Comparison

Readest vs ContinuousReader

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

Head to head
About

Readest

This app is a powerful ebook reader designed for deep thinkers and researchers. It offers advanced annotation tools, seamless device syncing, and robust library management with OPDS and Calibre support. Enjoy a distraction-free reading experience with customizable modes and multi-book viewing for enhanced study and analysis.

Highlights
  • OPDS Online Libraries
  • Calibre Integration
  • Sync Across Devices
  • Bookshelf Management
  • Customizable Reading Modes
  • Multi-Book View
  • Advanced Annotations & Highlights
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Readest is an ebook reader for people who read a lot, and who want their books, notes and reading position on whatever device is nearest. Open EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, CBZ, TXT and Markdown in one library. Pull books from OPDS catalogs or from your own Calibre server. Read, annotate, listen, translate. Made for iPhone and iPad • CarPlay, so you can keep listening on the road with playback controls on the dashboard • Download read-aloud voices per book and listen with no connection at all • Add books from Files, Mail or any share sheet, and read them in place instead of copying them into a second library • Open up to four books at once on iPad and arrange them how you like Reading • Paginated or scrolling, with custom fonts, themes, spacing and margins • Vertical text for CJK books • Contrast and refresh tuned for e-ink screens • Full-text search inside a book Your library • Browse, search and download from OPDS catalogs and public libraries • Connect to Calibre or Calibre-Web, covers and metadata included • Organize with bookshelf groups you can rename Notes • Highlights, bookmarks and structured notes • Copy a highlight together with a deep link back to the passage • Export your annotations Listening and languages • Text-to-speech with downloadable offline voices • Translate a sentence, a page, or an entire book • Wikipedia and dictionary lookup without leaving the page Sync • Readest Cloud, or bring your own: iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive, WebDAV, S3 • KOReader sync keeps your progress in step with your e-reader • iPhone, iPad, Mac, all other platforms and the web Readest is open source. Support: support@readest.com Privacy Policy: https://readest.com/privacy-policy Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

ContinuousReader

Read full description

ContinuousReader is a native reading app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone, built around one idea: your reading position should follow you. Close a book on your Mac at midnight; open it on your iPhone in the morning — same book, same paragraph. YOUR PLACE, EVERYWHERE Reading positions, bookmarks, notes, and library metadata sync over iCloud across every Apple device on the same Apple ID — down to the exact paragraph. Book files sync through iCloud Drive. No account, no server but Apple's own. Each device keeps its own font, size, and theme. OPENS WHAT YOU HAVE EPUB, FB2, MOBI, AZW3, PDF, Markdown, HTML, TXT, RTF and DOC/DOCX (on the Mac), including inside ZIP and RAR archives. Chapters, footnotes and pictures come through, and the app works out the encoding by itself. Manga and comics in CBZ and CBR open as two-page spreads, and Japanese manga reads right to left. Chinese and Japanese books open too, old encodings like GB18030 and Shift_JIS included. Furigana sits above the kanji. A READING EXPERIENCE YOU CONTROL Nine typefaces and 41 themes across five palettes, plus Typewriter and Terminal. Continuous scroll, paged, or two-page spread. Real hyphenation in Latin, Cyrillic, CJK, Arabic, and Greek. Read Aloud with word-by-word highlighting. On-device translation — nothing leaves your device. Reading statistics with shareable reports. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY Nested folders, color tags, genres, seven-color bookmarks with notes, three view modes, and OPDS catalogs (Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, or your own). PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No analytics, no telemetry, no tracking, no ads. Your books are plain files in a folder you can copy anywhere. One-time purchase. Universal Purchase across Mac, iPad, and iPhone — buy once, read everywhere. Family Sharing supported.

Screenshots

Readest4 screens
ContinuousReader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Readest at Free against ContinuousReader's $19.99. Readest also leads on chart position (#174 vs unranked). ContinuousReader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Readest is free to download; ContinuousReader costs $19.99 up front. Readest sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. ContinuousReader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Readest versus ContinuousReader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadestContinuousReader
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating4.5 (197 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings197 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#174 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size58 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBilingify LLCOleksii Koshkin

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Readest

Subscriptions4
  • Subscribe to Plus Plan$4.991 Month
  • Subscribe to Pro Plan$9.991 Month
  • Subscribe to Plus Plan$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Subscribe to Pro Plan$99.991 Year
One-time5
  • 1 GB$9.99
  • 2 GB$14.99
  • Full Customization$19.99
Show 2 more
  • 5 GB$29.99
  • 10 GB$49.99
None

ContinuousReader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Readest free?
Readest is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ContinuousReader free?
ContinuousReader costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Readest or ContinuousReader have ads?
Neither Readest nor ContinuousReader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Readest or ContinuousReader?
Readest ships an update fortnightly, and ContinuousReader fortnightly. Most recently, Readest was updated on October 30, 2026 and ContinuousReader on October 31, 2026.

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