Comparison

Kortext vs Lector

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Kortext

Access and read eBooks from various publishers with enhanced multimedia. Tools are included to help learners and academics engage with their content, offering features like note-taking, referencing, and text-to-speech.

Highlights
  • Read PDF and EPUB files
  • Access 13,000+ free eTextbooks
  • Highlight text and create notes
  • Add Harvard/APA references
  • Read Aloud functionality
  • Adjust text size and background
  • Search within books
  • 500MB free cloud storage
Currently charting
Read full description

Kortext provides access to online eBooks from multiple publishers, with enhanced in-built audio and video content, combined with tools to assist learners and academics to make the most of their content. Features include: - Add and read PDF/EPUB files from your iPhone and iPad - Enjoy free access to a collection of over 13,000 eTextbooks - Easy navigation to content, providing quick access to pages - Highlight text in a range of colours and create notes, enabling quick reference of key sections - Add a reference (Harvard or APA), making creation of bibliographies much easier - Read Aloud sections, providing help with accessing content - Increase text size, change font and background of pages making it easier to view content - Search for keywords and phrases within the books directly from your bookshelf, allowing quicker access to relevant content - 500MB of free cloud file storage. Simply upload your study materials and harness the full potential within

About

Lector

Read full description

Lector is a speed reader that respects punctuation. Every RSVP reader flashes one word at a time at a fixed rate. That is what makes them fast, and also what makes them exhausting: a full stop goes by in exactly as long as the word "the". Lector weights the time each word holds — 1.8× at the end of a sentence, 1.4× at a clause, a little longer for long words — on a scheduler that corrects its own drift and never silently skips a word. Sentences keep their shape at speeds where they normally dissolve. TWO WAYS TO READ Flash mode holds each word still in the centre of the screen. Nothing moves, so your eye never has to chase anything, and this is the mode that works at the top of the speed range. Ticker mode scrolls the line continuously past a fixed mark, so you can see the words either side of the one you are on. Turn the phone sideways, and you get most of the sentence. Some books read better one way, some the other, so Lector remembers which mode you used for each book. CONTROLS YOU DON'T HAVE TO AIM FOR Press and hold anywhere to pause, let go to resume. Hold either edge to skim at up to 3× and release to drop back. Pull down while holding to latch that faster speed so you can let go. Nothing here needs you to find a small button while words are moving. YOUR OWN BOOKS Import EPUB, PDF and plain text files, or paste text straight in. Lector reads the book's own table of contents, so you can skip the front matter and jump between chapters. PDFs get their running heads stripped, and their line-end hyphens rejoined, because "extraor- dinary" is not two words. "Open in Lector" appears in the share sheet in Files, Mail, Safari and anywhere else, including for DRM-free library downloads. You can also point the camera at a printed page. Text recognition happens on the device, several pages at a time, and Lector keeps the words rather than the photograph. A GOAL MEASURED IN MINUTES The daily goal is minutes read, not words. A word target rewards winding the speed up and skimming, which is the one habit a speed-reading app should not encourage. Read five minutes and the day counts towards your streak; hit your goal, and you bank a streak freeze, which is spent automatically on a day you miss. EVERYTHING STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Lector has no servers, no analytics, no accounts you must create and no third-party code of any kind. Your library never leaves the device — not as a feature you switch on, but because there is nothing in the app that could send it anywhere. Export a backup to a single file whenever you want one, and restore it later; that file goes wherever you choose to put it. ALSO • A home screen widget with today's minutes and your streak • Live Activity on the Lock Screen while you read • Spotlight search that finds your books and their chapters by name • Hold the middle of a word to look it up without losing your place • A history chart by week, month or year, against your goal • Bionic emphasis, if bolded word-openings help you • Dynamic Type throughout, plus five reading sizes on top of it • Optional daily reminder that stays quiet on days you have already read Lector is for iPhone and needs iOS 17 or later.

Screenshots

Kortext4 screens
Lector4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Lector at daily against Kortext's every 2 months. Kortext's advantage is chart position (#119 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kortext ships an update every 2 months, Lector daily. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Kortext versus Lector: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKortextLector
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (1.4K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews17.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.4K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#119 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB6 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperKortextCupertino Tech Labs Inc.

Bugs and requests

Kortext

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and freezes
  • Pages not loading properly
  • Highlighting and annotations not saving
  • Login issues and inability to access content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved text-to-speech functionality
  • Better organization and navigation of content
  • Ability to customize text size and layout
  • Syncing across multiple devices
  • Offline reading mode

Lector

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Kortext

No in-app purchases

None

Lector

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Kortext free?
Kortext is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lector free?
Lector is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Kortext or Lector have ads?
Neither Kortext nor Lector shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Kortext or Lector?
Kortext ships an update every 2 months, and Lector daily. Most recently, Kortext was updated on October 26, 2026 and Lector on October 9, 2026.

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