Comparison

Readwise Books vs EPUB Reader

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

Head to head
About

Readwise Books

This reading app allows you to buy, read, and track all your books in one place. It automatically logs your reading sessions and provides detailed metrics to help you improve. Share your reading progress with friends in a low-pressure feed.

Highlights
  • Centralized book library
  • Automatic reading session logging
  • Detailed reading metrics
  • Print book tracking
  • Highlighting and note-taking
  • Optional social feed
  • EPUB audio playback
Currently charting
Read full description

Readwise Books is invite-only for now. You'll need an invite code from a friend to create an account. (If you're an existing Readwise subscriber, you already have early access.) A reading app unlike any other. Buy, read, and track all your books in one beautiful place. ONE PLACE FOR EVERY BOOK Read the ebooks you buy or upload. Track the rest, whether print, audio, or ebooks from elsewhere. Import your shelves from Goodreads and your Kindle library to start. THE STRAVA OF READING Every page flip is logged automatically, the way a pedometer counts steps. Pages roll up into reading sessions. Sessions roll up into weeks, months, and years. METRICS THAT MATTER Visualize rich reading data like words read, time read, pace, depth, immersion, and more. That which is measured is improved. EVERY BOOK COUNTS Reading on paper? Capture your starting and ending page, then save your session. Highlight print books with your camera. READING, ELEVATED Beautiful typography, light and dark modes, pagination or scroll, and best-in-class highlighting, notes, and tags. READING ALONE IS BETTER, TOGETHER Your sessions post to a light feed where friends can see that you're reading. No likes to chase, nothing to perform. More coffee shop than social network. And only if you want to. LISTEN, TOO Upload any DRM-free EPUB and listen with lifelike voices while the text follows along. READWISE ECOSYSTEM One account across Readwise Books, Reader, and Highlights. Every highlight syncs instantly.

About

EPUB Reader

This app offers a versatile reading experience for various digital formats, including EPUB, PDF, comics, and audiobooks. It provides extensive customization options for typography, color themes, and reader controls, ensuring a personalized and comfortable reading environment. The app also supports seamless library management and synchronization across devices.

Highlights
  • Supports EPUB, PDF, CBZ, CBR, and audiobooks
  • Customizable typography and color themes
  • Read aloud functionality with offline neural voices
  • Syncs reading position with e-readers
  • Organized library with instant search and metadata detection
  • Highlighting, note-taking, and export options
  • Reading statistics and progress tracking
Features
Read full description

EPUB, PDF, comics, and audiobooks in one native iOS reader. Fast, deeply customizable, and built to disappear so you can simply read. FOUR FORMATS, ONE SHELF Read EPUB 3 and PDF. Read CBZ and CBR comics and manga, with two-page spreads, double-tap zoom, and a reading direction you set per book. Listen to audiobooks with chapters, a sleep timer, Car Mode, and CarPlay. Or follow along with EPUB 3 narration, where the text highlights in time with the voice. READ ALOUD Any book can be read to you, by any Apple voice on your device or by natural neural voices in 31 languages that you download once and then run offline. The sentence highlights as it is spoken and the pages turn on their own, with speed presets, sentence skips, a sleep timer, and Lock Screen controls. Prepare a book in advance and keep listening with the screen off. TYPOGRAPHY YOU CONTROL 200+ fonts, or import your own. Tune size, weight, line and paragraph spacing, alignment, hyphenation, and separate margins for portrait and landscape. Save settings per book so a novel, a textbook, and poetry each look right. Build your own color themes and let them switch at sunset. Choose which buttons the reader toolbar shows and where a tap opens it, and give links their own color and style. Smart dark mode keeps images natural, and in-reader brightness, Line Focus, and eye-care break reminders protect your eyes. NO LOCK-IN, EVER Your books stay ordinary files in an ordinary folder, never a proprietary database. Point JustRead at any folder: on device, iCloud Drive, or one your cloud app syncs through Files. Import from a Calibre server or any OPDS catalog. Email a book to your Kindle or PocketBook. IN SYNC WITH YOUR E-READER Your reading position follows you to any e-reader running KOReader, a Kobo included, in both directions. Connect a self-hosted Grimmory server to browse and download its books, send books to it, and keep status, ratings, highlights, notes, and bookmarks in step both ways. A LIBRARY THAT SCALES Thousands of books with no lag, and a book opens in about a second. Instant search by title, author, or series. Automatic metadata and series detection, 11 sort modes, saved filters, collections, and tags. Edit any book's details by hand, description included. Spotlight opens any book from your home screen. HIGHLIGHTS, NOTES, BOOKMARKS Highlight, underline, and attach a note. Browse every highlight across your whole library in one place, share a quote as a card, or export to Markdown, PDF, or Readwise. YOUR READING, IN NUMBERS Daily goals, a yearly books goal, streaks, and milestone badges. An hourly heatmap shows when you read best. Monthly and yearly recaps, plus a story-style Reading Wrap that turns your year into cards worth sharing. AND THE REST Home screen and lock screen widgets. Dictionary and translation. Full-text search and a nested table of contents. iCloud sync, so you resume on the exact line on any device. Right-to-left and Japanese vertical text. A page curl, if you want one. Free for 14 days, then a subscription or a lifetime purchase, both with Family Sharing. Available in 21 languages. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://justread.app/en/privacy_policy

Screenshots

Readwise Books4 screens
EPUB Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Readwise Books at none against EPUB Reader's 3. Readwise Books also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 82%). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. EPUB Reader sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Readwise Books asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Readwise Books holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 64 and 55 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Readwise Books's written reviews are positive against 82% of EPUB Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Readwise Books ships an update every 3 days, EPUB Reader every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Readwise Books versus EPUB Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadwise BooksEPUB Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (64 ratings) — better4.6 (55 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better82.2% of reviews
Number of ratings64 — better55
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
Best chart rank#81 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size134 MB213 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperReadwise, IncPETR JAHODA

Customer experience

Readwise Books

All ratings64 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews26 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

EPUB Reader

All ratings55 ratings
Positive89.1%
Neutral5.5%
Negative5.5%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive82.2%
Neutral8.9%
Negative8.9%

In-app purchases

None

Readwise Books

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

EPUB Reader

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$79.99

Questions

Is Readwise Books free?
Readwise Books is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is EPUB Reader free?
EPUB Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Readwise Books or EPUB Reader?
Readwise Books is rated higher. Readwise Books averages 5.0 out of 5 from 64 ratings, while EPUB Reader averages 4.6 from 55 ratings.
Do Readwise Books or EPUB Reader have ads?
Neither Readwise Books nor EPUB Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Readwise Books or EPUB Reader?
Readwise Books ships an update every 3 days, and EPUB Reader every 5 days. Most recently, Readwise Books was updated on October 30, 2026 and EPUB Reader on October 31, 2026.

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