Comparison

Folio vs ReadSense

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

Head to head
About

Folio

Features
Read full description

Meet Ollie, your reading companion — and discover 75,000+ free books inside the most beautiful reading app on iOS. Folio makes reading feel like holding a real book. Warm cream pages, elegant serif fonts, realistic page turns, and a cozy reading experience designed for people who love books — not just screens. FREE BOOKS, BUILT RIGHT IN Browse 75,000+ public domain classics from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks. Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Romeo and Juliet — all free, all beautifully formatted, all yours to keep. - Browse by genre: Fiction, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Romance, Philosophy, History, and more - One-tap download to your personal library - New books added regularly - No subscriptions. No hidden fees. Just great books. READING THAT FEELS REAL Every detail is designed to bring back the joy of physical books: - Warm cream, parchment, night, and midnight themes - Choose your font: Lora, Merriweather, Georgia, Literata, and more - Realistic page curl, smooth slide, or gentle fade transitions - Adjustable font size, spacing, and margins - Import your own EPUB and PDF files HIGHLIGHTS & NOTES YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE Never lose a great passage again: - Color-coded highlights (2 free, 7 with Premium) - Add notes to any highlight - Notes Hub: browse all highlights across all books in one place - Export to Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes, or Markdown (Premium) SAVE ARTICLES FOR LATER Read web articles in Folio's beautiful reading view: - Save from Safari with the Share Sheet - Articles stripped clean — no ads, no clutter - Read offline, highlight, and take notes just like books MEET OLLIE Ollie the owl is your friendly reading companion. He'll help you find your next book, celebrate your milestones, and keep your reading life organized — without ever guilt-tripping you. FOLIO PREMIUM — $4.99, ONE TIME Unlock everything with a single purchase. No subscription. No recurring charges. - All 7 highlight colors - Smart highlight collections and tags - Export notes - Custom reading themes - Shelf view (wooden bookshelf) - Advanced reading stats and annual report - Custom OPDS catalog support - Unlimited Read It Later articles Download Folio free. Read beautifully. Keep your ideas forever.

About

ReadSense

Read full description

Understand difficult books as you read. Tap a word to see what it means in its sentence, or select a passage for a short, plain explanation, without leaving the page. ReadSense is an EPUB reader for books that fight back: classics, dense literary fiction, old or unusual language. When a word or a sentence stops you, you don't leave the book to search. You touch the text. TAP A WORD Get the one meaning it has in this sentence, not a list of ten, with how to say it. Old spellings, dialect, fixed phrases and familiar words that once meant something else are read for what they mean here. SELECT A PASSAGE Hold a word to take its sentence, or hold and drag to choose a passage. A short, plain explanation appears on the page, never over the words you selected: what a tangled sentence says, who is speaking, what an allusion points to. NO SPOILERS Explanations use only what you've read so far. Nothing past the paragraph you're reading is ever sent. FREE BOOKS INSIDE More than a thousand classics are in the app, free to get and free to read: novels, plays, poems, mysteries, philosophy, children's books. Each one says what it is and how it begins before you choose it. Or bring your own. A READER THAT STAYS OUT OF THE WAY • Free classics inside, and your own EPUB files (DRM-free) from Files or another app • Pages turned by swiping, with two pages side by side on a large iPad • Search inside the book, bookmarks, Contents and footnotes • Two typefaces, line spacing, margins, three themes and text that goes very large • Pictures, lists and code shown as the book has them • Your place is kept in every book • Works with VoiceOver and larger text • No account, no ads, no tracking HOW ANSWERS ARE MADE To explain a word or passage, ReadSense sends the text you select and surrounding text from the same chapter to an outside AI provider, which writes the answer. ReadSense doesn't save that text or the answer, and you are asked before anything is sent. Your books stay on your device. Explanations are written by AI and can be wrong; they are a reading aid. FREE TO TRY ReadSense is free to download. The books inside are free, and reading is always free, your own books included. You can try lookups free; after that, a monthly or annual subscription keeps the answers coming. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled; you can cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://readsense.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://readsense.app/privacy License Agreement (Apple's standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Folio4 screens
ReadSense4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Folio at 17.0 against ReadSense's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Folio sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ReadSense sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
Folio versus ReadSense: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFolioReadSense
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB41 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperLaxman ShahLUKE MICHAEL MCGUIRE

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Folio

One-time1
  • Folio Plus Lifetime$4.99
2 purchases

ReadSense

Subscriptions2
  • ReadSense Monthly$4.991 Month
  • ReadSense Annual$39.991 Year

Questions

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

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