Comparison

abstand vs Apogee Reader

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

Head to head
About

abstand

This app unifies your audiobooks and podcasts into a single library. Listen to both long-form books and episodic shows seamlessly, with offline downloads for uninterrupted enjoyment. Track your listening habits and stay motivated with built-in achievements.

Highlights
  • Unified audiobook and podcast library
  • Offline downloads
  • Listening habit tracking
  • Achievements and motivation
  • Designed for Audiobookshelf servers
Features
Read full description

Your Audiobookshelf library: audiobooks and podcasts in one place. Abstand is built for listeners who don’t want to switch libraries. Connect to your Audiobookshelf server and browse audiobooks and podcasts side by side. All-in-1 library Audiobooks and podcast shows live together. Continue listening, browse your catalog, and switch between long-form books and episodic shows without leaving the app. Auto-download Save what matters offline. Download audiobooks and podcast episodes for travel, commutes, and spotty connections—ready when you are, not when the network is. Achievements Turn listening into progress you can see. Track your habits, level up, and stay motivated with achievements that reward real time spent with your library. Made for Audiobookshelf Fast, focused, and designed for iPhone and iPad. Your server, your content, your pace. Download Abstand and listen the way your library was meant to work: one app, every story.

About

Apogee Reader

Features
Read full description

Apogee is a native iOS reader for a BookOrbit server you run yourself. Your books stay on your own machine, and there's no account to make beyond the one on your own server. It reads what your library holds: • Ebooks. EPUB and MOBI, with your choice of font, theme, margins and page flow. You can add your own font files from the Files app. • Audiobooks. Chapters, a sleep timer, playback speed, CarPlay and Lock Screen controls. • Comics. CBZ, CBR and CB7, in paged or webtoon mode. • PDFs, cropped to the text so the margins don't waste your screen. Read & Listen joins a book to its audiobook. Read a chapter on the train, then play the audiobook in the car and it starts where you stopped reading. While it plays, the sentence being read shows on screen. Your place is kept for every book and sent back to your server, so you can put the phone down and pick up on another device. It uses the same progress format as KOReader, so a Kindle running KOReader and this app stay in step. Your reading time goes to your server's reading log too, and on BookOrbit 3.0 and later it's marked as reading, listening or Read Aloud. Download a book and it works with no network at all. Your library, your place, your notes and your highlights are all there offline. It also does: • Highlights and notes, searchable, and synced to your server. • Sign in with your password, or with the sign-in provider your server uses. • Send a book from the Files app to your server's library. • Send books to a CrossPoint e-ink reader on your Wi-Fi. • Reading Stats, from your server's reading log. • Spotlight, so your books turn up in search from the home screen. • A widget for whatever you're part way through. • Read Aloud, using the voices already on your phone. • Series grouping, collections, and a filing rule for right-to-left manga. • Fanfic Updates, if you want it: sign in to Archive of Our Own and Apogee checks the works you follow and brings new chapters into your library. Apogee is an unofficial app, not made or endorsed by AO3 or the Organization for Transformative Works. • iPad layouts, not a stretched phone app. • Guides for every feature at apogeereader.app. Apogee talks to your server. It talks to AO3 only if you sign in to Fanfic Updates, and your audiobook notes sync through your own iCloud account. Nothing comes to me unless you choose to send it. Apogee needs a BookOrbit server to be useful. It isn't a shop. It doesn't sell, supply or recommend books. It reads the library you already have. Apogee is built by one person. It's free, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no tracking.

Screenshots

abstand3 screens
Apogee Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Apogee Reader at 18.0 against abstand's 26.2. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
abstand versus Apogee Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterabstandApogee Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB34 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperDaniel GoletzBrian Banuag

In-app purchases

None

abstand

No in-app purchases

None

Apogee Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is abstand free?
abstand is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Apogee Reader free?
Apogee Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do abstand or Apogee Reader have ads?
Neither abstand nor Apogee Reader shows ads.

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