WellRead Books vs Karatu

You bought the book. You meant to read it. It's still on your nightstand. WellRead keeps your book with you — as a pocket-sized paperback at home, as text in the app on your break, and as audio on your commute. Switch between formats anytime. Your place syncs automatically. START IN ANY FORMAT, FINISH IN ALL OF THEM - Read: A clean, adjustable text reader with light, dark, and sepia themes - Listen: Stream chapter-by-chapter audiobooks narrated by professional voices - Follow Along: Karaoke-style word highlighting syncs text to audio in real time - Switch mid-sentence and pick up exactly where you left off - Listen in English, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Bengali or Arabic CLASSICS WITHOUT THE STRUGGLE Every title is carefully edited for modern readers — updated language, tighter pacing, every plot point and character intact. These aren't summaries. They're the real books, made readable. AN AI COMPANION THAT WON'T SPOIL ANYTHING Confused by a character? Forgot what happened three chapters ago? The built-in reading companion knows exactly where you are and answers questions without revealing what comes next. Get character cards, chapter summaries, and context — all spoiler-aware. BUILD A READING HABIT IN 10 MINUTES A DAY Daily Dose sets a short reading timer and tracks your streak. Read for 10 minutes. Listen for 10 more. You just read for 20 minutes without trying. BOOKS DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED WellRead titles are also available as bunkobon — pocket-sized Japanese-format paperbacks built for daily life. Small enough for a jacket pocket, durable enough for a bag. The physical and digital editions stay in sync. CURATED TRACKS, NOT AN OVERWHELMING LIBRARY No decision fatigue. Pick a reading track and we'll set the pace — one book at a time, in an order that builds on itself. Think of it like a book club that does the planning for you. Start with Don Quixote. Download WellRead and read the classics you've always wanted to finish.

Karatu is a native iOS reader where you bring your own sources. The app does not ship with a built-in catalog or library. Instead, you install small JavaScript source plug-ins from public repositories — exactly the same model as a media-server client like Plex or Jellyfin. The app is the reader; the content backend is up to you. WHAT KARATU GIVES YOU - A native iOS reader. Vertical (webtoon) and horizontal (paged) modes, pinch-zoom, double-tap to reset, tap-to-toggle full-screen, auto-advance to the next chapter. - Per-page bookmarks, grouped by series. - Offline downloads. Background URLSession keeps fetches running when the app is suspended; per-chapter status lives on the manga detail screen with a one-tap "Download all chapters." - A real library. Sort by recently-read, recently-added, title, or chapters-read. Filter by currently-reading, has-downloads, unread-chapters-available, or by source. - Reading history with per-chapter resume. Pick up exactly where you left off. - Reading-time stats. Daily totals, current streak, longest streak, total time. Stored locally; nothing is sent anywhere. - A clean settings screen with storage usage, per-source breakdown, and one-tap reset. WHAT KARATU DOES NOT DO - Ship sources. You provide them. - Send any data anywhere. Karatu has no accounts, no telemetry, no third-party SDKs, no ads. The privacy manifest declares zero data collection. - Verify, host, distribute, or endorse any source or repository. You are solely responsible for the content you choose to load. FOR DEVELOPERS Karatu's source SDK is a tiny JavaScript runtime: fetch, console.log, and registerSource. Sources implement four async methods (getPopular, search, getMangaDetails, getChapterPages) and return ordinary JSON. Anyone can write a source and host the manifest as a public file. See the project documentation for the full SDK contract. PRIVACY All app state — library, history, bookmarks, downloads, stats — is stored locally on your device. Karatu makes network requests only to URLs you have explicitly configured. There are no analytics, no tracking pixels, no third-party libraries that phone home. Uninstalling the app removes every byte. REQUIREMENTS iOS 17 or later. iPhone only.