Comparison

EPUB Reader vs Sutra

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

Head to head
About

EPUB Reader

This app offers a versatile reading experience for various digital formats, including EPUB, PDF, comics, and audiobooks. It provides extensive customization options for typography, color themes, and reader controls, ensuring a personalized and comfortable reading environment. The app also supports seamless library management and synchronization across devices.

Highlights
  • Supports EPUB, PDF, CBZ, CBR, and audiobooks
  • Customizable typography and color themes
  • Read aloud functionality with offline neural voices
  • Syncs reading position with e-readers
  • Organized library with instant search and metadata detection
  • Highlighting, note-taking, and export options
  • Reading statistics and progress tracking
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 21 languages. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://justread.app/en/privacy_policy

About

Sutra

Access your entire book collection from various sources in one beautiful app. Enjoy a customizable reading experience with synced progress, bookmarks, and highlights across devices. Organize your library with series info, search, and collections.

Highlights
  • Connect Kavita, Calibre, and OPDS servers
  • EPUB and PDF reading with page-curl effect
  • Rich typography and reading themes
  • iCloud sync for progress, bookmarks, and highlights
  • Offline downloads
  • Highlighting and search functionality
  • Series grouping and collections
Features
Read full description

Sutra is a warm, thoughtful home for every book and comic you love. Bring together your self-hosted library, your manga, your classic EPUBs, and those “just one more chapter” reads in one beautifully calm reader. Connect Kavita, Komga, or Calibre; explore any OPDS catalogue; or discover a new favourite from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. READ YOUR WAY • Enjoy EPUB, PDF, CBZ, MOBI, fixed-layout comics, and manga in one place • Move through comics panel by panel, or take in the whole page • Read right-to-left manga and beautiful iPad two-page spreads • Make the page yours with fonts, text size, spacing, themes, auto-scroll, page turns, and Sutra-only brightness control A LIBRARY THAT FEELS LIKE HOME • Browse dedicated Series and Collection views, with Favorites always close by • Sort by Recently Read, Title, Author, or Date Added while staying in a familiar cover grid • Let Sutra recover missing Calibre series details and keep your library beautifully organised • Pick up where you left off with dependable progress and finished-book sync for Kavita and Komga BUILT FOR SELF-HOSTERS • Connect Kavita, Komga, Calibre, Grimmory, or another OPDS server • Stream comic pages from Kavita and Komga when available, or download for offline reading • Keep your highlights and reading progress with you across your Apple devices Sutra is free to enjoy for EPUB and PDF reading, with no ads and no subscription. Unlock unlimited CBZ, MOBI, and Komga reading once, and keep it forever.

Screenshots

EPUB Reader4 screens
Sutra4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: EPUB Reader at 4.7 against Sutra's 4.3. EPUB Reader also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 73%) and ratings volume (59 vs 18). Sutra's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium). 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 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Sutra sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

EPUB Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 59 and 18 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of EPUB Reader's written reviews are positive against 73% of Sutra's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, Sutra every 8 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
EPUB Reader versus Sutra: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEPUB ReaderSutra
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (59 ratings) — better4.3 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews82.2% of reviews — better73.3% of reviews
Number of ratings59 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 8 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.117.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size213 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPETR JAHODAKoustav Dasgupta

Customer experience

EPUB Reader

All ratings55 ratings
Positive89.1%
Neutral5.5%
Negative5.5%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive82.2%
Neutral8.9%
Negative8.9%

Sutra

All ratings18 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral16.7%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral13.3%
Negative13.3%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

EPUB Reader

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$79.99
4 purchases

Sutra

One-time4
  • Small Tip$1.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
  • Large Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Sutra Pro$6.99

Questions

Is EPUB Reader free?
EPUB Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sutra free?
Sutra is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, EPUB Reader or Sutra?
EPUB Reader is rated higher. EPUB Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 59 ratings, while Sutra averages 4.3 from 18 ratings.
Do EPUB Reader or Sutra have ads?
Neither EPUB Reader nor Sutra shows ads.
Which is updated more often, EPUB Reader or Sutra?
EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, and Sutra every 8 days. Most recently, EPUB Reader was updated on November 5, 2026 and Sutra on November 5, 2026.

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