Comparison

MapleRead CX vs ShortBook²

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

Head to head
About

MapleRead CX

This app offers a unique audio-visual reading experience for EPUB ebooks. Customize book styles, generate pseudo audiobooks with various voices, and enjoy immersive reading with synchronized audio and text. It also functions as a powerful library management tool with extensive customization options.

Highlights
  • Audio-visual EPUB reader
  • Pseudo audiobook generation
  • Immersion reading (sync audio/text)
  • Customizable book styles and themes
  • Word lookup and translation
  • Library management and organization
  • User-defined fonts and highlight colors
Read full description

MapleRead is dedicated to enable unique audio-visual reading experience for everyone. ------------ Our MapleRead app family has 3 members, namely SE, CE and CX. - SE is our flagship product with all features. - CE is SE without PDF reader and built-in Library Server. - CX is CE with some limitation. Free to try. - No recurring subscription fees. No ads. Just buy it once. Gratuity optional. - Moreover, SE and CE can be run side-by-side via split-view multitasking. - Recommend SE for use on multiple devices with easy and fast book sharing via Library Server. - Recommend the SE-CE bundle for the best value. ------------ MapleRead includes a superb audio-visual EPUB e-book reader. - It lets you easily modify publisher's original book style to better suit your aesthetic taste. - It lets you instantly generate pseudo audiobooks with a choice of narrator voices over 40 languages. - It enables immersion reading so that you may read and listen to the same book in sync. - Background listening works well too. Compatible with Lock Screen Music Player and CarPlay. MapleRead UI is friendly to users of all ages. - Books can be read in regular and large print. - A choice of UI text sizes makes reading in non-book views much more comfortable. MapleRead is a great learning tool. - It lets you look up words, translate sentences, search text, highlight text and write notes. - It helps you collect vocabulary and organize notes with various priorities. - It provides hooks to user-defined dictionaries, translators, and other tools. - Immersion reading improves your comprehension, especially of foreign-language books. MapleRead is an effective and fast library management tool. - It is designed for you, a book lover, who may own a huge and/or growing book collection. - It lets you keep all your books in one place and well-organized automatically. - It lets you display your books elegantly in style. - It lets you easily repair individual book metadata. - If supports multiple book sets and multiple tags. - It offers multiple ways to import and export books, and works well with Calibre. MapleRead offers unprecedented user-defined customization options. - They include unlimited user-defined fonts, book themes, cover images and library scenes. - Each book theme includes various types of user-defined highlight colors. - Each book can have its own theme, and each EPUB book can have its own style. [For more technical details, screenshots, FAQ and reviews, please visit our website.]

About

ShortBook²

This reader app offers a unique approach to text display on smaller screens, optimizing comfort and reducing eye strain. It allows extensive customization of text layout and includes decorative elements to enhance the reading experience. Supports FB2 format and provides reading statistics.

Highlights
  • Optimized text layout for small screens
  • Customizable text placement options
  • Decorative elements for atmosphere
  • FB2 format support (contents, footnotes, figures)
  • Rich settings with dozens of parameters
  • Reading statistics and monitoring
  • Quick restart after breaks
Features
Read full description

Reading books on portable devices is always a compromise between comfort of reading and text availability. ShortBook² offers an original way of solving this problem with its careful approach to text makeup on the limited screen area of iPhone or iPad. A lot of experiments with various text compositions and interface layouts have jelled the unique match for convenient reading. If you need to read for a long time, with comfort and without any considerable damage to the sight take advantage of the ShortBook² program — a high-end reader. ShortBook² focuses on the layout process, allowing the user to control virtually all text placement options. Moreover, the program analyzes the text and places decorative elements in various places, which not only decorate the book and bring their atmosphere into it, but also simplify the reading process. Thus, in ShortBook², even "picture-free" books look attractive and do not tire with the external monotony while reading, which not only increases reader comfort, but also reduces eye fatigue from the reading process. The program fully supports FB2 electronic books format including contents, footnotes and figures. Any electronic book can be easily converted to this format with free utilities though using a variety of web libraries with books already in this format is much more simple. To meet personal preferences, the application has rich settings, including several dozens of customizable parameters. The book index has several sorting modes allowing to find a required writing easily. Reading can be quickly restarted after a break with one touch of the screen. The reader keeps reading statistics and offers developed means of monitoring the reading process. The application was developed using the latest technologies, therefore it is not available for users of iOS 12 and below. These users can use the classic ShortBook application. ShortBook² is available by subscription. The subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Subscribers gain access to all Short Review materials that will be published during the subscription period. Short Review materials contain reviews of the book market of electronic publications in Russia, book ratings and recommendations for organizing reading. Terms of use of the subscription: http://www.shortki.com/ShortBook/terms.html

Screenshots

MapleRead CX4 screens
ShortBook²4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ShortBook² at 4.6 against MapleRead CX's 3.4. MapleRead CX's advantage is monetization model (paid vs subscription) and review sentiment (62% vs 40%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. MapleRead CX sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ShortBook² sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ShortBook² holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 13 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of MapleRead CX's written reviews are positive against 40% of ShortBook²'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MapleRead CX ships an update every 5 weeks, ShortBook² every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MapleRead CX versus ShortBook²: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMapleRead CXShortBook²
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (24 ratings)4.6 (13 ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.5% of reviews — better39.7% of reviews
Number of ratings24 — better13
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB67 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperMaplepop LLCJury Shortki

Customer experience

MapleRead CX

All ratings24 ratings
Positive58.3%
Neutral8.3%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive61.5%
Neutral10.3%
Negative28.2%

ShortBook²

All ratings13 ratings
Positive84.6%
Neutral15.4%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews73 reviews
Positive39.7%
Neutral6.8%
Negative53.4%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MapleRead CX

One-time1
  • Pro Upgrade$6.99
1 purchases

ShortBook²

Subscriptions1
  • Annual1 Month trial$9.991 Year

Questions

Is MapleRead CX free?
MapleRead CX is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ShortBook² free?
ShortBook² is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MapleRead CX or ShortBook²?
ShortBook² is rated higher. MapleRead CX averages 3.4 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while ShortBook² averages 4.6 from 13 ratings.
Do MapleRead CX or ShortBook² have ads?
Neither MapleRead CX nor ShortBook² shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MapleRead CX or ShortBook²?
MapleRead CX ships an update every 5 weeks, and ShortBook² every 2 months. Most recently, MapleRead CX was updated on October 13, 2026 and ShortBook² on October 17, 2026.

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