Comparison

eBoox vs ShortBook²

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

Head to head
About

eBoox

This application provides a comfortable and customizable reading experience for a wide variety of e-book formats. It offers features like bookmarks, highlights, dark mode, and offline reading, with seamless online synchronization. Books can be easily uploaded from various sources, including cloud storage and email.

Highlights
  • Supports EPUB, MOBI, FB2, DOC, TXT, and more
  • Customizable fonts, text size, and brightness
  • Dark mode and offline reading
  • Bookmarks, highlights, and notes
  • Online auto-sync of books and progress
  • AD-FREE reading experience
Currently charting
Read full description

eBoox – the most pleasant book reader ever! * *according to my mom :) • Cute, simple and useful UI, • Effective reading tools: bookmarks, 3-colors highlights, interactive links and notes, • Dark mode and offline reading, • Customized settings - Fonts, Fields, Text size, screen Brightness, Page scrolling, ets. • Suppots all your e-books, even in ZIP: EPUB, MOBI, DOC, DOCX, TXT, FB2, PRC, RTF, ODT, HTML, AZW, AZW3 and others text documents, • PDF supported (beta), • !Completely AD-FREE, • !Online auto SYNC of ebooks and reading progress, • !FREE WEB e-reader available! Start reading your e-books right now! Upload books via iTunes, import your files from the email, web browser, cloud storages (iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, Yandex.Disk etc) or share via AirDrop. In the app you will find detailed guide How to add ebooks in different ways. And we've already added three classic welcome books so you can appreciate the e-reader right away! This is a upgraded version of eBoox. The old one is no longer supported. In order not to lose your books, progress, quotes and bookmarks, install this app version. Run it on device and wait for the data transfer to finish. When you make sure that all your books appeared in eBoox 2020, you can safely delete eBoox.old. You can turn on the synchronization for backup.

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

eBoox4 screens
ShortBook²4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: eBoox at 88% against ShortBook²'s 40%. eBoox also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (3.5K vs 13). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. ShortBook² sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. eBoox asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

eBoox holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: eBoox has 3.5K ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of eBoox's written reviews are positive against 40% of ShortBook²'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

eBoox ships an update monthly, ShortBook² every 2 months. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
eBoox versus ShortBook²: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametereBooxShortBook²
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (3.5K ratings) — better4.6 (13 ratings)
Positive reviews88.1% of reviews — better39.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3.5K — better13
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
Best chart rank#187 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size177 MB67 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperREDIT, OOOJury Shortki

Customer experience

eBoox

All ratings3,544 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews799 reviews
Positive88.1%
Neutral4.6%
Negative7.3%

ShortBook²

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

Bugs and requests

eBoox

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Highlighting and annotations sometimes behave unexpectedly
  • Syncing between devices can be unreliable at times
  • Occasional crashes or freezes when navigating the app

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add more font options, including bold and italic
  • Implement a built-in dictionary or translation tool
  • Allow direct import of books from local device storage
  • Improve page numbering and reading progress display
  • Add support for PDF files and annotations
Show 2 more
  • Introduce a grid-style library view for book covers
  • Implement automatic dark mode based on system settings

ShortBook²

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

eBoox

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

ShortBook²

Subscriptions1
  • Annual1 Month trial$9.991 Year

Questions

Is eBoox free?
eBoox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ShortBook² free?
ShortBook² is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, eBoox or ShortBook²?
eBoox is rated higher. eBoox averages 4.8 out of 5 from 3.5K ratings, while ShortBook² averages 4.6 from 13 ratings.
Do eBoox or ShortBook² have ads?
Neither eBoox nor ShortBook² shows ads.
Which is updated more often, eBoox or ShortBook²?
eBoox ships an update monthly, and ShortBook² every 2 months. Most recently, eBoox was updated on September 25, 2026 and ShortBook² on September 25, 2026.

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