Comparison

HyperRead vs Pen Friend

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

Head to head
About

HyperRead

Features
Read full description

Tired of falling behind on articles, newsletters, and long reads? HyperRead helps you read 2 to 3x faster with better focus and less eye strain. Paste text or open your own documents, tap play, and finish in minutes, not hours. HyperRead uses Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) to display words in a fixed position so your eyes stay still and your brain moves faster. No scanning lines. No losing your place. Just smooth, focused reading flow. Whether you are clearing a reading backlog, studying for exams, or catching up on saved articles before bed, HyperRead helps you absorb more in less time. What you can do with HyperRead: · Read with the RSVP player and Optimal Recognition Point highlighting for faster comprehension · Adjust speed from 100 to 1000 WPM in real time · Smart pacing that slows for punctuation and long words · Import from URLs with automatic article extraction · Paste text instantly from clipboard · Open EPUB, PDF, TXT, and Markdown files from your device · Share directly from Safari and other apps with the iOS Share Sheet · Track words read, time saved, and daily reading streaks · Customize fonts, size, and pacing to match your comfort · Take a speed test to measure reading speed and comprehension Built for real life: · Knowledge workers clearing newsletters during a commute · Students reviewing dense material faster · Researchers skimming papers for key insights · Readers finishing more each month · Anyone with eye strain or focus issues during long reading sessions Why HyperRead stands out: · Modern, distraction free design made for focus · Multiple import methods so your content is always one tap away · Smart pacing for better comprehension, not just speed · ORP highlighting that guides your eyes naturally · Reading stats and streaks that build lasting habits · No accounts required · No tracking or data collection · Works offline Stop letting your reading list grow faster than you can keep up. Download HyperRead and start reading faster today.

About

Pen Friend

Features
Read full description

You think better with a pen, but the things you need never sit on the page. The answer you're stuck on, the note from last week you can't find, the PDF that lives on your Mac. Every one of them means putting the Pencil down and going somewhere else, and by the time you're back the thought has mostly gone. Pen Friend is a notebook for iPad and iPhone Duo that writes back, and waits until you ask. Write by hand with Apple Pencil, end a line with a question mark and pause, then tap it, and the answer gets written beside your question in handwriting, like someone leaned over and helped. Nothing pops up while you write and nothing rewrites your page. A REAL NOTEBOOK FIRST Most of the time you just want to write, so that part had to feel right. • One smooth canvas that stays crisp however far you zoom • Real pages you turn, not an endless canvas • Grid, lined, dotted or blank paper, in five page sizes • On iPhone Duo it has its own layout, folded or open • Double tap to paste, and export a worklog as a PDF or a page as an image WHEN YOU ASK • Ask on the page, or on tracing paper laid over it so your page stays clean • A worked step for the line you're stuck on • A labelled sketch, or a graph plotted from what you wrote • A page of maths copied as LaTeX, ready for your document WHEN THE PAGES PILE UP Handwritten notes are lovely right up until you need to find one. • Your home is a wall of your pages, whole, with the list one tap away • To do gathers every page with a box still open • Write your search by hand, and it finds worklogs by what they mean, not only the words in them • Every worklog typed up as clean text, headings and all, with a short briefing of where it stands • It sorts your worklogs into folders, and nothing moves until you approve it WITH YOUR MAC • Flick a page and paste it on your Mac, no extra app needed • With the free Pen Friend Companion, drop a PDF or a screenshot on the notch and it lands on your page, mark it up and send it back • Everything you send waits on the Mac in case you want it again ON IPHONE • Every page you wrote, to read, search and file when the iPad stays at home YOURS • No account, no ads, no tracking. It opens straight to a page. • Your notes live on your device, backed up to your own iCloud • Lock a folder, and only Touch ID, Face ID or your passcode opens it The answers, briefings, clean text, search by meaning and sorting are written by Google's Gemini. Settings tells you in plain words what leaves your device. WHY I MADE IT I take notes by hand on an iPad while I work on a Mac, and I built Pen Friend so the page and the Mac could talk. Then grad students wrote asking for PDFs, so 1.2 was mostly that. This one is about the page itself: asking it things, finding things on it, and writing on more than one device. If something's wrong or missing, write to yo@bishwas.net. I read all of it.

Screenshots

HyperRead4 screens
Pen Friend4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: HyperRead at 15.1 against Pen Friend's 18.0. 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 · 5 level
HyperRead versus Pen Friend: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHyperReadPen Friend
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 8 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB11 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperStorq Labs BVBISHWAS BHANDARI

In-app purchases

None

HyperRead

No in-app purchases

None

Pen Friend

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HyperRead free?
HyperRead is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pen Friend free?
Pen Friend is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HyperRead or Pen Friend have ads?
Neither HyperRead nor Pen Friend shows ads.

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