Comparison

MapleRead CX vs Books Reader

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

Books Reader

This app provides a seamless e-reading experience, managing your ebook collection and offering customizable reading settings. It supports various formats and includes features like bookmarking, note-taking, and a read/unread tracker.

Highlights
  • Supports multiple ebook formats (epub, fb2, mobi, PDF)
  • Manages and organizes ebook collections
  • Customizable text size, color, theme, and brightness
  • Progress tracking and bookmarking
  • Note-taking and excerpt selection
  • Read/unread book tracker
  • Filtering and search functionality
Features
Read full description

Books Reader - its a perfect e-reading experience. Overdrive your reading skills everyday. For everyone reader we gift free books and e-reading collections. Books Reader is a laconic pocket library and intuitive tool for a perfect reading experience. Without extra fluff or complexity, it takes care of all the basic needs: managing your ebook collections, getting the text on the screen and letting you interact with it as you go at your prime reading. For a start, the app builds a library for you by rounding up all the book files stored on the device. Books Reader works with most popular ebooks formats (epub, fb2, mobi etc.), including zip archives. If necessary, you can tweak the list manually, by adding or removing specific titles for ibooks. However big your collection gets, browsing will remain easy thanks to a provided set of filters. Besides, the system is keeping track of your history to display the books in order of relevance. Viewing the book, you can adjust the settings for the best effect: change size and color of the text, pick the right theme and brightness level, use various controls options for turning pages. The combination of a progress bar, bookmarking and a search tool help to navigate the text effortlessly. Make sure to select the excerpts that stayed with you and import them to Notes with just a couple of taps. Books Reader offers: - A variety of ebook formats (epub, fb2,PDF, mobi and others); - Auto unpacking of zip archives; - A smart manager of the books stored on your device; - Read/unread books tracker; - Filtering system (by author, by date added or read, etc.); - Adjustable page/text settings (brightness, size, color, theme and more); - Several controls methods (scrolling, tapping or using buttons); - Marking pages and taking notes. Privacy Policy: https://villow.studio/privacy Term Of Use: https://villow.studio/terms

Screenshots

MapleRead CX4 screens
Books Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Books Reader at 4.7 against MapleRead CX's 3.4. Books Reader also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). MapleRead CX's advantage is review sentiment (62% vs 38%). 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 Books Reader sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Books Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 22 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of MapleRead CX's written reviews are positive against 38% of Books Reader'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 2 months, Books Reader every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MapleRead CX versus Books Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMapleRead CXBooks Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (24 ratings)4.7 (22 ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.5% of reviews — better37.5% of reviews
Number of ratings24 — better22
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB59 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMaplepop LLCVillow

Customer experience

MapleRead CX

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

Books Reader

All ratings22 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral4.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral25.0%
Negative37.5%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MapleRead CX

One-time1
  • Pro Upgrade$6.99
9 purchases

Books Reader

Subscriptions4
  • Regular donation$1.991 Month
  • Regular donation$3.991 Month
  • Regular donation$5.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Regular donation$9.991 Month
One-time5
  • Donation$1.99
  • Donation$3.99
  • Donation$5.99
Show 2 more
  • Donation$9.99
  • Custom Fonts & Themes$9.99

Questions

Is MapleRead CX free?
MapleRead CX is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Books Reader free?
Books Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MapleRead CX or Books Reader?
Books Reader is rated higher. MapleRead CX averages 3.4 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while Books Reader averages 4.7 from 22 ratings.
Do MapleRead CX or Books Reader have ads?
Neither MapleRead CX nor Books Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MapleRead CX or Books Reader?
MapleRead CX ships an update every 2 months, and Books Reader every 3 months. Most recently, MapleRead CX was updated on September 8, 2026 and Books Reader on September 23, 2026.

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