freezing/crashing issues on iPad

**Most requested features**

- Page marking/bookmarking function
- Built-in dictionary/translation tool
- Vertical scrolling mode for webtoons
- Ability to manually arrange reading order
- Live Text integration for dictionary lookup
- Widgets for quick access

## Newest reviews (18 of 217)

### 2/5 — Lack basic features and crashes on large imports

*2026-05-07, version 2.0.0*

For a paid app, it definitely is disappointing. It lacks some of the basic features relating to importing using OPDS or better ways to import and view your collection. 

Importing a large library will crash the app where the storage space will be used but the library will be empty. Clearly the devs did not test the app thoroughly. For what it's worth, I use an iPhone 14 Pro Max and I was trying to import 7GBs of data at once split in 50ish volumes. 

The smart zoom feature is nothing to write home about either, especially for comic books that will alternative between the layout of each block. You will need to flip your phone constantly and locking the screen orientation simply defeats the whole purpose. There are better apps out there, both paid and free options. 

I regret my purchase and would definitely not recommend for the time being. Not having the ability to try the app prior to purchase is pretty telling.

### 4/5 — Well worth the price

*2026-02-28, version 2.0.0*

It’s simple and makes it easier to organize the books on my phone. Love that it zooms in on frames. However I’d love to see more customization added into the future. Would love to see more options for horizontal reading to stay zoomed in while flipping pages, and options to read comics vertically by scrolling up as well; (WEBTOON style comics). 

I’ll be using this app for a long time.

### 4/5 — No page marking function

*2025-10-10, version 1.11.0*

It’s been the best comic reader app by far. 
But I really really REALLY hope the next version will allow me to mark some of the pages that I’d read again and then screenshot them. I’ve updated many times, and I’d feel disappointed each time.
Besides, is it possible for me to choose a new word in a panel and translate directly? Now I have to open up a dictionary app and input the word in the dictionary app, which is quite annoying and low efficient.
I REALLY look forward to your reply, whether my advice will be taken or not.
Best Regards.

### 5/5 — iCloudに大量のファイルを置いても快適

*2025-10-06*

iCloudに1000以上のファイルを置いても正常に快適に動作します。お気に入り機能や検索など、機能的にもう少し頑張って欲しいところもあるけど、今のところベストなコミックリーダーです。

### 5/5 — Great App with one flaw

*2025-09-11, version 1.11.0*

This app is phenomenal — its panel detection alone is worth the price of admission. Great library as well, with collections made super-easy and a great search function. Two things prevent it from being perfect; can’t adjust the cover size in grid view, and for some reason you can’t easily exit out of “panel view” to go back to the Gallery. You have to close it and open it again — at least on the Mac — not iOS. Fix those two things and it will be perfect.

### 4/5 — One feature that would make it 5 star

*2025-08-31, version 1.11.0*

So basically if there was feature like panel where you could zoom in with just holding your finger long enough like panels comic reader then it would be fantastic because comics don’t work with smart zoom it doesn’t follow comic orientation. Like just please add zoom with long press and we could tweak how much zoom for more personal experience. 

And widgets so that i can jump straight from my Lock Screen to my comic or manga.

Please add zoom in with one finger this would then be the best reader for comics and manga and widgets

### 5/5 — Top Notch Comic Reader App

*2025-08-30, version 1.11.0*

This is a fantastic comic reader app. For $2, it handles all my cbr, cbz, and even PDF files perfectly. I use it on my iPad, and the comics I read all look great and feel excellent in terms of the reading experience, as well as actually managing them. I have hundreds of comics, series, & PDFs spread among a dozen folders, all with nested subfolders and this app handles it great. 

My big problem with a lot of comic reader apps is that they cram themselves full of bespoke functionality and features that result in a worse app experience, often at higher prices. “We have all these features that 1 person might use 1 time, so why don’t we charge $10, $15 or more?” 

That’s not an issue here. It’s exactly what I wanted at a very low cost. Best $2 I’ve spent in a long time. 

If you want a way to read comics, books and PDFs that’s streamlined, user-friendly, and not exorbitantly expensive or feature-bloated—this is it.

### 5/5 — Liebevoll gemacht

*2025-08-17*

Ist zusammen mit dem Internet Archive unschlagbar gut. 6 von 5 Sternen

### 5/5 — Very happy with this reader

*2025-08-06, version 1.11.0*

I needed an app to read my offline files in CBZ format but I noticed that the privacy policies of some of the ‘free’ apps out there permit them to share your PII and track what you read. This app claims to not share any data.
I like that it can import files from iCloud or OneDrive, and it has worked flawlessly for me so far.
It has a neat feature to zoom into the comic panels and can quickly swap left-to-right and vice-versa reading order.
The panel zoom is not flawless but works 99% of the time. If i had a complaint it would be that the touch zones to move forward or backward across the pages are not perfect. There is a setting to choose between four options but none of them are exactly what i’d prefer. No matter - it still works well enough.

