Comparison

Readest vs Beresta

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

Beresta

Currently charting
Read full description

Beresta keeps what you read and what you took from it: books, articles, highlights — and the notes they turn into. BOOKS STAY FILES Opens EPUB, FB2, PDF, MOBI and plain text. Importing copies: the file you brought stays where it was. Any book comes back out as a file under its real name through Share; on the Mac, "Save a copy of the library…" lays the whole library out as Author/Title folders. A book may hold several files at once — the reader picks the one that reads best, and you can pick another by hand. HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU A quote, your own thought beside it, tags, bookmarks. On iPad, ink over PDF pages with Apple Pencil. All of it exports into an Obsidian vault as ordinary Markdown files rather than "our format": a person edits the note, not the program, and the next export will not overwrite what you wrote. There is a separate Obsidian plugin, open source. SYNC WITHOUT SOMEONE ELSE'S SERVER Beresta has no server of its own and no account. Devices exchange through a place you choose. To Backblaze B2 and WebDAV everything travels sealed: the key is derived from your passphrase on the device itself and stays with you. Through a folder — your own, a shared one, or one inside iCloud Drive — the files travel as they are: there the storage protects them, not Beresta, so pick a folder you trust. A LIBRARY, NOT A FILE LIST Authors, series, tags, nested shelves. Search by title and author everywhere; search inside the book you are reading, too; full-text search across the whole library on the Mac. Reading statuses and a reading log. On the Mac, import from Calibre brings covers and your own highlights along, and import from Zotero brings articles and notes. ARTICLES FROM THE WEB RSS subscriptions deliver articles straight into the library and store them the way books are stored: text, images and the original source. On the Mac a page can be clipped with the Safari extension — it ships inside the app, nothing to install. ON ALL YOUR DEVICES One purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad. Widgets: continue reading, and quote of the day. A nearby device offers to continue the book you started; if that is too much, one switch in settings turns it off. WHAT BERESTA DOES NOT DO No account. No analytics, no telemetry, and nothing leaves your device on its own. If something goes wrong, "Diagnostics" in Settings builds a report, shows it to you in full before anything is sent, and you decide whether to send it at all. No ads. It does not decide for you where your books live. Keeping your own files is not about distrusting clouds. It is about libraries taking years to build, and apps living shorter lives than that. A year of updates is included. After that you can extend for new features — or stay with what you bought: the app keeps working.

Screenshots

Readest4 screens
Beresta4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Readest at Free against Beresta's $19.99. Readest also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). Beresta's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). On ads, in-app purchases, chart position 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

Readest is free to download; Beresta costs $19.99 up front. Readest sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Beresta sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Readest ships an update fortnightly, Beresta every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Readest versus Beresta: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadestBeresta
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating4.5 (197 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings197 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#195#76 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size58 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBilingify LLCDmitriy Laukhin

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
5 purchases

Beresta

One-time5
  • Supporter$5.99
  • Updates for 12 months$9.99
  • Updates after a break$14.99
Show 2 more
  • Believer$24.99
  • Evangelist$59.99

Questions

Is Readest free?
Readest is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Beresta free?
Beresta costs $19.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Do Readest or Beresta have ads?
Neither Readest nor Beresta shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Readest or Beresta?
Readest ships an update fortnightly, and Beresta every 2 days. Most recently, Readest was updated on October 30, 2026 and Beresta on October 31, 2026.
Which is more popular, Readest or Beresta?
Readest currently peaks at #195 in the App Store charts, and Beresta at #76. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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