Immersion Reader vs MaruMori
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Immersion Reader
Easily look up Japanese words while reading ebooks with a single tap. Import custom dictionaries and export saved vocabulary for spaced repetition learning. Offers customizable themes for a comfortable reading experience.
- One-tap word lookup in Japanese ebooks
- Import Yomichan and frequency dictionaries
- Export vocabulary to Anki
- Light and dark mode themes
- Lookup neighboring words
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Look up Japanese words as you read! Features - One tap to look up words in Japanese Ebooks. Tabs to help you look up neighboring words - Import Yomichan dictionaries and frequency dictionaries - Export saved vocabulary to Anki via Anki Dojo - Light mode, dark mode, and other themes for the dictionary
MaruMori
Embark on a Japanese learning adventure with comprehensive grammar lessons, reading exercises, and minigames. Master kanji and vocabulary through spaced repetition and custom study lists, all crafted by human experts.
- In-depth grammar lessons (N5-N1)
- Engaging reading exercises
- Minigames for learning
- Spaced Repetition System (SRS) for kanji/vocabulary
- 2000 kanji and 8000 vocabulary
- Custom study lists
- Human-created content
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Learn Japanese with MaruMori, the most complete, comprehensive and fun(!) package around! Go on an adventure with Maru and learn via in-depth grammar lessons for every level (N5-N1), engaging reading exercises, minigames and more! While adventuring you will also learn and review (SRS) all the kanji and vocabulary you need (2000 kanji and 8000 vocabulary) to be a Japanese expert, and why stop there? On MaruMori, learn any kanji or vocabulary by adding them from our built-in dictionary to your own custom study lists! We are also proud to say that there is NO AI involved in the creation of any of our content. All artwork, lessons and other content has been written by a very passionate team of humans over the course of many years, and is being improved non-stop through community feedback.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: MaruMori at 5.0 against Immersion Reader's 4.0. MaruMori also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 62%) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Immersion Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs every 5 weeks) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Immersion Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. MaruMori asks for nothing beyond the download.
MaruMori holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of Immersion Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of MaruMori's.
Immersion Reader ships an update every 6 days, MaruMori every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Immersion Reader | MaruMori |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (27 ratings) | 5.0 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 61.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 27 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 134 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mathew Chan | Lucien Bos |
Customer experience
Immersion Reader
MaruMori
In-app purchases
Immersion Reader
- Immersion Reader Premium$4.99
MaruMori
No in-app purchases
