Thorium Reader vs Hoshi Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Thorium Reader
Organize all your ebooks, comics, and manga in a single app. Customize your reading experience with adjustable text, fonts, and themes. Listen to audiobooks and zoom into visual content with ease.
- Unified bookshelf for all content
- Adjustable text size and spacing
- Multiple font options
- Text-to-speech audio playback
- Zoom for comics and manga
- Offline dictionary and translation
- Import EPUB, PDF, CBZ files
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Looking for an app where you can bring all your ebooks, comics and manga in one place? That’s what we built Thorium Reader for. Read it your way Everyone’s different, that’s why we want you to be fully in control: • Adjust text size, switch between color schemes with themes and control spacing. • 10+ fonts available, including specialized ones. • You prefer audio? Listen to any ebook, whenever you want. We’ll remember your preference. • Zoom into comics, manga and magazines. • Add bookmarks with notes. • Use the built-in iOS dictionary and translation features, even offline. • Tweak your reading experience with reading options. Bring your own books A single bookshelf and reading application where you can bring all your content: • Download free books, borrow from your library or buy from your favorite retailer. • Support for ebooks, documents, comics and manga. • Import EPUB, PDF and CBZ files. • Support for Readium LCP, used by thousands of libraries and retailers. Thorium Reader is built by EDRLab, a non-profit dedicated to open standards, reading and accessibility.
Hoshi Reader
This app is a lightweight Japanese EPUB reader designed for immersion learning. It features a pop-up dictionary with deinflection and supports Anki integration for vocabulary mining. Organize your library with bookshelves and track your reading progress.
- Vertical and horizontal reading modes
- Yomitan-like pop-up dictionary
- Anki mining support
- Customizable Anki card format
- Reading statistics
- Bookshelves for library organization
- Customizable themes and fonts
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Hoshi Reader is a lightweight Japanese EPUB reader with a built-in pop-up dictionary and Anki mining support, made for immersion learning. Main Features: - Vertical (縦書き) and horizontal (横書き) reading modes - Yomitan-like pop-up dictionary with proper deinflection support - Support for all Yomitan term, frequency and pitch dictionaries - Dictionary audio support - AnkiMobile mining support - Fully configurable Anki card format, with most handlebars targeting Lapis implemented - Sasayaki (Audiobooks): Sync audiobooks to book text to read along - Reading statistics - ッツ Reader sync - Bookshelves to organize your library - Customizable theme, font and layout
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Hoshi Reader at 100% against Thorium Reader's 40%. Hoshi Reader also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.5) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Hoshi Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 23 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of Thorium Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of Hoshi Reader's.
Thorium Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, Hoshi Reader weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Thorium Reader | Hoshi Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (13 ratings) | 5.0 (23 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 40.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 13 | 23 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Readium | Manh-Hao Steffen Pham |
Customer experience
Thorium Reader
Hoshi Reader
In-app purchases
Thorium Reader
No in-app purchases
Hoshi Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Thorium Reader free?
Is Hoshi Reader free?
Which has better reviews, Thorium Reader or Hoshi Reader?
Do Thorium Reader or Hoshi Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Thorium Reader or Hoshi Reader?
Other comparisons
