Comparison

EPUB Reader vs Ghostreader AI

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

Ghostreader AI

Features
Read full description

Ghostreader is the e-reader that reads with you. Bring books, papers, and articles into one private reading workspace, then ask questions, follow ideas, and return every answer to its source. READ WITH GHOST • Ask questions grounded in the text in front of you • Highlight a passage to explain it, define it, or ask a follow-up • Chat with one book, a selected set, or your whole library • Check cited source passages instead of taking an answer on faith • Listen with natural read-aloud while the page stays visible KEEP A PRIVATE READING MEMORY • Turn saved highlights, notes, and page-linked questions into inspectable ideas • See meaningful connections across books without turning reading progress into a public profile • Search what you kept and review a human-readable activity history BUILD IN BOOK STUDIO • Create cited comparisons, evidence tables, literature reviews, outlines, maps, briefs, and reading plans • Let Ghostreader find relevant passages automatically, or pin the exact passages you want • Revise artifacts without losing their source snapshot or version history READ WITH FRIENDS • Share one sourced page, note, or question with people you choose • Catch up through a finite Today table instead of an endless ranked feed • Read together in invite-only rooms with quiet, qualitative signals • Reply by branching from a passage in your own copy Friends is optional. Your library, private highlights, reading position, Reading Memory, and Studio work are not shared by default. You confirm the audience for every shared page. BRING YOUR OWN READING Import EPUB books, PDFs, Markdown files, research papers, and web articles. Switch supported originals between paged and continuous reading, and keep downloaded EPUB or PDF originals available for offline reading and search. AI explanations, sync, and newly generated work require a connection. Ghostreader includes a free Normie Reader plan with up to three new reading materials per month. Avid Reader is $6.99 per month and removes the monthly import limit. AI reading features are included on both plans. An account is required. Your library is private and is not used to train public AI models. Privacy Policy: https://ghostreader.ai/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

EPUB Reader4 screens
Ghostreader AI4 screens

Verdict

The call

EPUB Reader and Ghostreader AI are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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 Ghostreader AI sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, Ghostreader AI every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
EPUB Reader versus Ghostreader AI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEPUB ReaderGhostreader AI
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (36 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews88.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings36 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.117.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size124 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPETR JAHODAlauren brendle

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

Ghostreader AI

Subscriptions1
  • Avid Reader$6.991 Month

Questions

Is EPUB Reader free?
EPUB Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ghostreader AI free?
Ghostreader AI is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do EPUB Reader or Ghostreader AI have ads?
Neither EPUB Reader nor Ghostreader AI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, EPUB Reader or Ghostreader AI?
EPUB Reader ships an update every 5 days, and Ghostreader AI every 10 days. Most recently, EPUB Reader was updated on September 24, 2026 and Ghostreader AI on September 8, 2026.

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