Lex Reader vs leaf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lex Reader
This app offers a versatile reading experience for books and audiobooks with customizable modes, extensive library access, and social features. It allows users to import their own content, sync progress across devices, and discover new reads through personalized recommendations and curated shelves.
- Customizable reading modes (scroll, paginated, blitz, bilingual)
- EPUB, PDF, and MP3 reader/player
- Text-to-audio synchronization
- Ambient audiobook listening with custom sounds
- Extensive library search and personalized recommendations
- Import reading data from Goodreads/Storygraph
- Create and share custom book shelves
- Sync reading progress across devices
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READ BOOKS THE WAY YOU WANT TO - Dark mode (EPUB) reader with scroll, paginated, blitz, and bilingual modes - PDF reader with bookmark & search functionality (OCR) - Fully customizable font styles, sizes, etc. - Make highlights, notes, etc. - Automatically sync progress across devices KICK BACK WITH AMBIENT AUDIOBOOKS - 30,000+ human & AI-narrated audiobooks - Text-to-audio synchronization (read along) - Multiple narrators options (solo, dramatic & group readings) - Ambient mode (choose between different ambient sounds) - Adjust playback speed (0.5x - 3x) and set sleep timer BUILD THE LIBRARY OF YOUR DREAMS - Lightning fast search across 6,000,000+ books (search title, author, genre, subject) - Import reading data from Goodreads, Storygraph, or a generic CSV file - Personalized home page (browse audiobook narrators, quotes, opening lines, illustrations) - Browse hundreds of curated bookshelves - Create and share your own shelves - Upload your own books/audiobooks (EPUB, PDF, MP3) with automatic metadata enrichment (cover, (cover, title, author, publication date) SOCIAL FEATURES - Activity feed displaying other users’ books, shelves, highlights & notes - Add collaborators to help build shelves - Invite 3 friends for 1 month of Lex Premium - Track reading progress, streaks, etc. SYNC EVERYWHERE Your reading activity syncs across devices. Start a book on your laptop, pick it up on your phone, and switch from the book to the audiobook whenever you please. INCLUDED FOR FREE: - 6,000,000+ books & 30,000+ audiobooks - Ambient audiobook listening - Text-to-audio synchronization - Paginated and Scroll reading modes - Upload your own books (EPUB and PDF) - Personalized book recommendations - Create, share, and save shelves, highlights, notes - Follow and connect with other users FOR POWER USERS (PREMIUM): - Lex AI: ask about any book, get better recommendations, and have it take app-specific actions on your behalf - Offline mode: download books/audiobooks to read anywhere (no internet required) - Higher upload limits: extra space for EPUBs, PDFs, and MP3s - Bilingual mode: get in-page translations to your preferred language (21 languages available) - Blitz mode: word-level / sentence-level Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (200-750 WPM) - PDF to EPUB conversion: turn PDFs into proper Ebooks - Verified badge: profile checkmark PERFECT FOR - Bookworms - Classical literature lovers - History buffs - Autodidacts - High school / college students - Book clubs SUBSCRIPTION INFO - Lex Premium (Monthly): $9.99/month - Free Trial - Lex Premium (Yearly): $95.90/year ($7.99/month) - Free Trial Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account. Subscription automatically renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage subscriptions in your Apple ID Account Settings. Terms of Service: https://lex-books.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://lex-books.com/privacy Support: https://lex-books.com/support Lex is built by book lovers, for book lovers. We believe reading should be accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere. And we’re just getting started.
leaf
This app offers a natural reading experience with customizable scrolling and page-turning options. Access thousands of free ebooks or import your own EPUB and PDF files. Organize your library, take notes, and create a personal reading journal.
- Vertical and horizontal scrolling
- Import EPUB and PDF files
- Access Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks
- Bookmarks, highlights, and notes
- Exportable Reading Journal
- Library organization with shelves
- iCloud syncing
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Scroll naturally. Read deeply. leaf is a reading app built for your phone. Read on your own, or let leaf read to you. Read with a natural vertical scroll, or turn pages with a page curl when you want a more traditional feel. leaf flows through your book the way your thumb already moves. When your attention keeps sliding off the page, tap play. leaf sets a gentle pace and lights up each line as you go. Turn on the voice and it reads the page aloud while you follow along, or lock your phone and keep listening. Narration uses the voices built into your iPhone, so it's free and unlimited, works offline, and your books never leave your phone. Browse and download over 70,000 free books from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks: classic literature, philosophy, fiction, and more. Import your own EPUB, PDF, and Markdown files too. No reading streaks. No goals. No ads. No noise. Just you and the book. READ ALONG AND NARRATION - Tap play and leaf sets the pace, lighting each line as you read - Turn on the voice and leaf reads the page aloud as the highlight follows - Free and unlimited: no hours to count, no account to make - Runs on your iPhone, works offline, and never uploads your books - Keeps reading with the screen locked. Pause, play, or skip back 15 seconds from the lock screen or your headphones - Picks a voice in your book's language. Apple's Enhanced and Premium voices are a free download and sound the most natural - Change the speed any time, pause with a tap, or step back a sentence - Works with every reading flow (not yet with PDFs) READER - Three reading flows: Page Curl, Slide, or Continuous scroll - Vertical or horizontal page turns - Light, Dark, System, and E-Ink themes - Bookmarks, highlights, and notes - Multi-paragraph highlighting and sharing - Search within any book - Typefaces including Classic, Modern, Lexend, and Atkinson Hyperlegible - Adjust font size, spacing, and text density - Set a reading intention for each book - An exportable Reading Journal is created automatically when you highlight text or write a note PDFs - Read PDFs with the same reading flows as books - Pages follow your theme automatically, in light or dark - Columns are detected and shown one at a time, so the text is bigger and you never scroll sideways to read a line LIBRARY - Organise books into shelves, grouped into sections you can collapse - Filter by shelf, intention, or reading status - Sort by title, author, last opened, or shelf - View books as Grid or List - Search your entire library - Drop supported book files into the leaf folder and they'll appear in your library automatically - Use iCloud to share books between devices - Continue reading from your current book with the Home Screen widget FREE BOOKS - Browse and download from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks - Over 70,000 free classic and public domain titles - The Call of the Wild is included, so you can start reading straight away - Import your own EPUB, PDF, and Markdown files - Supports multiple file and folder import LEAF PRO - Six more themes: Sepia, Ivory, Mist, Forest, Midnight, and Amber Night - Design up to six custom themes of your own - Three more typefaces (Literata, Spectral, and Merriweather) or import your own - Line, paragraph, and letter spacing - Sync your library across devices - Sync reading progress, highlights, notes, bookmarks, shelves, and Reading Journal entries Privacy Policy: https://readleaf.co/legal Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lex Reader at 100% against leaf's 33%. Lex Reader also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.8) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). 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. Lex Reader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and leaf sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Lex Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Lex Reader's written reviews are positive against 33% of leaf's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on October 7, 2026.
| Parameter | Lex Reader | leaf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (12 ratings) — better | 3.8 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 33.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LexBooks, Inc. | Abraham Jesri |
Customer experience
Lex Reader
leaf
In-app purchases
Lex Reader
- Lex Premium7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Lex Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
leaf
- Leaf Pro7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Leaf Pro7 Days trial$12.991 Year









