MackinVIA vs Comics Plus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MackinVIA
Access your school's digital library, including eBooks and audiobooks. This reader app provides instant access to your checked-out materials, notes, and favorites, with powerful tools for annotation and offline reading.
- Offline access to downloaded resources
- Bookmarking and note-taking
- Highlighting and search within books
- Customizable text and audio controls
- Integrated dictionary and citation tools
- Table of Contents and page view options
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Explore your school’s eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital resources with the MackinVIA Reader, an easy-to-use app that’s fully integrated with your MackinVIA Backpack. The MackinVIA Reader gives you instant access to your favorites, checkouts, and notes, and you’re always one tap away from searching your school’s MackinVIA for more titles. Features include: -Bookmarks -Note-taking -Highlighting -Search within the book -Citations -Merriam-Webster™ dictionary -Customizable text size and font -Text-to-speech -Audio controls -Table of Contents -Single or dual page view -Download resources for offline access To get started, simply enter your school’s name along with your MackinVIA Backpack username and password.
Comics Plus
Access thousands of digital comics, graphic novels, manga, and picture books from numerous publishers. Enjoy unlimited reading without wait lists or late fees, and manage your progress across devices. Stream titles online or download them for offline enjoyment.
- Unlimited digital comic access
- No wait lists or borrowing limits
- Cross-device reading progress
- Online streaming and offline downloads
- Diverse publisher selection
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Comics Plus from LibraryPass gives you unlimited access to thousands of digital comics, graphic novels, manga, and picture books from dozens of publishers — exclusively through your school or library. Don’t see your school or library listed? Ask your librarian about #ReadAllTheComics! No wait lists; no borrowing limits; no late fees Manage your shelf and reading progress across devices Maintain your reading progress across devices Stream titles online without using storage space Download titles for offline reading Explore a diverse selection from publishers like ABDO, Andrews McMeel, BOOM! Studios, Capstone, Cherry Lake, Dark Horse, Europe Comics, Fantagraphics, Humanoids, Image Comics, Kodansha, Lerner, Manga Classics, Oni Press, Papercutz, Tokyopop, TOON Books, UDON Entertainment, Yen Press, and dozens more. Comics Plus is created by Joyful Reading Co, where we're dedicated to nurturing a lifelong love of reading through engagement, access, and data-driven insights. Learn more at https://comicsplusapp.com/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MackinVIA at 3.4 against Comics Plus's 2.5. MackinVIA also leads on review sentiment (56% vs 21%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MackinVIA holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 156 and 102 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 56% of MackinVIA's written reviews are positive against 21% of Comics Plus's.
MackinVIA ships an update every 3 months, Comics Plus every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MackinVIA | Comics Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (156 ratings) — better | 2.5 (102 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 56.3% of reviews — better | 20.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 156 — better | 102 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 706 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Mackin Book Company | Library Pass, Inc. |
Customer experience
MackinVIA
Comics Plus
User reviews
MackinVIA
From 156 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Good for audiobooks
- 👍 Useful for school
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Great for teachers and students
- 👍 Good selection of books
Room to improve
- 🐛 Login issues
- 🐛 App crashes
- 🐛 Slow loading times
- 🐛 Content not accessible on multiple devices
- 🐛 Inconsistent performance
Comics Plus
From 102 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📚 Massive collection of comics and manga
- 💰 Free access with library card
- ✅ Legal and legitimate reading platform
- 🎨 Wide variety of publishers and genres
- 📖 Ability to store unlimited books on shelf
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and force quits
- ⏳ Extremely slow loading times
- 🔍 Search function broken or non-functional
- 📖 Pages fail to load or display correctly
- ⚫ Black screen issues when opening books
Bugs and requests
MackinVIA
Reported bugs
20 issues- Not logging in
- Sent back to App Store during sign-in
- App not loading
- School not appearing in sign-in options
- App immediately says user doesn't have it after getting off
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Cannot download update from iTunes
- App gets stuck opening to a white screen
- Cannot access downloaded books on other devices
- Keeps signing out
- App crashes before sign-in window on older iPads
- Audio freezes, glitches, or bugs out
- Audio skips around and freezes
- App crashes when trying to read a book
- Cannot get into a book due to 'on another device' error
- Resource downloaded to another device error
- App crashes after latest update
- Downloaded books cannot be opened (corrupted file)
- Active session error prevents usage
- Newest update has made the app glitchy
- Login doesn't work after logging in from school
Requested features
10 requests- Add more book series
- Add graphic novels/manga
- Make books unlimited
- Add voiceover support
- Improve turning pages motion
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Improve font adjustment
- Add a section to see checked-out books
- Improve advanced search functionality
- Allow bookmarks to stay in place
- Fix issues with downloaded books on multiple devices
Comics Plus
Reported bugs
25 issues- Login screen stuck on library selection
- Search returns blank page with no loading indicator
- Shelf fails to load
- Pages crop off at bottom
- Black screen when opening downloaded books
Show 20 moreShow fewer
- App crashes when opening new comics
- Pages display out of sync in horizontal mode
- Duplicate pages appearing consecutively
- Pages loop back to beginning after certain number
- Thumbnail not showing for resume position
- Dialog boxes cut off or positioned incorrectly
- App forgets reading position when resuming
- Vertical view does not work
- iCloud backup size inflates dramatically
- Screen goes black periodically during reading
- Network error despite active connection
- Download progress bar hangs
- Orientation change causes reading position reset
- App switches to different manga unexpectedly
- Popular page items don't load or unavailable
- Shelf deletion when launching from cloud library
- Zoom functionality unresponsive
- Page turning causes visual flash and blur
- Inconsistent page display in 2-page mode
- Home bar overlay obscures content on iPad
Requested features
18 requests- Favorites/bookmarking system with notifications
- Auto-download while using other apps
- Auto-mark books as finished
- Better search with pagination and page jumping
- Dark mode option
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- Right-to-left reading for manga
- Folder organization for shelf
- Reading history tracking
- Series completion indicators
- Next book in series recommendations
- Auto zoom feature for reading
- Smooth page transition animations
- Ability to manually move books to completion status
- App status/server status page
- Better content filtering and sorting options
- Rating system for comics
- Chapter bookmarks
- Customizable reading settings
In-app purchases
MackinVIA
No in-app purchases
Comics Plus
No in-app purchases
