CHMate vs Bluefire Reader
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.
Bluefire Reader
This application allows users to read EPUB and PDF ebooks on their iPhone or iPad. It supports Adobe® Content Server protected content from various retailers, publishers, and libraries, offering features like bookmarking, notes, and search for a customized reading experience.
- Read EPUB and PDF ebooks
- Supports Adobe Content Server protected content
- Bookmarking and notes
- Search functionality
- Customizable reading experience
- Collections management
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Bluefire Reader is the best way to read Adobe® Content Server protected ebooks on your iPhone or iPad. With Bluefire Reader you can read EPUB and PDF ebooks from many retailers, publishers and libraries. This full featured ereader app includes bookmarking, notes, search, collections, batch import and export, and settings for fully customizing your reading experience Bookstores, libraries and schools around the world tap Bluefire to design and develop their mission critical apps. Try Bluefire Reader today and see why.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: CHMate at Free against Bluefire Reader's $4.99. CHMate also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Bluefire Reader's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 3.9) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On review sentiment, 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
CHMate is free to download; Bluefire Reader costs $4.99 up front. CHMate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Bluefire Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Bluefire Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bluefire Reader has 4.1K ratings behind it against 20, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 55% and 55% positive.
CHMate ships an update every 2 weeks, Bluefire Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CHMate | Bluefire Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 3.9 (20 ratings) | 4.6 (4.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 55.3% of reviews | 55.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 | 4.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #65 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 贤安 陈 | Bluefire Productions |
Customer experience
CHMate
Bluefire Reader
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
Bluefire Reader
From 4.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💻 Excellent ePub reader
- 🌙 Useful night mode
- 📚 Organizes library well
- 🎨 Customizable font and layout
- 🔍 Convenient search and navigation
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 📍 Loses page position when reopening
- 🔍 Inconsistent search and bookmark behavior
- 🔧 Outdated and lacking updates
- 🔒 Adobe DRM integration issues
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
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- 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
Bluefire Reader
Reported bugs
4 issues- Incompatible with latest iOS versions
- Blank pages when opening some books
- Incorrect page numbering and navigation
- Unreliable bookmarking and note-taking
Requested features
5 requests- Sync reading progress across devices
- Improved highlighting and annotation tools
- Vertical scrolling option
- Customizable highlight colors
- Integrated dictionary/reference lookup
In-app purchases
CHMate
- CHMate+$9.99
Bluefire Reader
No in-app purchases
