Comparison

Furigana Reader vs Offline Note

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

Head to head
About

Furigana Reader

This app automatically adds furigana (ruby annotations) to Japanese websites, providing instant readings for kanji. It offers a reader mode, dictionary lookup, and customizable display options to enhance your Japanese browsing experience.

Highlights
  • Automatic furigana annotations
  • Reader mode for distraction-free articles
  • In-page dictionary lookup
  • Built-in ad and tracker blocker
  • Customizable ruby text appearance
  • Romaji support (Hepburn/Wapuro)
  • Share and action extensions
Features
Read full description

Furigana Reader adds furigana (ruby annotations) to any Japanese website automatically, helping you read kanji you don't know yet. FEATURES - Automatic Furigana: Browse any website and get instant hiragana or romaji readings above kanji - Reader Mode: View articles in a clean, distraction-free layout with furigana - Dictionary Lookup: Tap any annotated word in reader mode to look up its definition - Ad Blocker: Built-in ad and tracker blocking for a cleaner browsing experience - Customizable: Adjust ruby text size, color, and opacity to your preference - Romaji Support: Choose between Hepburn and Wapuro romanization styles - Share Extension: Open pages from Safari or any browser via the share sheet - Action Extension: Quick-open the current page with furigana from Safari's toolbar - Dark Mode: Full support for light and dark appearances HOW IT WORKS Furigana Reader accurately analyzes Japanese text and generates readings in real time. The engine handles complex cases including counters, dates, and special number readings. PERFECT FOR - Japanese language learners at any level - Reading news, blogs, and articles in Japanese - Anyone who encounters unfamiliar kanji while browsing

About

Offline Note

Features
Read full description

In an era where everything is in the cloud, we are completely returning your privacy to you. "Offline Voice to Text" is an AI voice memo app that runs entirely locally on your iPhone. Whether you are recording highly confidential business negotiations, in-depth journalist interviews, or private inspiration diaries, all your audio and text will never leave your phone. ■ Core Features • Powered by Whisper AI: Integrates the advanced Whisper large speech model, putting a smart stenographer right inside your phone. Accurate recognition, smart sentence segmentation, and automatic punctuation. • Supports 100+ Languages: Natively supports accurate recognition and transcription of over 100 major and minor languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and German, easily handling multinational meetings and foreign language learning. • Intuitive Calendar View Management: Say goodbye to cluttered file lists. All recordings are automatically archived by date. Through an elegant calendar interface, you can easily trace back every important meeting and flash of inspiration from any month or year, just like flipping through a diary. • True Offline Capability: No internet connection is required. Even in the extreme state of removing your SIM card and turning on Airplane Mode, it still provides you with 100% complete transcription services. • Exclusive NAS Private Cloud Backup: We understand the pain points of geeks and business professionals. The App natively supports the local network SMB protocol, allowing you to back up massive audio and text files directly to your NAS (like Synology, QNAP, etc.) with one click. Reject cloud drive kidnappings and achieve a perfect data closed-loop. • Versatile Export Formats: Record anytime, anywhere, and supports running in the background. After transcription, you can not only export as plain text (TXT) for meeting minutes but also natively export as standard subtitle files (SRT, VTT). This perfectly preserves timeline information and seamlessly integrates with various video editing software, greatly enhancing creators' efficiency. ■ Flexible Pricing Options Why do most transcription apps on the market charge exorbitant "cloud service fees"? Because they have to pay for cloud server costs. However, we solely utilize your phone's own chip processing power for transcription. We offer flexible unlocking options: you can choose a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase for unlimited usage. No hidden costs; the processing power is yours, and so is your data. ■ Frequently Asked Questions Q: Does the transcription process secretly upload my data? A: Absolutely not. We have not deployed any servers to receive your recordings; the app runs entirely within a local sandbox. As developers, we know absolutely nothing about the content of your recordings. Q: Why don't you support AI automatic summarization? A: At this stage, high-quality AI summarization must rely on cloud-based large model APIs (which means your text must be uploaded to a third party). To uphold our absolute bottom line of "Absolute Privacy," we would rather forgo this gimmick. You can export your safe, plain text and decide how to process it yourself. Q: Is there a recording time limit? A: No limits at all! As long as your phone has enough storage space, you can record hours of meetings continuously. After recording, just let your phone process for a while, and the complete transcript will be automatically generated. Q: Are there device requirements? A: Because AI processing demands high hardware performance, we recommend using an iPhone 12 (A14 chip) or newer for the smoothest transcription experience. ■ Privacy & Legal Privacy Policy: https://speech.chaoxitime.workers.dev Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ ■ Contact Us If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at: speech@chaoxishiguang.com

Screenshots

Furigana Reader4 screens
Offline Note4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Offline Note at none against Furigana Reader's shown. Offline Note also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Furigana Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Offline Note sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Furigana Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, Offline Note every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 5 level
Furigana Reader versus Offline Note: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFurigana ReaderOffline Note
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB632 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperAkitoWuxi Chaoxi Shiguang Technology Co., Ltd.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Furigana Reader

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.99
3 purchases

Offline Note

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Pro$7.99

Questions

Is Furigana Reader free?
Furigana Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Offline Note free?
Offline Note is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Furigana Reader or Offline Note have ads?
Furigana Reader shows ads; Offline Note does not.
Which is updated more often, Furigana Reader or Offline Note?
Furigana Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, and Offline Note every 3 days. Most recently, Furigana Reader was updated on October 24, 2026 and Offline Note on October 24, 2026.

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