Comparison

BookShelves eBook Reader vs ContinuousReader

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

Head to head
About

BookShelves eBook Reader

This app allows you to read EPUB, PDF, and comic books with access to over 1.5 million free public domain books. Organize your library, customize your reading experience with multiple themes and fonts, and sync your progress across devices.

Highlights
  • 1.5 million+ free books
  • EPUB, PDF, and comic reader
  • Customizable themes and fonts
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • Smart library management
  • Highlighting and note-taking
  • Export highlights
Features
Read full description

BookShelves is an EPUB, PDF, and comic book reader with a built-in catalog of 1.5 million free books. Discover public domain classics, organize your digital library, and sync seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iCloud (Pro). WHAT READERS SAY "Phenomenal book reading and management app, 'just works'." "My everlasting search for the perfect ePub reader might be coming to an end." "Among the best and actively developed." DISCOVER 1.5 MILLION+ FREE BOOKS • 1.5 million+ classic works — Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, more • 1,100+ premium editions from Standard Ebooks • Internet Archive — millions of historical texts and rare books • 1,200+ Spanish classics from the Biblioteca Nacional de España • 16,000+ Japanese classics from Aozora Bunko • Browse OPDS catalogs from external libraries and servers One tap to download. No account required. POWERFUL READING EXPERIENCE • Paginated or continuous scroll — read your way • 10 themes including Sepia, Dark Academia, Night Sky, and more • 10 bundled fonts including OpenDyslexic for accessible reading • Adjustable line spacing, margins, text justification, and font weight • Highlight in 5 colors and add notes to any passage • Export highlights to Markdown, JSON, or CSV • Dictionary look-up with language detection • Full-text search across chapters • Nested table of contents navigation • Bookmarks (iCloud sync with Pro) • Vertical text (tategaki) for Japanese and CJK books • Right-to-left reading for Arabic, Hebrew, and CJK texts • Full keyboard and trackpad support • Multi-window reading on Mac COMIC BOOKS AND MANGA • CBZ, CBR, and CB7 format support • Two-page spreads for landscape reading • Right-to-left mode for manga with reversed tap zones and swipes • Auto-detected from metadata or toggled manually SEAMLESS ICLOUD SYNC (Pro) • Books and cover images • Reading progress and current page • Shelves, tags, and ratings • Highlights, notes, and bookmarks • Reader preferences (font, theme, layout) Start reading on your iPhone, continue on your iPad, finish on your Mac. SMART LIBRARY MANAGEMENT • Edit metadata -- title, author, series, publisher, ISBN, and cover image • Automatic metadata and cover art fetching • System shelves: All Books, Recently Added, Reading, Finished, Favorites • Custom shelves for any collection • Color-coded tags for categorization • Search and filter by title, author, or tag • Grid and list views • 5-star ratings • Drag-and-drop import, Files app sharing, or OPDS catalogs • EPUB repair — auto-fixes broken navigation and missing metadata • Import from Calibre libraries with best-format selection FORMAT SUPPORT • EPUB — professional rendering with beautiful typography • PDF — native viewer with smooth scrolling and search • CBZ / CBR / CB7 — comic book archives • FB2 — FictionBook 2 format (auto-converts to EPUB) • MOBI / AZW3 / KF8 / KEPUB — auto-converts to EPUB for reading • TXT / Markdown — plain text and Markdown files (auto-converts to EPUB) MAC EXTRAS • Calibre wireless sync — connect KOReader or other devices over Wi-Fi • OPDS server — share your library on your local network PRIVACY FIRST • Your data stays on your devices • No personal data collected • No ads — clean, distraction-free reading • iCloud keeps your library private and secure FREE AND PRO Free: 10 books with all reading features. Pro unlocks unlimited books, iCloud sync, email to Kindle/Kobo/reMarkable, highlight export, and OPDS server. Pro is available as a one-time purchase or subscription (monthly/annual, select regions). Subscriptions auto-renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage subscriptions in Apple ID account settings. Privacy Policy: https://getbookshelves.app/privacy/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms of Service: https://getbookshelves.app/terms/ All books from discovery sources are public domain or openly licensed.

About

ContinuousReader

Currently charting
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, HTML, TXT, RTF, DOC/DOCX (Mac), and their ZIP variants — with chapter extraction, footnotes, encoding detection, and embedded images. 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

BookShelves eBook Reader4 screens
ContinuousReader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: BookShelves eBook Reader at Free against ContinuousReader's $19.99. ContinuousReader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and chart position (#115 vs unranked). 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

BookShelves eBook Reader is free to download; ContinuousReader costs $19.99 up front. BookShelves eBook Reader sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. ContinuousReader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BookShelves eBook Reader ships an update weekly, ContinuousReader every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
BookShelves eBook Reader versus ContinuousReader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookShelves eBook ReaderContinuousReader
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating3.9 (15 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews69.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings15 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank—#115 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.417.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCPE Verm. GmbHOleksii Koshkin

In-app purchases

4 purchases

BookShelves eBook Reader

One-time4
  • Small Tip$2.99
  • Medium Tip$3.99
  • Large Tip$8.99
Show 1 more
  • Unlock Pro$9.99
None

ContinuousReader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BookShelves eBook Reader free?
BookShelves eBook Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ContinuousReader free?
ContinuousReader costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do BookShelves eBook Reader or ContinuousReader have ads?
Neither BookShelves eBook Reader nor ContinuousReader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BookShelves eBook Reader or ContinuousReader?
BookShelves eBook Reader ships an update weekly, and ContinuousReader every 10 days. Most recently, BookShelves eBook Reader was updated on September 29, 2026 and ContinuousReader on September 19, 2026.

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