Comparison

PinyinEPUBReader vs OpenRead

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

Head to head
About

PinyinEPUBReader

Features
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Pinyin EPUB Reader is an EPUB reader that can display Mandarin Pinyin and Cantonese (Yale) romanization directly above Chinese text in EPUB books. It is ideal for Chinese language learners, and of course it also supports reading EPUB books in other languages. Key Features β€’ EPUB format support β€’ Mandarin Pinyin / Cantonese (Yale) romanization display β€’ Toggle Pinyin on/off β€’ Adjustable text size and Pinyin size β€’ Customizable right margin β€’ Image, footnote, and table of contents support β€’ Optimized display for Chinese learning β€’ Supports non-Chinese EPUB books as well (Pinyin is applied only to Chinese EPUBs) Make your Chinese reading experience clearer and more enjoyable. Pinyin EPUB Reader brings learning and reading together.

About

OpenRead

Features
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OpenRead reads your own books aloud, on your device, with no account and no internet connection. Bring in a story as a text file, an EPUB, a PDF or a web page, pick a voice, and press play. Speech is generated on your iPhone while you listen β€” no sentence is ever uploaded, and once a voice pack is installed the app works in airplane mode. 31 LANGUAGES, SPOKEN ON YOUR DEVICE β€’ Enhanced Vietnamese: fourteen voices, seven female and seven male, with northern, central and southern accents, in three styles β€” Natural, News and Storytelling β€’ Enhanced multilingual: ten voices, five female and five male, for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Hindi, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian β€’ OpenRead recognises the language of each book and reads it in that language. If it guesses wrong, change it from the player β€’ Or use the iOS system voices already on your device β€” nothing to download, and OpenRead picks one in the book's language β€’ Each voice pack is a separate, one-time download READ ANYTHING YOU OWN β€’ Text files and text you simply paste in β€’ EPUB, with chapters picked up automatically β€’ PDF, reflowed into readable text instead of pinch-and-zoom pages β€’ Web pages, opened in the built-in browser and stripped down to the article There is no catalogue and no store inside OpenRead. It reads the files you bring it. Two public-domain tales come with the app, and three more β€” in French, Spanish and Japanese β€” appear once the multilingual pack is installed. FOLLOW ALONG, SENTENCE BY SENTENCE The sentence being spoken lights up as you read, and the page scrolls itself to keep it in view. Tap any line to send the voice there. BUILT FOR LONG LISTENING β€’ Keeps playing with the screen off, with lock-screen and Control Centre controls β€’ Speed from 0.5x to 2x, adjustable in the middle of a sentence β€’ Skip by chapter, jump back 15 seconds, or open the table of contents β€’ Sleep timer by minutes, or stop at the end of the chapter β€’ Your exact place is remembered in every book A READER YOU CAN SETTLE INTO β€’ Continuous scroll, or turn pages β€’ Four paper tones, four text sizes, light and dark β€’ Bookmarks with your own notes β€’ Groups, to keep a long series together β€’ The whole app in 31 languages, including right-to-left Arabic PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising identifier, no ads. Your books, bookmarks, notes, reading position and settings are stored only on your device. The only network requests OpenRead makes are ones you start yourself: downloading a voice pack, and opening a page in the built-in browser. OpenRead is free, and complete. The single in-app purchase is a tip β€” it unlocks nothing. The Vietnamese voices come from the VieNeu-TTS project by PhαΊ‘m Nguyα»…n Ngọc BαΊ£o (pnnbao-ump), licensed Apache-2.0. The multilingual voices come from Supertonic 3 by Supertone Inc., licensed under BigScience OpenRAIL-M; its use restrictions are shown before you download it. Full credits and licence texts are inside the app, under Settings β†’ Licences & credits, and at https://opr.vuba.one/credits.php Part of vuba.one. iPhone and iPad, iOS 16 or later.

Screenshots

PinyinEPUBReader4 screens
OpenRead4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PinyinEPUBReader at none against OpenRead's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. OpenRead sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PinyinEPUBReader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PinyinEPUBReader ships an update fortnightly, OpenRead every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Β· 5 level
PinyinEPUBReader versus OpenRead: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPinyinEPUBReaderOpenRead
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 weeks β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo β€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod β€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 β€” better16.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size14 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTARO TATSUMIVu Bach

In-app purchases

None

PinyinEPUBReader

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

OpenRead

One-time1
  • Buy Me a Coffee$0.99

Questions

Is PinyinEPUBReader free?
PinyinEPUBReader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is OpenRead free?
OpenRead is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PinyinEPUBReader or OpenRead have ads?
Neither PinyinEPUBReader nor OpenRead shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PinyinEPUBReader or OpenRead?
PinyinEPUBReader ships an update fortnightly, and OpenRead every 2 weeks. Most recently, PinyinEPUBReader was updated on October 6, 2026 and OpenRead on October 15, 2026.

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