### 5/5 — La meilleure app !!

*2025-06-30*

Meilleure app de lecture : simple, sans fioriture et avec un zoom intelligent vignette par vignette. 
Un régal. Si ça devait être payant, je l’aurais pris avec plaisir. 
Merci aux développeurs.

### 5/5 — More than I expected

*2025-05-25, version 1.11.0*

I normally don't try an app by buying it, since I don't know if I'll end up sticking with it. Even with very inexpensive ones, it can feel bad to drop money on something I'll end up discarding. Like buying a new soda and realizing you dislike the taste.

However, I decided to give this one a try after being dissatisfied with other free comic readers, and after spending some time with it, I think it's well worth the small price.

Firstly, it works great with the native Files app. At first I didn't think it would since it wanted to use iCloud, which I was very against because I have limited cellular data and I wouldn't want to burn that on syncing comics. However, it was very easy to disable this option, which in turn allowed the app to use Files instead, having a special folder for this app. Moving my cbz/cbr files to this folder was a breeze after that.

Secondly, the focus-on-panels feature is practically perfect. I don't know yet how it will handle more stylistic comics, but I've been using it primarily to reread old newspaper comics like "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Foxtrot" and it zooms onto each individual panel nearly perfectly every single time. I did have to teach myself to tap instead of swipe to go from each panel but once I did it was easy.

And lastly, the auto-rotate is extremely useful. It also took some getting used to since it doesn't technically rotate your device screen (so you might drag on the wrong area trying to leave the app or open the control center) but it works very well for adapting panels to your screen and can be disabled if you don't want to use it. The only thing I'd like to see is a quick way to toggle that setting while reading a comic, so it's not necessary to exit Focus and exit the comic in order to do so. Having the option to force portrait or landscape regardless of the device's current orientation could be useful as well.

All in all, it's a great app for reading comics on a small phone screen, and I'm glad I decided to give it a chance. I don't see me uninstalling this app anytime soon, and it's great to pop in and out of a comic book to pass time when I'm unwinding before bed or waiting in a grocery store line.

### 5/5 — This is what I was looking for

*2025-05-15, version 1.11.0*

The automatic panel detection make this comic reader an absolute must have. I can read without frustration now. Thank you.

### 5/5 — Dark icon

*2025-04-13, version 1.11.0*

Please please add a dark mode icon

### 5/5 — The best app

*2025-04-10, version 1.11.0*

This is by far the best application to store and organize your pdf and cbr files 👍🏻

### 5/5 — Makes my own collection as fun to navigate as the subscription services

*2025-04-02, version 1.11.0*

Suits my needs perfectly
- privacy respecting
- smart panel zooming works very well on my iPad Air
- navigation is natural
- supports iCloud sync

My wishlist
- more cloud and network sync options

### 3/5 — 加载慢

*2025-03-27*

为什么已经移到本地了还加载的那么慢，本地加载打开后图片还要加载

### 5/5 — 要是能支持webdav、百度网盘流式观看就好了，那就完美了

*2025-02-22*

小屏看漫画神器

### 5/5 — Le meilleur

*2025-02-16*

J’en ai essayé 3 et me suis arrêté sur « smart Comic reader » sur iPad!
Il est beau, agréable à utiliser. Il a de bonne fonctionnalité et est très pratique aussi sur iPhone grâce au bulle par bulle.
Merci pour cette appli.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — Closing Immediately

*2026-04-23*

As soon as I open the App, it is shutting down immediately . It is used to be good and now it’s closing immediately.

### 1/5 — Didn’t work by default

*2025-02-22, version 1.11.0*

Got an error message the first time I tried to import comics on my iPad. The workaround was that I had to go in and disable iCloud in order for this to work just in case anybody has the same problem. This may be a good app, but it would be unusable on my iPad unless I was technical.

### 1/5 — iPad is stuck freezing and unusable after installing.

*2024-11-28, version 1.11.0*

I thought this would’ve been a good app like the reviews are making it seem; however after installing and uploading comics to it does it make my iPad unresponsive, freezing, slowing everything down. Don’t even waste your $2 on this.

### 1/5 — Schlechter Import

*2024-04-07*

Die App importiert viele meiner cbr-Dateien nicht, angeblich wegen eines rar-Fehlers. Die Comics werden von anderen Readern problemlos geöffnet. Die App ist also leider gänzlich unbrauchbar.

