PageWave vs BeyondRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PageWave
Organize and enjoy your personal audiobook and eBook collection with a clean, modern interface. Track reading progress, set daily goals, and access your library across Apple devices via iCloud or your own WebDAV server.
- Import audiobooks and eBooks
- Organize library with series view
- Track listening/reading progress
- Personal Reading List
- Bookmarks with notes
- Daily reading goals
- iCloud and WebDAV sync
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PageWave – where books belong. PageWave brings order, clarity, and joy to your book collection. Import your own audiobooks and eBooks, organize them at a glance, and enjoy them in a clean, elegant design. PageWave is made for people who like to own their content but still want a modern app experience. Your library and progress sync automatically across your Apple devices via iCloud — start on your iPhone and pick up seamlessly on your iPad, no manual transfer required. Or store your library on your own WebDAV server (NAS, Nextcloud, etc.). Features • Import your own audiobooks (MP3, M4B, M4A, WAV, FLAC, and more) and eBooks (EPUB, PDF) • Organized library with a book series view • Powerful search – finds chapter titles, descriptions, and other metadata • Listening and reading progress automatically saved for each book • Personal reading list – plan what to read next • Bookmarks with notes and colors for audiobooks and eBooks • Text search within the eBook reader – search by chapter or the entire book • Companion PDFs for audiobooks – booklets, sheet music, or scripts right alongside the book • Widgets for Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Mac – includes playback controls directly in the widget • Siri & Shortcuts: start books and entire series via voice, control playback, check daily goals • Daily reading goal with reminders and a confetti celebration upon completion • Detailed reading statistics – updated in real-time, featuring streaks and reading trends • PageWave Rewind: your reading year presented as an animated "Stories" slideshow • Chapter and track navigation, adjustable playback speed • Sleep timer with fixed times, custom duration, or "until end of chapter" • Magic Metadata: relevant book info automatically added during import • PageWave on Apple Watch: access the first three audiobooks on your reading list right on your wrist • iCloud synchronization for your library, progress, and settings • WebDAV support for personal servers – NAS, Nextcloud, etc. • Automatic cover art extraction from file metadata (ID3, MP4 atoms, EPUB) or via JPEG/PNG • Optional metadata import via JSON file (title, author, series, etc.) • Available in German, English, French, and Italian Activation To unlock the full feature set, a purchase is required — available as a one-time in-app purchase or a subscription. Audiobooks and eBooks themselves cannot be purchased or subscribed to within the app. Privacy PageWave does not process personal data beyond what's needed for the app to function. That data stays local on your device or — if enabled — in your iCloud account or on your own WebDAV server. PageWave has no backend of its own. The books shown in the screenshots are sample content and are not part of the app. End User License Agreement (EULA) https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy https://pyritapps.ch/en/privacy-policy-en/ Support https://pyritapps.ch/en/support-en/
BeyondRead
This app is an EPUB and PDF reader that includes a library of over 20,000 public-domain classics. It offers AI-powered features to explain, translate, or discuss any sentence within a book, and can generate concise AI Digests of entire books. All reading data is stored locally for enhanced privacy.
- AI sentence explanation, translation, and chat
- AI book digests
- Library of 20,000+ public-domain classics
- EPUB, PDF, and MOBI support
- Local-first data storage
- Customizable reading experience
- Quote card creation and sharing
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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 more than 20,000 public-domain classics. 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) • More than 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 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, reading positions and AI history live only on your device; our server stores no book content • AI can be switched off entirely, and then nothing leaves 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: 10 AI chats every month, plus 3 AI Digests to keep • Subscriptions raise your monthly chat and digest allowance. They renew automatically, are charged to your Apple ID and can be cancelled at any time in Settings; prices are shown in the app • AI Top-Up packs (new): buy chats and digests without subscribing. Credits never expire and are only used after your monthly allowance runs out 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 rating: BeyondRead at 5.0 against PageWave's 2.0. BeyondRead also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). PageWave's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, 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
Both are free to download. PageWave sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and BeyondRead sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BeyondRead holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
PageWave ships an update weekly, BeyondRead every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PageWave | BeyondRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Lars Arnet | 章 刘 |
Customer experience
PageWave
BeyondRead
In-app purchases
PageWave
- PageWave Month1 Month trial$0.991 Month
- PageWave Year1 Month trial$9.991 Year
- PageWave Lifetime$59.99
BeyondRead
- Plus Monthly$0.991 Month
- Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Max Monthly$8.991 Month
- AI Top-Up · Small$0.99
- AI Top-Up · Medium$2.99
- AI Top-Up · Large$4.99








