Polyglot Reader vs Tembo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Polyglot Reader
Read books in foreign languages and learn new vocabulary. Tap on unknown words for instant translations and save them to flashcards for later study. Supports various document formats and offers pronunciation practice and knowledge tests.
- Read books in multiple formats (PDF, EPUB, TXT)
- Translate unknown words and phrases instantly
- Create flashcards for vocabulary learning
- Pronunciation support for words and phrases
- Knowledge tests for vocabulary sets
- Scan and recognize text from documents
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Read books in any foreign language and turn every unknown word into a flashcard you'll actually remember. Now with an account and cloud sync: your books and flashcards go with you to every device. Polyglot Reader is your pocket library, dictionary and flashcard trainer in one app. Tap any word or phrase in a book, get an instant translation with transcription, hear the pronunciation, and save it to a deck to review later. Built for iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a refined dark theme. — ACCOUNT & SYNC — • Sign in with Apple, Google or email • Books, card sets, flashcards and language pairs stay in sync across all your devices • Your own books are uploaded to the cloud together with their covers • New device? Sign in and your library and flashcards come right back — READ — • Completely redesigned reader, bookmarks, translation popup and settings • New System theme that follows iOS automatically, plus refined Light and Dark • Open books in PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF and TXT • Import from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or any file app • Scan a paper page — the app recognizes the text and saves it as a book • Highlights words you don't know yet, right inside the page • Vertical scrolling, comfortable type settings, picture zoom — LIBRARY — • Thousands of free books in 38+ languages, sorted into sections like Classics, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, Horror & Mystery, Fairy Tales, Philosophy, Adventure • Adapted A2–B1 readers for German learners, plus original literature in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Greek and many more • New sorting, new sections and search inside every shelf • Filter to show only recent books • Difficulty level and tags shown right on each cover • Drag and drop books between shelves • New "Added manually" section for everything you imported yourself • Smoother search, scroll and sharing on iPad — LEARN — • Redesigned cards and study screens • Ready-made flashcard sets for English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Japanese — verbs, nouns and themed categories • Smart virtual decks: All cards, Recent, Unknown — see progress at a glance • Quick preview and actions inside every deck • Pick a default deck for new words you save while reading • Per-card knowledge level with a colored progress bar (red → green as you master each word) • Three study modes: foreign only, foreign + native, native only • Hands-free mode — keep learning without touching the screen • Long-press context menu: mark as known or unknown in one gesture • Optional shuffled order during study • Filter to show only words you haven't learned yet • Pronunciation for both the word and its translation • Knowledge tests for every deck • Export and import cards in CSV — TRANSLATE — • 111 offline dictionaries — no internet, no quota • On-the-fly transcription for all popular languages • Speech-to-text: just say the word, get the translation • Add your own phrases and translations to any deck • Edit translations when you want a better wording • 90+ languages supported, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and many more — AND ALSO — • System, Light and Dark themes • Choose Google or Yandex as your online translator • Compact mode on iPhone, expanded card view on iPad • Notifications to bring you back to recent cards Whether you're reading Sherlock Holmes in English, Kafka in German, Don Quixote in Spanish or Dostoevsky in Russian — Polyglot Reader turns reading into vocabulary, one tap at a time. Questions or feedback: support@readandlearnapp.com
Tembo
Engage with bilingual stories to enhance your language learning journey. This app offers a variety of stories with instant translations and audio pronunciations to help you improve your skills.
- Bilingual story display
- Instant translations
- Audio pronunciation guides
- Interactive exercises
- Multiple languages supported
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Want to read bilingual stories and improve your Spanish language skills? Then our app "Tembo: Bilingual Stories" is perfect for you! This app is specially designed to help you learn Spanish and other languages through engaging stories. Whether you are a beginner or already have some experience with the Spanish language, this app is suitable for all levels. Key features of the app: • Spanish, French, German and other stories: Discover a wide selection of engaging and fun stories. These stories range in difficulty from easy to advanced, so you can read and learn at your own level. • Bilingual display: Want to understand the meaning of words or phrases? Use the built-in bilingual display for instant translations into English. • Pronunciation: Improve your pronunciation by listening to the high-quality audio recordings of each story. This way you can strengthen your listening and speaking skills in Spanish. • Interactive Exercises: Test your knowledge and understanding of the Spanish language with interactive exercises and quizzes. This helps you evaluate and strengthen your skills. With a user-friendly design and engaging content, you can take full advantage of the "Tembo: Bilingual Stories" app whenever and wherever you want. You will find that you make rapid progress in your understanding and use of the Spanish language. Privacy Policy: https://www.tembo.app/privacy Terms of Service: https://www.tembo.app/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Tembo at weekly against Polyglot Reader's every 5 weeks. Tembo also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.4). Polyglot Reader's advantage is review sentiment (66% vs 43%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Polyglot Reader sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Tembo sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Tembo holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 74 and 32 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of Polyglot Reader's written reviews are positive against 43% of Tembo's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Polyglot Reader ships an update every 5 weeks, Tembo weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Polyglot Reader | Tembo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (74 ratings) | 4.6 (32 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.7% of reviews — better | 42.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 74 — better | 32 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 137 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Anton Ivanov | Jamie Hunt |
Customer experience
Polyglot Reader
Tembo
In-app purchases
Polyglot Reader
- Monthly subscription$3.991 Month
- Monthly subscription3 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Monthly subscription$7.991 Month
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- Monthly subscription$9.991 Month
- Annual subscription$22.991 Year
- Annual subscription$34.991 Year
- Annual subscription7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Annual subscription$59.991 Year
- Upgrade from advanced to professional version$3.99
- Upgrade from Starter to Advanced version$15.99
- Full version$99.99
Tembo
- Plus3 Days trial$5.991 Month
Questions
Is Polyglot Reader free?
Is Tembo free?
Which has better reviews, Polyglot Reader or Tembo?
Do Polyglot Reader or Tembo have ads?
Which is updated more often, Polyglot Reader or Tembo?
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