CHMate vs PureLibro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CHMate
This app offers a robust reading experience for EPUB and CHM eBooks. Organize your library, add bookmarks and notes, and customize your reading environment. Share passages and easily search within your books.
- Organize eBooks into collections
- Add bookmarks and notes
- Customizable fonts and line height
- Fast scrolling and pagination
- Highlight favorite passages
- Built-in search functionality
- Share quotes with friends
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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. Download free. Unlock multiple books with a single one-time purchase. 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. HONEST PRICING • Free download with complete reading features for your current book. • Unlock multiple books with a single one-time in-app purchase. • No subscriptions and no ads.
PureLibro
This app offers a comprehensive reading experience for various digital book and comic formats. It features AI-powered image enhancement, cloud synchronization, extensive customization options, and robust privacy controls. Enjoy hands-free reading and track your progress with detailed statistics.
- Supports TXT, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, CBZ, CBR and more
- AI-powered image enhancement for comics
- iCloud sync across devices
- Hands-free auto reading mode
- Extensive customization of fonts, layout, and appearance
- Advanced privacy features with password and Face ID
- Detailed reading statistics and library management
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PureLibro is a multi-format reader for novels, comics, PDFs, local files, and remote libraries. Feature Highlights. Everything is designed for better reading. 1. Rich format support: supports popular formats including TXT, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, AZW, CBZ, CBR, PDF, ZIP, and RAR (DRM-free files only). 2. Comic reader: supports ZIP, RAR, CBZ, and CBR comic archives. PDF, EPUB, and MOBI files can also be switched to comic mode with one tap, making it ideal for comics, art books, and image-rich content. 3. Remote library streaming reading (comic mode): supports remote libraries such as SMB, OPDS and WebDAV. On servers that support streaming access, ZIP, RAR, CBZ, CBR, and PDF files can be opened without fully downloading them first, saving local storage space. 4. AI-based image enhancement: supports Waifu2x / Anime4K to improve comic image quality (comic mode only). 5. iCloud sync: keeps reading progress and book data consistent across your devices. 6. Data backup: package your reading data with one tap and save it to cloud drives or other storage locations for extra peace of mind. 7. TXT file editing: edit TXT content directly for easier reading and organization. 8. Multiple import methods: import books via WebDAV, cloud drives, Wi-Fi transfer, iCloud, and more. 9. Auto reading: free your hands and make long reading sessions more comfortable. 10. Personalized layout: customize character spacing, paragraph layout, background images, and text colors to create your own reading style. 11. Eye-friendly reading: supports dark mode, page curl, slide, scrolling, and other reading modes, with Simplified/Traditional Chinese conversion. 12. Privacy protection: supports password, gesture, and Face ID unlock, and allows you to encrypt or hide books to protect your personal reading space. 13. Reading statistics: records reading duration, frequency, progress, and more to help you understand your reading habits. 14. Flexible book management: supports custom groups, title editing, and sorting for a clearer library. 15. Custom covers: customize covers for TXT and other books to make your bookshelf look better. 16. Automatic chapter detection: TXT novels can also be divided into chapters with one tap, improving the long-form reading experience. 17. Multiple font options: use system fonts or import custom fonts. 18. Multiple listening voices: supports system text-to-speech and Alibaba Cloud speech synthesis, with multiple voices to choose from. -- Pro benefits: After subscribing to Pro, you can use all Pro advanced features during the service period and remove all ads. -- Monthly subscription (1 month), quarterly subscription (3 months), and yearly subscription (1 year) are auto-renewable subscriptions. -- The actual product price applies. The purchase price will be charged in your local currency according to the current exchange rate defined by iTunes. Payment will be charged to your iTunes account upon confirmation of purchase. 【Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Auto-Renewable Subscription Services】 -- If you subscribe to the monthly, quarterly, or yearly auto-renewable service, you authorize Window Reading to charge your iTunes account (the “Account”) for the next billing cycle of the Pro service within 24 hours before the current subscription period expires. If the charge fails due to insufficient account balance, Window Reading reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Pro service without further notice. -- To cancel an active auto-renewable subscription, go to “Settings” on your iOS device → “iTunes Store & App Store” → select “Apple ID” → tap “View Apple ID” → tap “Subscriptions” on the account settings page → cancel the subscription. -- Privacy Policy: https://gitee.com/coder_to/luck/blob/master/App/Privacy.md -- Terms of Service and Auto-Renewal Terms: https://gitee.com/coder_to/luck/blob/master/App/serviceForMembers.md Icon Design Studying icons created by Freepik - Flaticon
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PureLibro at 4.6 against CHMate's 3.9. PureLibro also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 55%) and ratings volume (362 vs 20). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. CHMate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and PureLibro sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PureLibro holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PureLibro has 362 ratings behind it against 20, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 55% of CHMate's written reviews are positive against 77% of PureLibro's.
