Comparison

EPUB Reader vs Leaf

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

Head to head
About

EPUB Reader

Customize your reading experience with extensive font and layout options. Effortlessly manage your library, track reading habits, and enjoy eye-care features. Sync your books across devices via cloud storage without proprietary lock-in.

Highlights
  • 200+ built-in fonts and custom font import
  • Adjustable text and layout settings
  • Smart dark mode with intelligent image inversion
  • 20-20-20 eye health reminders
  • Library management for 5,000+ books
  • Cloud sync via iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive
  • Highlighting, notes, and bookmarking
  • Reading progress tracking and goal setting
Features
Read full description

EPUB, PDF, comics, and audiobooks in one native iOS reader. Fast, deeply customizable, and built to disappear so you can simply read. FOUR FORMATS, ONE SHELF Read EPUB 3 and PDF. Read CBZ and CBR comics and manga, with two-page spreads, double-tap zoom, and a reading direction you set per book. Listen to audiobooks with chapters, a sleep timer, Car Mode, and CarPlay. Or follow along with EPUB 3 narration, where the text highlights in time with the voice. READ ALOUD Any book can be read to you, by any Apple voice on your device or by natural neural voices in 31 languages that you download once and then run offline. The sentence highlights as it is spoken and the pages turn on their own, with speed presets, sentence skips, a sleep timer, and Lock Screen controls. Prepare a book in advance and keep listening with the screen off. TYPOGRAPHY YOU CONTROL 200+ fonts, or import your own. Tune size, weight, line and paragraph spacing, alignment, hyphenation, and separate margins for portrait and landscape. Save settings per book so a novel, a textbook, and poetry each look right. Build your own color themes and let them switch at sunset. Choose which buttons the reader toolbar shows and where a tap opens it, and give links their own color and style. Smart dark mode keeps images natural, and in-reader brightness, Line Focus, and eye-care break reminders protect your eyes. NO LOCK-IN, EVER Your books stay ordinary files in an ordinary folder, never a proprietary database. Point justread at any folder: on device, iCloud Drive, or one your cloud app syncs through Files. Import from a Calibre server or any OPDS catalog. Email a book to your Kindle or PocketBook. IN SYNC WITH YOUR E-READER Your reading position follows you to any e-reader running KOReader, a Kobo included, in both directions. Connect a self-hosted Grimmory server to browse and download its books, send books to it, and keep status, ratings, highlights, notes, and bookmarks in step both ways. A LIBRARY THAT SCALES Thousands of books with no lag, and a book opens in about a second. Instant search by title, author, or series. Automatic metadata and series detection, 11 sort modes, saved filters, collections, and tags. Edit any book's details by hand, description included. Spotlight opens any book from your home screen. HIGHLIGHTS, NOTES, BOOKMARKS Highlight, underline, and attach a note. Browse every highlight across your whole library in one place, share a quote as a card, or export to Markdown, PDF, or Readwise. YOUR READING, IN NUMBERS Daily goals, a yearly books goal, streaks, and milestone badges. An hourly heatmap shows when you read best. Monthly and yearly recaps, plus a story-style Reading Wrap that turns your year into cards worth sharing. AND THE REST Home screen and lock screen widgets. Dictionary and translation. Full-text search and a nested table of contents. iCloud sync, so you resume on the exact line on any device. Right-to-left and Japanese vertical text. A page curl, if you want one. Free for 14 days, then a subscription or a lifetime purchase, both with Family Sharing. Available in 18 languages. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://justread.app/en/privacy_policy

About

Leaf

Organize and read your DRM-free EPUB books with customizable reading settings and smart library management. Sync your progress across devices using iCloud and discover new titles through integrated sources.

Highlights
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Smart library organization
  • iCloud sync for progress and settings
  • Offline reading support
  • Import from various sources
  • Public domain classics included
Read full description

Give your books a home of their own. Leaf brings beautiful EPUB reading and thoughtful library management together on iPhone and iPad. Import the DRM-free books you already own, organize them your way, and keep everything in sync with iCloud. READ YOUR WAY Make every book comfortable to read. Choose from carefully selected fonts—including accessibility-friendly options—and fine-tune the font size, line height, margins, letter spacing, word spacing, and alignment. Choose from a collection of color themes, follow your device’s appearance automatically, or give individual books their own settings. A configurable reader footer can show page count, percentage, chapter progress, chapter title, or book title. A LIBRARY THAT FEELS LIKE YOURS Create custom shelves and let Smart Shelves automatically gather books that are In Progress, Unread, Completed, Did Not Finish, or downloaded to your device. Browse by author, series, and genre; search and sort your collection; and edit titles, authors, covers, descriptions, publication details, and more. Rate books, mark the ones you loved, and write down your thoughts when you finish. Leaf remembers reading time, completion dates, and the books you have finished this year—then helps you choose what comes next. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Optional iCloud sync keeps your books, library details, settings, and reading progress available across your iPhone and iPad. No separate Leaf account is required. Download books for offline reading, remove local copies when you need space, and return to your current book from the Home Screen widget. FIND YOUR NEXT BOOK Connect to a self-hosted Grimmory library, browse Project Gutenberg through the built-in Source, add other compatible OPDS sources, or import EPUB files from Files. Leaf also includes a small collection of beautifully produced public-domain classics, so you can begin reading immediately. For readers who also use KOReader on e-ink devices, Leaf can sync reading progress with a compatible KOReader sync server. BUILT FOR IPHONE AND IPAD Leaf is designed for every screen it runs on: a focused reading experience on iPhone and a spacious library on iPad. Your books feel at home wherever you read. Leaf currently supports DRM-free EPUB books. TERMS OF USE https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

EPUB Reader4 screens
Leaf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Leaf at 5.0 against EPUB Reader's 4.7. Leaf also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%). EPUB Reader's advantage is ratings volume (48 vs 4) and iOS requirement (18.1 vs 26.1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. EPUB Reader sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Leaf sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Leaf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: EPUB Reader has 48 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of EPUB Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of Leaf's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, Leaf weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
EPUB Reader versus Leaf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEPUB ReaderLeaf
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (48 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings48 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.1 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size202 MB51 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperPETR JAHODADeadpan, LLC

Customer experience

EPUB Reader

All ratings48 ratings
Positive89.6%
Neutral6.3%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews40 reviews
Positive82.5%
Neutral10.0%
Negative7.5%

Leaf

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

EPUB Reader

Subscriptions5
  • Monthly Premium14 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Monthly: Read Aloud Offline$4.991 Month
  • Yearly – Launch Price7 Days trial$12.491 Year
Show 2 more
  • Yearly Premium14 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Yearly: Highlights & Notes$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime – Launch Price$29.99
  • Lifetime: Library & Kindle$79.99
1 purchases

Leaf

Subscriptions1
  • Leaf Pro Annual7 Days trial$4.991 Year

Questions

Is EPUB Reader free?
EPUB Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Leaf free?
Leaf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, EPUB Reader or Leaf?
Leaf is rated higher. EPUB Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 48 ratings, while Leaf averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do EPUB Reader or Leaf have ads?
Neither EPUB Reader nor Leaf shows ads.
Which is updated more often, EPUB Reader or Leaf?
EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, and Leaf weekly. Most recently, EPUB Reader was updated on October 15, 2026 and Leaf on September 28, 2026.

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