Flash Reader vs FocalRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Flash Reader
Enhance your reading speed and comprehension with this app. It presents text one word at a time, in chunks, or as a traditional reader, allowing you to adjust speed and track progress. Supports various file types and offers a free tier with an optional Pro upgrade.
- Word-by-word reading mode
- Chunk reading mode
- Traditional reader mode
- Adjustable reading speed
- Supports PDFs, EPUBs, Word files
- Camera scanning for text
- Siri integration
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Flash Reader is back, and better than ever. It read you one word at a time years before that was a trend. On the App Store since 2010, rebuilt from scratch for version 4, and everything happens on your device. Paste it, share it from any app, open a PDF, EPUB or Word file, or point the camera at a page, and you're reading. Every document keeps your place, and a widget, Control Center or Siri takes you straight back in. THREE WAYS TO READ • Flash: one word, one spot, and the pages fly. One letter in red holds your eye. • Chunk: a few words at a time, for when you would rather stroll. • Reader: the whole text, for a look back. Tap to pause. Play picks the sentence back up, so you never lose the thread. SPEED, WITH RECEIPTS Understanding holds to about 350 words a minute, then it slips. Flash Reader starts you at 250, the ruler shows which zone you are in, and your real speed counts the pauses too. Go faster whenever you like; the ruler tells you what it costs. Little words pass quickly, long or rare ones get a beat more, and a full stop gets its pause. Rest breaks when you want them. READ ANYTHING, START ANYWHERE • Copy anything, anywhere. Tap the clipboard chip, or the button in Control Center, and it flashes. • Share text, a web page or a link from any app: articles, mail, messages, notes. • Open PDF, EPUB, Word and text files from the Files app. • Point the camera at a page, or pick a photo or a screenshot. The text is read on your device. • Drop in a link and get the article, with none of the clutter around it. • Say "Flash my clipboard" or "Resume reading" and Siri does the rest. • Every document keeps its place, its mode and its speed. • Search, sort and rename. Deleted documents wait in Recently deleted. BACK IN ONE TAP Continue Reading and Streak widgets for the Home and Lock Screens. Flash clipboard and Resume reading in Control Center. Stats keep words read today, your streak and your real speed, pauses and all. ROOM TO READ Four themes (Paper, Ink, Sepia and High Contrast), a choice of fonts, an adjustable word size, and reading in landscape. On iPad, the library sits beside the reading view and a keyboard drives both. Designed for iPhone Duo: open it and the page unfolds beside the words. The whole app speaks 50 languages. FREE AND PRO Free to start. Text you paste, copy or share reads free, forever, at full quality: every mode, every speed, every theme, links, TXT and Markdown files, and three documents on the shelf at a time. Pro opens PDF, EPUB, Word, RTF and HTML files, scans and photos, and an unlimited shelf. One purchase covers iPhone and iPad, and your library and your place travel between them through your own iCloud. Choose Pro by the year with a 14-day free trial, by the month, or pay once and keep it. Annual and monthly Pro renew automatically until cancelled in your Apple Account settings, at least 24 hours before the period ends. No account. No ads. No analytics and no tracking. COMING BACK? Your books, your speed and your bookmark come along from the old version. If you bought Pro inside Flash Reader before, it is still yours: Restore purchases in Settings brings it back on any device. If you bought the separate Flash Reader Pro app, write to us and we will sort it out. More formats and modes are coming as free updates. Flash Reader 4 needs iOS 26 or later. On an older iPhone or iPad, the App Store keeps offering the last version that runs there. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://flashreaderapp.com/privacy Questions: support@flashreaderapp.com
FocalRead
Boost your reading speed with this app that uses RSVP to display words one at a time. Import various document types and web articles to finish content in a fraction of the time. Organize your library, track progress, and customize your reading experience.
- Speed reading with RSVP
- Import PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DOCX, AZW3
- Read web articles
- Organize content in a library
- Track reading progress
- Customizable reading speed and font
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Stop wasting time reading slowly. FocalRead is a speed reading app and a full eBook + document reader. Import your files or articles from the web and save them to your Library, and read them with RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation) to finish books, documents and web content in a fraction of the time. Supports PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DOCX, and AZW3 files (non-DRM only). THE PROBLEM WITH TRADITIONAL READING When you read normally, your eyes constantly move across lines, jump between words, and sometimes go back to re-read. That eye movement wastes time and causes fatigue. The average person reads around 200 WPM, but you can go much faster with the right technique. HOW FOCALREAD WORKS FocalRead displays one word at a time in a fixed position. Your eyes stay focused on a single point while words flow to you. No scanning. No constant eye movement. Just focused reading. Normal reading: ~200 WPM With FocalRead: 300 to 600+ WPM Advanced readers: up to 900 WPM That’s up to 3x faster than traditional reading. REAL TIME SAVINGS A typical 90,000-word book takes 7.5 hours at normal speed. At 600 WPM, you can finish in about 2.5 hours. That’s 5 hours saved on a single book. IMPORT AND READ YOUR FILES Use FocalRead as your daily reader. Import and keep everything inside the app: PDF documents EPUB eBooks* MOBI books* TXT files DOCX documents AZW3 files* *only if they are not DRM-protected You can also paste text from anywhere or read articles from the web. A READER BUILT FOR ORGANIZATION Save all books and documents to your Library Rename and organize your content Track progress and pick up where you left off Chapter navigation for EPUB books Reading history and sessions CUSTOMIZE YOUR READING EXPERIENCE Adjust speed from 100 to 1000+ WPM Choose standard, lowercase, or UPPERCASE text Select your preferred font style Smooth progress tracking while you read PERFECT FOR Students reading textbooks and study materials Professionals reviewing reports and documents Book lovers who want to read more Anyone who wants more learning in less time Start reading faster today with FocalRead. Terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: FocalRead at 4.6 against Flash Reader's 4.2. FocalRead also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 6 weeks) and review sentiment (67% vs 49%). 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
Both are free to download. Flash Reader sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and FocalRead sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
FocalRead holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 163 and 98 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 49% of Flash Reader's written reviews are positive against 67% of FocalRead's.
Flash Reader ships an update every 6 weeks, FocalRead every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Flash Reader | FocalRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (163 ratings) | 4.6 (98 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 49.3% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 163 — better | 98 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 8 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 |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Didstopia | ANDRES FELIPE SARRAZOLA VELEZ |
Customer experience
Flash Reader
FocalRead
Bugs and requests
Flash Reader
Reported bugs
5 issues- Login screen freezes
- Incompatible with older devices
- Crashes when switching modes
- Loses reading progress
- Inaccurate resume times
Requested features
10 requests- Fancy text like newer video captions
- Bookmarks and navigation
- Support for Google Drive
- Quick rewind option
- Table of contents
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- Search option
- Ability to go backward/forward
- Choose page to go to
- Dark mode
- Advanced analytics dashboard
FocalRead
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Flash Reader
- Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Pro Annual14 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Flash Reader Pro$0.99
- Flash Reader Pro2 variants$1.99
- Flash Reader Pro$2.99
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- Flash Reader Pro$3.99
- Flash Reader Pro$4.99
- Pro Lifetime$39.99
- Pro Lifetime$79.99
FocalRead
- Pro Version (Weekly)$6.997 Days
- Unlimited Weekly$6.997 Days
- Unlimited Monthly$9.991 Month
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- Unlimited Monthly$12.991 Month
- Unlimited Annual3 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Unlimited Annual Plan3 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Unlimited Annual3 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Pro Version (Annual)3 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Unlimited Annual Plan3 Days trial$39.991 Year









