Comparison

leaf vs Focus 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

Focus Reader

Features
Read full description

Lose your place in long documents? Focus Reader reflows PDF and EPUB books to fit your screen and keeps only the part you're reading in sharp focus. Open the books you already have and adjust text size, font, line spacing, and column width to suit your eyes. No more fighting cramped PDF columns or tiny print. Features - PDF & EPUB reflow: the current page or chapter is re-typeset into one comfortable column. - Focus band: a clear reading band with the rest of the page dimmed, so your eyes stay on the line. Adjust the band's height, dim level, and position. - Typography: serif and sans-serif fonts for Latin and Korean, with size, line height, and UI scale controls. - Reading themes: paper, sepia, green, solar, night, and dim. - Dictionary lookup: long-press a word for an offline definition in the bundled English-Korean and Korean dictionaries. - Library: saved books with reading progress. - Korean and English interface. Free and Pro The core reading features and dictionary lookup are free. Focus band fine-tuning, all reading themes, and column width are unlocked with Focus Reader Pro — a one-time purchase, not a subscription. The Korean App Store price is ₩4,000; prices in other regions are set by Apple. Supported formats: PDF, EPUB

Screenshots

leaf4 screens
Focus Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Focus Reader at 15.0 against leaf's 17.6. On price, update cadence, 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 Focus Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

leaf ships an update weekly, Focus Reader every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
leaf versus Focus Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterleafFocus Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAbraham JesriDaejin hyun

In-app purchases

2 purchases

leaf

Subscriptions2
  • Leaf Pro7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Leaf Pro7 Days trial$12.991 Year
1 purchases

Focus Reader

One-time1
  • Focus Reader Pro$1.99

Questions

Is leaf free?
leaf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus Reader free?
Focus Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do leaf or Focus Reader have ads?
Neither leaf nor Focus Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, leaf or Focus Reader?
leaf ships an update weekly, and Focus Reader every 6 days. Most recently, leaf was updated on October 7, 2026 and Focus Reader on October 13, 2026.

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