Comparison

CHMate+ vs Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader

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

Head to head
About

CHMate+

This app provides a robust reading experience for EPUB and CHM eBooks. Organize your library, add bookmarks and notes, and easily search for text. Customize your reading with adjustable fonts and brightness, and share passages with friends.

Highlights
  • Organize files into personal collections
  • Add bookmarks and notes
  • Customizable fonts and line height
  • Built-in search feature
  • Share quotes with friends
  • Adjustable screen brightness
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Default ebook formatting does not always suit the way you read. CHMate+ turns your personal files into a calm, comfortable reading corner. A customizable wooden bookshelf with an ambient lamp and personal decor. Pay once up front. Read without subscriptions or in-app purchases. A BOOKSHELF OF YOUR OWN • Wooden shelves and ambient lamp: Display your personal collection with warm bookshelf lighting. • Shelf decor: Arrange animated ornaments, plants, paintings, and shelf-edge figures. • Personal memories: Decorate with photos, Live Photos, or silent looping videos (MP4/MOV). • Custom layout: Freely move, resize, and favorite your decor items. TAILORED TYPOGRAPHY • Page colors: Choose from six page colors independently of your typography theme, with light, dark, or automatic appearance. • Precise reading controls: Adjust font size, line height, page margins, and fonts for body, headings, and code. • Custom font import: Read with built-in fonts or import your own font files. • Horizontal and vertical reading: Switch text orientation where supported for Chinese and Japanese text. • iCloud theme sync: Save your custom typography themes and sync them across your devices. TOOLS & LOCAL IMPORT • Supported formats: Read your own EPUB and CHM files with structured table of contents navigation. • Local Wi-Fi transfer: Send files directly from your computer browser over your local network. • Reading tools: Search full text across chapters, add highlights, and review notes in one place. UPFRONT PURCHASE • Full access with multiple books included from day one. • Single upfront purchase with no in-app purchases. • No subscriptions and no ads.

About

Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader

Features
Read full description

A bookshelf for your PDFs and Markdown files, on iPhone and iPad. Bring in files from the cloud or the Files app, turn their pages in two-page spreads, and write on them with Apple Pencil. Made for you if • You want to read scanned books and comics in spreads, the way you read them on paper • You read papers and documents and want to write notes on them with Apple Pencil • You keep notes, AI chat logs or READMEs in Markdown and want to read them calmly, page by page • Your PDFs are scattered across cloud services and you want them on one shelf Collect: PDFs and Markdown on one shelf From "Add Books", bring in files from any place that appears in the Files app, such as iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. You can also open Lectio from the share sheet in another app, or drag and drop files onto the shelf. A Markdown (.md) file becomes an A4 PDF with its headings, lists, tables and code laid out, and takes its place on the shelf. The same file is never added twice, and password-protected PDFs can be added too. Books are kept on your device, so you can read them without a connection. Lectio only reads your cloud files and never changes or deletes them. Read: turn pages like a book Each book remembers its layout (two-page, single page or vertical scroll) and its left or right binding. Right-bound books lay out their spreads from right to left, so comics and vertical text read in their natural direction. Swipe or press the arrow keys to turn the page, and tap the page to hide the buttons. Lectio remembers where you stopped, so the next time you open a book you carry on from there. Switch the page color to night or sepia, adjust the brightness, and keep the screen on while you read. Write: Apple Pencil and four highlight colors Turn on Handwriting in the toolbar and a tool palette appears. Write directly on the page with Apple Pencil or your finger, choose pens, colors and the eraser, and your writing stays with each page. Highlight text in yellow, green, pink or blue, and find your highlights again under Highlights in the sidebar. Press and hold text to copy it, look it up or search the book for it, and tap links on the page. Find: contents, thumbnails and text search Jump to a chapter from the table of contents, or to any page from the thumbnail grid or by its page number. Search the text of a book and each match is highlighted in yellow. Books made from Markdown are searchable too. In the library, find books by name. Organize: favorites, bookmarks and collections Each cover shows how far you have read: New, a percentage, or Finished, and you can sort by Recently Read. See your favorite books, bookmarked pages and highlights in lists. A bookmark keeps the opening words of its page, so you know where you left it. Sort books into collections and arrange them in any order you like. Rename books, or select several to share them, add them to a collection or delete them in one go. Deleted books stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, where you can bring them back. Widget, Spotlight and Handoff The Home Screen widget shows the books you read recently, and tapping one opens it where you left off. Search for books in Spotlight by name or by words in the text. With Handoff, pass the book and page you are reading to another iPhone or iPad that has the same PDF. iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo Lectio supports iPhone Duo. Read on the outer display when it is closed, and in spreads on the large inner display when you open it. The buttons sit in the vertical bar along the edge, out of the way of the page. Keyboard, remotes and VoiceOver Press ⌘O to add books, ⌘F to search, ⌘B to bookmark and ⌘W to close. Pages turn with the arrow keys, so a Bluetooth keyboard or a page-turner remote that sends arrow keys works too. VoiceOver and Dark Mode are supported. You can also share and print your books. Start by tapping + in the library and add your first book.

Screenshots

CHMate+4 screens
Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader at Free against CHMate+'s $9.99. Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). CHMate+'s advantage is chart position (#158 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, 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

Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader is free to download; CHMate+ costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CHMate+ ships an update every 2 weeks, Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
CHMate+ versus Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCHMate+Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (8 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#158 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.0 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer贤安 陈caps-rock

Bugs and requests

CHMate+

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when searching within documents
  • Table of contents not syncing with current position
  • Highlighting and annotations not working reliably
  • Issues with opening and loading certain CHM files

Requested features

5 requests
  • Full-text search across documents
  • Folder organization for files
  • Improved image handling and zooming
  • Sync with cloud storage services
  • Ability to rename files

Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

CHMate+

No in-app purchases

None

Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CHMate+ free?
CHMate+ costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader free?
Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do CHMate+ or Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader have ads?
Neither CHMate+ nor Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CHMate+ or Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader?
CHMate+ ships an update every 2 weeks, and Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader every 2 days. Most recently, CHMate+ was updated on October 27, 2026 and Lectio Markdown / PDF Reader on October 24, 2026.

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