### 1/5 — This app deleted my entire collection

*2023-07-22, version 1.8.10*

This was my go to app for so long. It was incredible and has all the features you could need. But I recently opened it to find that, without warning, it deleted my entire collection. Every last comic, gone. I went through a long and painstaking process of getting them organized and in chronological order, as well as separated into different collections by series, and now all of that is gone. Won’t be relying on this app again.

### 1/5 — Latest update

*2023-02-15, version 1.10.0*

I’ve had the app for over a year. It is as always a little quirky importing comics but tolerable. Now after the update, I have to search each comic out in order to read them. I hope this is fixed.

### 1/5 — Extremely cumbersome page turning

*2022-08-12, version 1.8.9*

For some reason, new downloaded comics can’t be opened in Chunky, so didn’t wanna pay for another comic reader, so found this. No brightness options or automatically grouping by title or author, but could live with those. However, simple page turning is REALLY CUMBERSOME. You can’t page turn by a simple swipe as in Chunky, have to tap. Worse, unless you like reading only in the default zoom percentage, the tap won’t work. After having to zoom and zoom out for every page after just one issue, I’m done. Wasted hours downloading new comics. You get what you pay for

### 1/5 — Won't open comics; no support

*2022-05-26, version 1.8.8*

This frequently fails to open with a "corrupt archive" error, while Simple Comics open the sam issues with no problem. There is NO support.

### 1/5 — Dead

*2022-03-22, version 1.8.8*

Used to adore this app. But now I can’t get my iCloud to work anymore. The option is grayed out and won’t let me select it.

### 1/5 — Google Drive link poor

*2021-08-17, version 1.8.3*

Want to link this app to Google Drive? Good luck - they’ve not thought this one through

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — The best reader experience

*2026-06-12, version 2.0.0*

It does everything it says, and does it so well. Clean and simple interface, iCloud integration that just works and I love the panel by panel reading experience on my iPad. As a bonus I can use it on my MacBook now also, so cool to have my books with me wherever I go.

### 5/5 — Great for reading manga

*2026-04-27, version 2.0.0*

Very glad I took a chance on buying this. Works like a charm for reading manga on iPhone. It goes panel by panel rather than page by page so it’s even easier to read than a physical copy.

### 5/5 — So geht das - ist sensationell gut

*2026-03-03*

… und könnte für die gebotene und mit den letzten Update nochmals angehobene Qualität gut und gerne ein paar Euro kosten. Sollte es vielleicht auch, um die Weiterentwicklung zu unterstützen. Die bei Comixology einstmals bewunderte und offenbar gar nicht so leicht zu realisierende Panel-für-Panel-Funktion funktioniert hier perfekt. Smart Comic Reader ist mE konkurrenzlos.

### 5/5 — What happened? Part 2

*2026-02-24, version 2.0.0*

Hello again. I recently posted a review saying that the new update didn’t work. I want to apologize and let you know just in case others have the same issue. I deleted the app, then I reinstalled it and it works fine. I see and like the improvements. I think it is actually faster and more responsive. Thank you so much for your hard work.

### 5/5 — Endlich

*2026-02-24*

Zu guter Letzt ist sie doch noch gekommen, Jahre später, die Galleryansicht. Das macht Smart Comic Reader um so vieles besser! Endlich kann man wieder gut durch große Comicsammlungen blättern! Vielen lieben Dank!

### 5/5 — Ничего удобнее не видел!

*2026-01-13*

Идеально подстраивается под панели, пролистывается с красивой анимацией – это сильно изменило опыт чтения, надеюсь разработчик и дальше будет поддерживать это приложение

### 5/5 — ЛУЧШАЯ!

*2026-01-12*

Это самая лучшая читалка для комиксов! Обладает облачной синхронизацией, очень удобно, что распознает панельки и автоматически зумирует их по нажатию! Комиксы читать - одно удовольствие, не нужно постоянно приближать/отдалять, напрягать глаза. А на айпаде - вообще шикардос!

### 5/5 — Panel by panel a Godsend on iPad mini .. love it

*2025-12-28, version 1.11.0*

Best cbr cbz reader out there

### 5/5 — This the one!

*2025-11-11, version 1.11.0*

5 Stars !
Easy to use . 
Store all of my cbr files on iCloud and easily open them with this app. 
NO ADDS!

### 5/5 — Absolutely does the job

*2025-11-01*

Defo up there with panels, but with a one time sub and auto per panel zooming which is absolutely amazing…

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*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.*