Comparison

leaf vs Cinder 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 scrolling and page-turning options. Access thousands of free ebooks or import your own EPUB and PDF files. Organize your library, take notes, and create a personal reading journal.

Highlights
  • Vertical and horizontal scrolling
  • Import EPUB and PDF files
  • Access Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks
  • Bookmarks, highlights, and notes
  • Exportable Reading Journal
  • Library organization with shelves
  • iCloud syncing
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 (not yet with 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

Cinder Reader

A modern, ad-free app for reading ebooks, comics, manga, and PDFs. Organize your personal library, import files from various sources, and customize your reading experience with flexible tools and appearance settings.

Highlights
  • Read ebooks, comics, manga, and PDFs
  • Import and manage personal library
  • Connect to content sources
  • Customize reader appearance
  • Track reading progress
  • Create highlights and notes
  • Organize with folders and filters
Features
Read full description

Cinder is a modern, ad-free reading app for ebooks, comics, manga, PDFs, web novels, and more. Build a library that fits the way you read. Import your own files, connect your preferred catalogs and personal content sources, organize everything in one place, and enjoy a clean, customizable reading experience across multiple formats. Features Read ebooks, comics, manga, and PDFs in one app Import your own files and manage your personal library Add and browse compatible catalogs and personal content sources Customize fonts, themes, spacing, alignment, and reader appearance Track reading progress and pick up where you left off Create highlights and notes Organize books with folders, filters, and library tools Discover new titles with built-in discovery features Sync with your Hardcover account to track reading progress and discover new books Designed for phones, tablets, and larger screens Built for readers Cinder focuses on a polished, distraction-light reading experience with flexible library management and deep reader customization. Whether you’re reading novels, graphic novels, manga, or documents, Cinder gives you one place to keep everything organized. Privacy-first by design Your library and reading setup stay centered around your own content, your own sources, and your own reading workflow.

Screenshots

leaf4 screens
Cinder Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Cinder Reader at 100% against leaf's 33%. Cinder Reader also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.8). leaf's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs monthly). On price, ratings volume, 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. leaf sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Cinder Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cinder Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of leaf's written reviews are positive against 100% of Cinder Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

leaf ships an update every 9 days, Cinder Reader monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
leaf versus Cinder Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterleafCinder Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (6 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings68 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size85 MB76 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperAbraham JesriJESSE LAMAR MARTIN

Customer experience

leaf

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

Cinder Reader

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 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
1 purchases

Cinder Reader

One-time1
  • Cinder Pro Lifetime$8.99

Questions

Is leaf free?
leaf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cinder Reader free?
Cinder Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, leaf or Cinder Reader?
Cinder Reader is rated higher. leaf averages 3.8 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Cinder Reader averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do leaf or Cinder Reader have ads?
Neither leaf nor Cinder Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, leaf or Cinder Reader?
leaf ships an update every 9 days, and Cinder Reader monthly. Most recently, leaf was updated on October 28, 2026 and Cinder Reader on October 25, 2026.

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