Comparison

LingRoll vs Afterglow

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

Head to head
About

LingRoll

This app offers a comprehensive reading and listening experience for e-books. It supports various file formats, provides high-quality text-to-speech synthesis with customizable playback, and features advanced customization for the reading interface. Manage your library efficiently with powerful file management tools.

Highlights
  • Supports TXT, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, PDF formats
  • High-quality TTS with Azure/Edge/Mimo engines
  • Customizable reading interface and themes
  • Advanced file management and import options
  • Background playback and widget support
  • Note-taking and bookmarking
  • Reading statistics and habit tracking
Features
Read full description

LingRoll brings reading and listening together with flexible ebook layouts, rich TTS tools, and practical file management. Core Features • Format support: TXT, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, PDF • Smart listening: System TTS, Azure/Edge TTS, and MiMo TTS • Professional layout: Fully customizable reading interface • File management: Folder-based library, sorting, search, and recent imports • Statistics: Track reading and listening habits • WebDAV: Reading progress sync and remote files Detailed Features 1. File Support • Supports TXT, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, PDF. DRM-protected files are not supported • Auto-detects text encoding and supports manual encoding selection • Extracts encrypted or unencrypted RAR, ZIP, and 7Z archives • PDF text extraction and OCR for scanned documents • Import via iTunes File Sharing, iCloud Drive, or WiFi transfer 2. Listening • Built-in iOS TTS voices • Azure/Edge TTS and MiMo TTS neural voices • Natural language recognition with voice matching for Azure/Edge TTS • Narration and dialogue detection with separate voices • TTS text replacement for pronunciation, terms, and symbols • Long-paragraph optimization for smoother playback • Auto skip trailing silence • Custom background music, speed, pitch, and volume • Sleep timer • Listen while reading, scroll freely, or follow the playing paragraph • Home screen display during background playback • Progress styles: highlight, underline, line-by-line highlight, sentence underline • Headphone controls and custom lock screen display • Pre-download full-book audio • Offline TTS audio duration statistics 3. Reading • System fonts and custom font installation • Adjustable spacing, margins, first-line indent, hanging indent, and more • Custom background image with optional scroll-follow effect • Custom themes with RGBA colors • Chinese conversion between Simplified, Traditional, Hong Kong Traditional, and Taiwan Traditional • Tencent Translation API support • Auto scroll/auto page turn with adjustable speed • Auto reading modes: pixel scroll, line-by-line display, sentence underline • TOC parsing for TXT, EPUB, MOBI, and AZW3 • Original annotation display for EPUB/MOBI/AZW3 • Portrait and landscape layouts, rotation controls, and a page-curl option 4. Bookmarks and Notes • Categorized bookmarks • Notes with underline, wavy line, dashed line, double strikethrough, redaction line, border, and background color • Custom color for each note • Tap bookmarks or notes to jump • Export notes as Markdown or TXT 5. File Management • Real folder-based book management • Sort by name, size, date, type, or reading duration • Pin files and set folders to top, bottom, or hidden • Read covers from EPUB/MOBI/AZW3, or update via web search/photos • Rename files using built-in book titles • Search files, folders, and full text while reading • Recent imports for quick access • Browse WebDAV folders; upload from your library or iCloud; download to a chosen folder • Batch download/delete, rename, and move remote items 6. Format Conversion • Convert EPUB/MOBI/AZW3/PDF to TXT • Convert TXT to EPUB • Supports Chinese conversion and encoding selection • Preserves original TOC structure 7. Statistics • Daily reading/listening duration • Reading heatmap • Book progress • Offline TTS audio duration 8. Security • Password and Touch ID/Face ID protection 9. Migration and Sync • Export/import reading history and personal settings • Export single or multiple themes • Add multiple WebDAV accounts and choose the active account • Sync the latest 100 reading records; choose a sync frequency or manual sync • Prompt to jump to a newer reading position from another device • Reading sync excludes books; transfer them with WebDAV file management

About

Afterglow

Experience ebooks with a personalized ambiance. This reader intelligently creates unique themes from book cover art, offering a clean interface with customizable typography and layout for comfortable reading.

Highlights
  • Ebook reading interface
  • Cover Tone themes
  • Custom ambiance per book
  • Typography controls
  • Layout controls
  • Light and dark modes
Features
Read full description

A beautiful way to read ebooks. With Afterglow, give each book it's own ambience with Cover Tone themes, intelligently created from the book's cover art. Key features • Ebook reading with a clean, focused interface • Custom ambience for each book • Typography and layout controls for comfort and style • Light and dark reading options

Screenshots

LingRoll4 screens
Afterglow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Afterglow at Free against LingRoll's $4.99. LingRoll's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.4). On rating, 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

Afterglow is free to download; LingRoll costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for LingRoll against 5.0 for Afterglow. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LingRoll ships an update weekly, Afterglow every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
LingRoll versus Afterglow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLingRollAfterglow
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews86.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYipeng HuangMohammad Qureshi

Customer experience

LingRoll

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive86.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative9.1%

Afterglow

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

In-app purchases

None

LingRoll

No in-app purchases

None

Afterglow

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LingRoll free?
LingRoll costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Afterglow free?
Afterglow is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, LingRoll or Afterglow?
LingRoll and Afterglow are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do LingRoll or Afterglow have ads?
Neither LingRoll nor Afterglow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LingRoll or Afterglow?
LingRoll ships an update weekly, and Afterglow every 6 days. Most recently, LingRoll was updated on October 25, 2026 and Afterglow on October 24, 2026.

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