CHMate ships an update every 2 weeks, PureLibro every 10 days. Both last shipped on October 17, 2026.
| Parameter | CHMate | PureLibro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (20 ratings) | 4.6 (362 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 55.3% of reviews | 76.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 362 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | 贤安 陈 | 添欢 谢 |
Customer experience
CHMate
PureLibro
User reviews
CHMate
From 20 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Excellent UI/UX design and interface
- 📖 Best CHM file reader available
- ⚡ Fast and smooth performance
- 🎨 Customizable text formatting and fonts
- 🔍 Powerful search functionality
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- ⚠️ iCloud sync deletes files irreversibly
- 💰 Expensive pricing for functionality
- 🔄 Highlighting and annotations don't persist
- 📱 Compatibility issues with iOS updates
PureLibro
From 362 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent rendering and image quality
- 👍 Clean and intuitive user interface
- 🔒 Supports a variety of file formats
- 💡 Customizable reading experience
- 🚀 Fast and responsive app
Room to improve
- 🐛 Some issues with text formatting and italics
- 💡 Lack of multi-device sync and progress tracking
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or performance issues
- 💡 Limited font and theme customization options
- 🐛 Localization problems with menus and settings
Bugs and requests
CHMate
Reported bugs
13 issues- App crashes when searching CHM files
- Crashes when using tap-hold for bookmarking
- Highlighting functionality broken after iOS updates
- Notes and bookmarks not saving properly
- Highlights disappear or move between chapters
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- App crashes on startup or when opening files
- Table of contents index expansion broken
- Custom fonts blocked after iOS 14.5 update
- Files not accessible via iCloud or Dropbox
- Missing icons after updates
- Images display as half-dark or missing
- Text formatting changes not visible without page reload
- First line spacing issues
Requested features
12 requests- Dark mode and additional color themes (Sepia)
- Book cover display instead of text-only library view
- PDF support
- Text-to-speech functionality
- Better pagination options
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- iPad Pro resolution support
- iOS multi-window support
- Better bookmark functionality
- Separate highlighting and annotation tools
- Support for Cyrillic and Arabic text encoding
- Collection/folder organization for multiple files
- Zip file support for documentation sets
PureLibro
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inconsistent behavior when switching between reading modes
- Issues with loading and rendering large books or comics
- Problems with the reliability of the built-in web browser
- Bugs related to the iCloud sync and backup functionality
Requested features
7 requests- Add support for more text-to-speech options
- Implement bulk import and management of books
- Introduce multi-device sync and reading progress tracking
- Expand font and theme customization capabilities
- Improve localization and translation of the app
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Add support for OPDS and other external library sources
- Implement a more robust and user-friendly TXT file handling
In-app purchases
CHMate
- CHMate+$9.99
PureLibro
- 1 monthly subscription$0.991 Month
- 3 monthly subscription$1.993 Months
- yearly subscription$5.991 Year
- Pro Special Offer$12.99
- Unlock Pro Version$12.99
- Unlock Pro Version$19.99









