Comparison

leaf vs Babel Reader

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

Head to head
About

leaf

This app offers a natural reading experience with customizable scroll options and an integrated read-aloud feature. Access a vast library of free classics or import your own documents. Enjoy a distraction-free environment with no ads or intrusive elements.

Highlights
  • Natural vertical scroll and page curl
  • Read-aloud narration with line highlighting
  • Access to 70,000+ free classic books
  • Import EPUB, PDF, and Markdown files
  • Customizable themes, fonts, and spacing
  • Organized library with shelves and filters
  • Ad-free and distraction-free reading experience
Features
Read full description

Scroll naturally. Read deeply. leaf is a reading app built for your phone. Read on your own, or let leaf read to you. Read with a natural vertical scroll, or turn pages with a page curl when you want a more traditional feel. leaf flows through your book the way your thumb already moves. When your attention keeps sliding off the page, tap play. leaf sets a gentle pace and lights up each line as you go. Turn on the voice and it reads the page aloud while you follow along, or lock your phone and keep listening. Narration uses the voices built into your iPhone, so it's free and unlimited, works offline, and your books never leave your phone. Browse and download over 70,000 free books from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks: classic literature, philosophy, fiction, and more. Import your own EPUB, PDF, and Markdown files too. No reading streaks. No goals. No ads. No noise. Just you and the book. READ ALONG AND NARRATION - Tap play and leaf sets the pace, lighting each line as you read - Turn on the voice and leaf reads the page aloud as the highlight follows - Free and unlimited: no hours to count, no account to make - Runs on your iPhone, works offline, and never uploads your books - Keeps reading with the screen locked. Pause, play, or skip back 15 seconds from the lock screen or your headphones - Picks a voice in your book's language. Apple's Enhanced and Premium voices are a free download and sound the most natural - Change the speed any time, pause with a tap, or step back a sentence - Works with every reading flow - Also works for PDFs READER - Three reading flows: Page Curl, Slide, or Continuous scroll - Vertical or horizontal page turns - Light, Dark, System, and E-Ink themes - Bookmarks, highlights, and notes - Multi-paragraph highlighting and sharing - Search within any book - Typefaces including Classic, Modern, Lexend, and Atkinson Hyperlegible - Adjust font size, spacing, and text density - Set a reading intention for each book - An exportable Reading Journal is created automatically when you highlight text or write a note PDFs - Read PDFs with the same reading flows as books - Pages follow your theme automatically, in light or dark - Columns are detected and shown one at a time, so the text is bigger and you never scroll sideways to read a line LIBRARY - Organise books into shelves, grouped into sections you can collapse - Filter by shelf, intention, or reading status - Sort by title, author, last opened, or shelf - View books as Grid or List - Search your entire library - Drop supported book files into the leaf folder and they'll appear in your library automatically - Use iCloud to share books between devices - Continue reading from your current book with the Home Screen widget FREE BOOKS - Browse and download from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks - Over 70,000 free classic and public domain titles - The Call of the Wild is included, so you can start reading straight away - Import your own EPUB, PDF, and Markdown files - Supports multiple file and folder import LEAF PRO - Six more themes: Sepia, Ivory, Mist, Forest, Midnight, and Amber Night - Design up to six custom themes of your own - Three more typefaces (Literata, Spectral, and Merriweather) or import your own - Line, paragraph, and letter spacing - Sync your library across devices - Sync reading progress, highlights, notes, bookmarks, shelves, and Reading Journal entries Privacy Policy: https://readleaf.co/legal Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Babel Reader

Read EPUB books with a customizable, distraction-free experience. Translate any paragraph instantly on-device, supporting over 20 languages. Organize your library and sync across Apple devices.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free reading experience
  • On-device translation for 20+ languages
  • Customizable typography and themes
  • EPUB 2 & 3 support
  • Library organization and iCloud sync
  • Read Aloud and Share functionality
Features
Read full description

Babel Reader is a clean, distraction-free EPUB reader for iPhone and iPad. Import your books, read with beautifully crafted typography, and translate any paragraph with a single tap — all without sending a single byte to any server. READING EXPERIENCE • One menu for everything while you read: contents, search, translation, appearance, and bookmarks • Two ways to read: page-by-page layout with smooth swipe navigation, or continuous scrolling • Page numbers for the whole book, as in a printed edition — worked out for your device, font, and text size, and the same in page and scroll mode • Distraction-free by default: just the text and a discreet progress indicator — page number, percentage, or page dots, as you prefer. A tap brings back the controls and the clock • Portrait and landscape support (two-column pages in landscape) • Ready for iPhone Duo: adapts to the new foldable and makes full use of its large inner display • Four reading themes: White, Sepia, Night, and Slate • Five typefaces: Georgia, Palatino, Baskerville, Iowan Old Style, and System • Adjustable text size and line spacing • Each book remembers its own display settings — font, size, line spacing, and theme • Optional hyphenation and text alignment (flush left, justified, flush right, centred) • Full-screen image viewer: tap any illustration and pinch to zoom FIND YOUR WAY • Contents with chapters and their sections — even in books that put everything into a single file • Links inside the book, such as footnotes and cross-references, take you straight to where they point • Search within the current chapter or across the entire book, in page and scroll mode — the arrows carry on into the next or previous chapter • Bookmarks: save any passage, rename it in your own words, and jump straight back to it — synced across your devices via iCloud TRANSLATION • Tap any paragraph to translate it in place • Tap again to restore the original • Translation runs entirely on your device — no text leaves your iPhone or iPad • Supports 20+ languages including Arabic (with full RTL support), Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese • Optional Read Aloud & Share: have the original or the translation read aloud, or share either via any app on your device YOUR LIBRARY • Import EPUB files from Files, Mail, Safari, and any other app that supports Share Sheet • Organise your books into Collections • Grid or list view • Sort by date added, title, author, language, or most recently read • Edit book title, author, and language metadata • Export your entire library to a folder and import it again — as a backup or to move to a new device • iCloud sync: keep your entire library and reading progress in sync across all your Apple devices (optional, uses your private iCloud account) AVAILABLE IN 7 LANGUAGES The app interface is fully localised in English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Polish. PRIVACY FIRST Babel Reader collects no personal data. It contains no advertising, no analytics, and no third-party tracking of any kind. On-device translation never sends your text to a server. iCloud sync uses only your own private iCloud account — your data is never accessible to the developer. EPUB FORMAT Babel Reader supports EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 files. PDF, MOBI, and AZW3 are not supported in this version.

Screenshots

leaf4 screens
Babel Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Babel Reader at 100% against leaf's 33%. Babel Reader also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). leaf's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

leaf is free to download; Babel Reader costs $4.99 up front. leaf sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Babel Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

leaf ships an update every 9 days, Babel Reader every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
leaf versus Babel Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterleafBabel Reader
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating3.8 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size85 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAbraham JesriMartin Bocker Dr

Customer experience

leaf

All ratings6 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

Babel Reader

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

leaf

Subscriptions2
  • Leaf Pro7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Leaf Pro7 Days trial$12.991 Year
None

Babel Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is leaf free?
leaf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Babel Reader free?
Babel Reader costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do leaf or Babel Reader have ads?
Neither leaf nor Babel Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, leaf or Babel Reader?
leaf ships an update every 9 days, and Babel Reader every 3 weeks. Most recently, leaf was updated on October 31, 2026 and Babel Reader on October 31, 2026.

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