Comparison

The Beyond vs Paperback Mobile

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

Head to head
About

The Beyond

Explore a cosmic adventure through romance, piracy, and death in this interactive comic. Make choices that shape your unique story, with hundreds of possible paths. Features full audio accessibility for an immersive experience.

Highlights
  • Interactive storytelling
  • Multiple branching paths
  • Cosmic adventure themes
  • Redesigned infinite scroll canvas
  • Full audio accessibility (VoiceOver)
Features
Read full description

THE BEYOND: an interactive comic by Jason Shiga Your death was a tragedy... your afterlife is a mystery. Unravel the secrets of death with the help of Xochitl, your guide. Can you find your way through the doors of the great library of the Beyond? THE BEYOND is not an ordinary comic. YOU make the choices that determine how the story unfolds. THE BEYOND splits off into hundreds of different adventures. - A cosmic adventure through romance, piracy, and death. - Completely redesigned by the author for an infinite scrollable canvas. - Full audio accessibility with VoiceOver; every panel and choice can be spoken.

About

Paperback Mobile

Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Paperback is a fast, fully accessible reader for ebooks, documents and audio books. It opens over twenty formats and speaks fifteen languages. Paperback has two ways to read a document. In text mode, you read the text with your screen reader. In read aloud mode, Paperback reads the text to you with the voice you pick in Settings, and keeps going in the background and from the lock screen. Switch between them from the More Options menu. Audio books, like DAISY, M4B, and MP3 books, play their own recording instead. The reading bar The bar at the bottom of the screen has, from left to right: • The navigation unit, such as paragraph, heading, page, or link. Swipe up or down on it to change it. • Previous, play, and next buttons. Previous and next move by the navigation unit. • The speech rate. Swipe up or down on it to change how fast Paperback reads. You can also swipe up or down on the play button to move by the navigation unit, without reaching for the previous and next buttons. If that is all you use, the Hide previous and next buttons setting takes them out of your screen reader’s way. The Swipe up moves forward setting picks which way a swipe goes. The More Options menu is where everything else lives. • Switch to TTS Mode or Switch to Text Mode: moves between read aloud mode and text mode, described above. In text mode, a Read Aloud item starts and pauses reading aloud without leaving text mode. • Table of Contents: the book’s chapters, opened at the one you’re reading. Pick one to go straight to it. Entries with chapters under them can be expanded and collapsed with VoiceOver actions. • Elements: a list of the document’s headings or links. Switch between the two with the Type picker, then pick one to go to it. • Find: type what to look for, or pick an earlier search from Search History, and choose whether to match case, match whole words only, or use a regular expression. Find Previous and Find Next jump to a match and say where it landed, and Find stays open so you can keep going. In read aloud mode, Find also shows up as a navigation unit on the reading bar, so you can step through the matches from there too. • Go To: jump to a line, a page, or a percentage through the document. Pick which with the Mode picker. • Recent Documents: every document you’ve opened, each marked as currently open, closed, or file missing. Each one has two VoiceOver actions: Remove takes it off the list, and Locate lets you find a document whose file has moved. Clear Recent Documents empties the list without deleting any documents. • Word Count: the number of words in the document. • Document Info: the title, the author, the file name, and the line and character counts. • Export: saves the document as plain text, HTML, or Markdown. • Sleep Timer: stops reading after 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, or a time of your own. Open it again while it’s running to see how long is left, or to cancel it. • Help: opens the readme. • Settings: ◦ Text to speech: the voice, speech rate, and pitch, a Play Sample button to hear them, and the pause between paragraphs. This is also where the speech dictionary is: rules that change how words are spoken, for every voice or just some. ◦ Readability: text size, line spacing, paragraph spacing, alignment, and high contrast text, as well as light and dark appearance. ◦ Behavior: whether to reopen your documents when the app starts, which way a swipe on the play button moves, and whether to hide the previous and next buttons.

Screenshots

The Beyond4 screens
Paperback Mobile4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: The Beyond at $3.99 against Paperback Mobile's $19.99. The Beyond also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0). Paperback Mobile's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 10 months) and chart position (#20 vs unranked). On ratings volume, ads, 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

The Beyond costs $3.99 and Paperback Mobile $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Beyond holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Beyond ships an update every 10 months, Paperback Mobile every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
The Beyond versus Paperback Mobile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe BeyondPaperback Mobile
Price$3.99 — better$19.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 10 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank—#20 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size73 MB14 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperZarfhome Software ConsultingTy Gillespie

Customer experience

The Beyond

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Paperback Mobile

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

The Beyond

No in-app purchases

None

Paperback Mobile

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Beyond free?
The Beyond costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Paperback Mobile free?
Paperback Mobile costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, The Beyond or Paperback Mobile?
The Beyond is rated higher. The Beyond averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Paperback Mobile averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do The Beyond or Paperback Mobile have ads?
Neither The Beyond nor Paperback Mobile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Beyond or Paperback Mobile?
The Beyond ships an update every 10 months, and Paperback Mobile every 9 days. Most recently, The Beyond was updated on November 12, 2026 and Paperback Mobile on November 13, 2026.

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