Passage vs BeyondRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Passage
This app helps you read books with friends and family. You can import your library, set goals, and get recommendations. Share notes, progress, and discuss themes with your reading companions.
- Import and manage your book library
- Set personal reading goals
- Receive personalized book recommendations
- Invite friends or book clubs to read together
- Share notes, progress, and recommendations
- Explore book themes and discuss findings
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1. Start a reading team with friends or family members for a book you want to read together. Share notes and progress as you make your way through the book. 2. Use Passage tools to explore major themes that you and your teammates uncover. Schedule get-togethers in person or online to discuss further. 3. Import your current library or start a new one to keep track of all your reading. Receive new book recommendations for you and your teams.
BeyondRead
This app offers a local-first reading experience for your EPUB, PDF, and MOBI files, featuring a vast library of public-domain classics. It integrates AI for explanations, translations, and summaries, and includes lifelike text-to-speech functionality.
- Read EPUB, PDF, MOBI files
- AI explanations and translations
- AI book digests
- Text-to-speech with lifelike voices
- 20,000+ public-domain classics
- Sync reading and listening
- Bookmark and quote saving
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BeyondRead is a local-first ebook reader for your own EPUB, PDF and MOBI files, now with a built-in library of nearly 20,000 public-domain classics. Listen to any book in a lifelike voice, and keep reading from the exact sentence where listening stopped. Select any sentence and ask AI to explain it, translate it, or keep the conversation going in the context of the book. AI Digest turns a whole book into an article you can read in a few minutes. BROWSE (NEW) • Nearly 20,000 public-domain classics in over 40 languages, free to download and keep • Shelves of great books, browsing by language and genre, and a "Surprise Me" pick • Search by title, author or subject, with several words in any order LISTEN (NEW) • Tap the headphones: the free System Voice reads any book on your device and highlights the sentence being read • Premium Voice: a lifelike female or male voice in 10 languages. Try 5 minutes of any book first • Reading and listening stay in sync: turn pages freely, then jump back to where it is reading or start from the page you are on • Say "Hey Reader" while listening to stop and ask about the book; the answer is read aloud • Speed from 0.5x to 2x, sleep timer, lock-screen controls; what you have heard stays on the device for offline listening, and the whole book can be downloaded • Premium Voice sends the text being read to our narration provider to generate the audio; the text is not stored READ • EPUB, PDF and MOBI (MOBI is converted to EPUB on import), on iPhone and iPad • Full-page bookmarks with notes; every book reopens where you left off • Quote cards in three styles: save them to Photos or share them • In-book search, table of contents, adjustable font size and background • Reading, bookmarks, quotes and search need no account ASK AI ABOUT ANY SENTENCE • Translate, Explain and Chat, with as many follow-up questions as you like • Only the passage you select and about 300 characters around it are sent, never the whole book • Translation, explanation and chat on the same passage merge into one highlight you can reopen AI DIGEST • Built from the title, the author, the real table of contents extracted on your device, and roughly the first 200 characters of each chapter • The full text is never uploaded; scanned PDFs and DRM-protected books cannot be digested • You are notified when a digest is ready PRIVACY • Books, bookmarks, quotes and reading positions stay only on your device; when you ask AI, what you send and the answers are kept encrypted on our server for up to 3 months (see the Privacy Policy) • AI can be switched off entirely; then what you read stays on the device PLANS • Reading is free, and so is the public-domain library • AI features require signing in (Sign in with Apple) • AI translation is free and does not use your allowance (a fair-use monthly limit applies) • Free plan: 30 AI chats and 3 AI Digests every month • Pro: 15 hours of Premium Voice every month for any supported book, with no per-book purchase, plus 300 AI chats and 30 AI Digests a month, 10 times the free plan. Monthly or yearly; the yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Pro renews automatically, is charged to your Apple ID and can be cancelled at any time in Settings; prices are shown in the app • Premium Voice can also be bought for a single book in one voice, sized to the book's length (5 to 200 hours). It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription LANGUAGES • Interface in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German and Russian • The AI reply language can be set separately Questions or suggestions? Use "Report a Problem" in the app or visit the support page. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ BeyondRead Terms of Use: https://beyondread.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://beyondread.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Passage at none against BeyondRead's 10. Passage also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. BeyondRead sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Passage asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Passage against 5.0 for BeyondRead. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Passage ships an update every 3 days, BeyondRead every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Passage | BeyondRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Reilly Milton | 章 刘 |
Customer experience
Passage
BeyondRead
In-app purchases
Passage
No in-app purchases
BeyondRead
- Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Plus Yearly7 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Premium Voice · 5 hours$2.99
- AI Top-Up · Large$4.99
- Premium Voice · 15 hours$6.99
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- Premium Voice · 25 hours$13.99
- Premium Voice · 50 hours$27.99
- Premium Voice · 100 hours$54.99
- Premium Voice · 200 hours$109.99








