Comparison

CHMate 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

CHMate

Transform your personal ebook files into a comfortable reading experience with a customizable virtual bookshelf. Enjoy tailored typography, import your own fonts, and organize your collection with decorative elements and personal photos. Read EPUB and CHM files offline with powerful search and annotation tools.

Highlights
  • Customizable virtual bookshelf with ambient lighting
  • Decorate shelves with photos, videos, and ornaments
  • Tailored typography with adjustable fonts and page colors
  • Import custom font files
  • Read EPUB and CHM files offline
  • Full-text search and annotation tools
  • Local Wi-Fi file transfer
Features
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. 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.

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

CHMate4 screens
Books Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Books Reader at 4.7 against CHMate's 3.9. Books Reader also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). CHMate's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (55% vs 38%). On price, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. CHMate 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 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 22 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 55% of CHMate'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

CHMate ships an update every 2 weeks, Books Reader every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
CHMate versus Books Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCHMateBooks Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (20 ratings)4.7 (22 ratings) — better
Positive reviews55.3% of reviews — better37.5% of reviews
Number of ratings2022 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB59 MB
Age rating+44+
Developer贤安 陈Villow

Customer experience

CHMate

All ratings20 ratings
Positive70.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews197 reviews
Positive55.3%
Neutral12.7%
Negative32.0%

Books Reader

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

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 more
  • 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
Show 7 more
  • 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

Books Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

CHMate

One-time1
  • CHMate+$9.99
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 CHMate free?
CHMate 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, CHMate or Books Reader?
Books Reader is rated higher. CHMate averages 3.9 out of 5 from 20 ratings, while Books Reader averages 4.7 from 22 ratings.
Do CHMate or Books Reader have ads?
Neither CHMate nor Books Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CHMate or Books Reader?
CHMate ships an update every 2 weeks, and Books Reader every 3 months. Most recently, CHMate was updated on November 1, 2026 and Books Reader on October 24, 2026.

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