Comparison

Steady Read vs Atlas

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

Head to head
About

Steady Read

Features
Read full description

You can read faster than you think. Steady Read shows you one word at a time, centered on the exact letter your brain naturally locks onto. No scanning. No re-reading. No losing your place. Just focus. Start at 200 WPM. Work your way to 900. Most people surprise themselves on the first try. Paste any text, or upload PDFs, EPUBs, DOC files, and more with Steady Read Pro. The words come to you, all you have to do is watch. Built-in instrumental tracks that match your reading pace. Custom jazz and folk designed to keep you locked in without distraction. Skip tracks, repeat favorites, or turn it off entirely. Set your pace from 60 to 1200 WPM. Scrub through your text. Pause anytime. Pick up exactly where you left off. Traditional reading wastes time on eye movement (jumping between words, drifting to margins, re-reading lines you just read). Steady Read eliminates all of that. Your eyes stay still. Your brain does the rest. Great for books, articles, meeting notes, research papers, study material, or anything you've been meaning to read but haven't found the time. Free to use with pasted text. Upgrade to Pro to upload files — PDFs, EPUBs, DOC, DOCX, TXT, and ZIP. Terms of Use: https://www.steadyread.com/terms.html

About

Atlas

A private and calm digital space to organize your reading lists, track books, and discover new titles. Focuses on beautiful book covers and personal organization without gamification or social features. Syncs across devices via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Organize books into five reading lists
  • Drag and drop reordering of books
  • High-resolution book cover display
  • Search powered by Apple Books
  • Add custom books and covers
  • Import/export library data
  • iCloud sync across devices
Read full description

A calm, private space to track your books, navigate your reading lists, and get back to what you love: reading. No streaks, no goals, no ratings, no guilt. Not a habit tracker, not a stats dashboard, not a social network. Just your books, their beautiful covers, and the order you intend to read them. Organize - Five reading lists: Reading, Reading Next, Someday, Read, and Set Aside - Drag and drop to reorder books in the exact order you intend to read them - Bulk edit to move, favorite, or remove a stack of books at once - Mark books as owned to keep track of what's on your shelf Covers, front and center - Book covers are treated like the art they are - Tap the cover on its detail page to open it in full screen - Zoom in to discover details you've never noticed before - Displayed in high resolution throughout the app Find your next book - Search powered by Apple Books - Book detail pages with cover art, description, genres, and more from the author - Tap any author to view their full catalog - Follow any author to keep their catalog a couple taps away - Add books that aren't in Apple Books, with your own covers and details - A Coming Soon list that tracks upcoming releases automatically Reflect - Add notes on any book in your library - Review all the notes taken across your entire library in the Notes List - A reading timeline showing what you finished, and when - Start a re-read from any finished book, keeping your first reading intact - Favorite the books you loved, then drag and drop to rank them Browse your library - Masonry grid and list views - Filter and sort by genre, author, date, favorites, ownership, and availability - Search directly within your library and individual reading lists Bring your books with you - Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, or CSV - Export your full library as CSV - iCloud sync across all your devices Designed for iOS - Built natively for iOS26+27 from the ground up with Liquid Glass and system styling - Feels like a cohesive, first-party Apple app - Light, Dark, and System themes Private by design, and no data collection - No accounts. No sign-up. No profile. - No analytics, no tracking, no data collection - Your library lives on your device and syncs through iCloud Atlas was built to highlight your covers, your lists, and the order you decide to read your books in. Reading doesn't need to be gamified, optimized, or made public. It just needs a quiet space to keep your books, plan what's next, and remember where you've been. Reading is one of the few things left that's slow, quiet, and entirely yours. Atlas is built to keep it that way.

Screenshots

Steady Read3 screens
Atlas4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Steady Read at 3 against Atlas's 1. Steady Read also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.2). On price, 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. Steady Read sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month and Atlas sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Steady Read versus Atlas: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSteady ReadAtlas
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.8 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—6 — better
Update frequency—Every 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB9 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperMartin UhlmannAustin Thompson-Truchan

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Steady Read

Subscriptions1
  • Steady Read Pro$4.991 Month
3 purchases

Atlas

One-time3
  • Sticker Tip$1.99
  • Coffee Tip$4.99
  • Book Tip$9.99

Questions

Is Steady Read free?
Steady Read is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Atlas free?
Atlas is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Steady Read or Atlas have ads?
Neither Steady Read nor Atlas shows ads.

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