Comparison

PaperSpan vs SubTel Forum

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

Head to head
About

PaperSpan

Save articles from the web to read or listen to later, even offline. Organize your content with smart filters and track your reading habits. Send articles to your Kindle for a seamless reading experience.

Highlights
  • Save articles from web
  • Offline reading and listening
  • Smart search and filters
  • Reading habit tracking
  • Send to Kindle
  • Text-to-speech functionality
  • Highlighting and notes
Features
Read full description

Your articles ready for you to read or listen - while you wait, commute, walk, cook, whenever. No ads, no suggestions. Add articles of your own interest, the app should help finish reading them. Carefully designed search, sort, and filters to easily pick the article you need. Choose a category matching your mood. Interested in health articles now? Choose Health. You don't have to assign the category in advance, the app does this for you. Take up on your pending reads by opening Unread articles alone. Short waiting time? Pick those short articles by reading time. • READ COMFORTABLY: Save from your phone or desktop. Read them in a clean and comfortable view. Nothing gets in the way of your reading. • OFFLINE: Read, listen, and manage those articles even if your device is offline. App will auto-sync when your device is back online. • HIGHLIGHTS: Highlight those important phrases as you read. Keep the essence of your reading and refer whenever you need. • TRACK YOUR READING HABITS: Know how many articles you read or yet to read, and how long you spent reading them. Know your current interests with a beautiful word cloud out of your articles. Track & improve your reading routine! • SEND TO KINDLE: Love the Kindle reading experience? Send articles to your Kindle device (or app) and read at your own pace. • SEARCH & COMFORT: Search & Sort to quickly find an article. Organize with folders. Adjust your reading experience with dark/light theme, fonts, brightness, and more! • NOTES: Capture the gist out of an article you just read - your summary of lessons learned, thoughts you got out of an article. Keep the record to re-read yourself anytime or share to your notes app. • LISTEN: Listen to articles while you walk, cook, or commute with in-app text to speech. Even offline. You don't have to trade your productive time for your web reading. --- Upgrade to Premium for a fully featured powerful experience --- • ADVANCED SEARCH: Pull out an article with what you remember. Search by full-text, author, notes, and more! Skip the hassle of finding from list, start reading the article you have in mind. • PLAYLIST: Listen to your articles with no interruption in between. Perfect while you drive, run, or doing daily chores. • ADVANCED STATISTICS: Get insights into your reading routine. You read rate, daily peak reading time, categories you read, your popular sites and more to help plan and enhance your reading. • MULTIPLE ARTICLES TO KINDLE: Send multiple articles at once to your Kindle device (or app). You will receive them as a kindle book, carefully crafted. Read them with your Kindle experience. • LIMITLESS OFFLINE: Perform actions (add/remove highlights, notes, Send to Kindle) even while offline. App will automatically sync when your device is back online. Ad-free reading experience. PaperSpan is free to download and use. PaperSpan Premium gives a more powerful experience for $8.99 a year through an auto-renewing subscription. Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel a subscription during the active period. You can manage your subscriptions in the Account Settings after purchase. (Reference: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039) Our Terms of Use: https://www.paperspan.com/terms Our Privacy Policy: https://www.paperspan.com/privacy

About

SubTel Forum

Stay informed with the latest news and updates in the submarine telecommunications industry. Access the newest editions of industry publications directly through the app.

Highlights
  • Latest industry news notifications
  • Access to SubTel Forum Magazine
  • Submarine Cable Almanac available
  • Submarine Telecoms Industry Report access
  • Real-time updates
Features
Read full description

The SubTel Forum app keeps you up to date on all the latest news in the world of submarine telecoms - get notified as it happens. The latest edition of each of the SubTel Forum publications are also available - Magazine, Submarine Cable Almanac and Submarine Telecoms Industry Report.

Screenshots

PaperSpan4 screens
SubTel Forum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: SubTel Forum at 100% against PaperSpan's 20%. SubTel Forum also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). PaperSpan's advantage is ratings volume (76 vs 2). On price, ads, device support 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. PaperSpan sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.99 per year. SubTel Forum asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SubTel Forum holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PaperSpan has 76 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 20% of PaperSpan's written reviews are positive against 100% of SubTel Forum's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PaperSpan ships an update every 3 months, SubTel Forum every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
PaperSpan versus SubTel Forum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaperSpanSubTel Forum
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (76 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews20.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings76 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better13.4
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSravan KumarSubmarine Telecoms Forum, Inc.

Customer experience

PaperSpan

All ratings75 ratings
Positive82.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative17.3%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative73.3%

SubTel Forum

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

PaperSpan

Subscriptions1
  • PaperSpan Premium$8.991 Year
None

SubTel Forum

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PaperSpan free?
PaperSpan is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SubTel Forum free?
SubTel Forum is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PaperSpan or SubTel Forum?
SubTel Forum is rated higher. PaperSpan averages 4.4 out of 5 from 76 ratings, while SubTel Forum averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do PaperSpan or SubTel Forum have ads?
Neither PaperSpan nor SubTel Forum shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PaperSpan or SubTel Forum?
PaperSpan ships an update every 3 months, and SubTel Forum every 5 days. Most recently, PaperSpan was updated on October 21, 2026 and SubTel Forum on October 10, 2026.

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