Comparison

Chapter vs Kitava

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

Head to head
About

Chapter

Features
Read full description

Chapter is made for spending more time with your books. Read your EPUBs and PDFs, listen to EPUB books, and keep your library and reading history in one place. READ YOUR WAY Make your EPUB books comfortable to read with adjustable fonts, spacing, and light, dark, or sepia themes. Keep your PDF books alongside them in the same library. LISTEN TO YOUR BOOKS Let Chapter read your EPUB books aloud. Choose a voice and playback speed that suit you, then enjoy the next chapter. A PLACE FOR EVERY BOOK Organize your books into collections and keep track of what you’re reading. Search for titles or add them manually to include your physical books too. PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF Keep your library and progress in sync across iPhone and iPad with iCloud. Jump back into your current book from the Continue Reading widget. GET TO KNOW YOUR READING HABITS Keep a history of your reading sessions. Chapter Pro adds daily and yearly goals, streaks, activity views, and deeper insights to help you see your progress over time. YOUR READING STAYS PERSONAL Chapter does not collect, sell, or share your personal data. Your reading data stays on your device and, if enabled, in your personal iCloud account. Chapter Pro is available as a one-time purchase. Privacy Policy: https://sergiu-prodan.github.io/Chapter/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Kitava

Features
Read full description

Kitava is a reading tracker that behaves like a well-made notebook: paper, ink, and quiet. It keeps the books you are reading, the ones you mean to read and the ones you finished β€” and it never asks you to perform any of it for an audience. YOUR LIBRARY IS YOURS There are no profiles, no followers, no feed, no comments and no likes. Nobody else can see what you read. This is not a setting you switch on; there is nothing in the app that could show your library to another person. A SHELF, NOT A LIST Your books stand on shelves with their covers out, and a sliver of binding whose thickness comes from the page count. A book with no cover is not a grey box: it gets its binding cloth and its title in foil. If you would rather have a list, it is in Settings. TWO TAPS A DAY Tap your book and it comes off the shelf, page field and all. Logging tonight's reading is a tap and a number. SEARCH, SCAN OR ADD IT YOURSELF Search millions of books through Open Library, or scan the barcode on the back cover. When a book is not there β€” and for some languages it often is not β€” add it by hand in a few seconds; only the title is required. Every filled-in field can be corrected, page count included. BRING YOUR LIBRARY WITH YOU Import your Goodreads or StoryGraph export, or any CSV file with a title column. Kitava shows you what it found before it writes anything, and your library leaves just as easily, as a CSV file of its own. READ YOUR OWN BOOKS Add a PDF or EPUB from your phone and read it inside the app. Its title, author and cover are read from the file, and your page moves on its own as you read β€” for these books there is nothing to log at all. Kitava also counts the time you spend reading, with no timer to start. Pick one of six paper colours, from white to black; in an EPUB, also the typeface, the size and the line height. Your files stay on your phone and are never uploaded. KEEP WHAT YOU LIKED Bookmark a page, or underline a sentence in an EPUB; either can carry a note. Reading on paper? Type in a quote with its page. All of it is kept with your library, and backed up with it when you sign in. READ YOUR WAY Tag your books, set one aside when it is not working, read a favourite again and keep both finishes, or follow an audiobook in minutes instead of pages. NO ACCOUNT NEEDED Kitava opens straight to your shelf and works without a connection. Sign in only if you want your books backed up and brought back on a new phone β€” free, with no paid tier. YOUR READING YEAR Books and pages by month, how long a book takes you, the stars you gave, the publishers you read most, this year against the last, and a yearly goal if you want one. At the end of the year there is a card you can share if you feel like it. A QUIET REMINDER, IF YOU WANT ONE One notification at a time you choose, off by default: the book and the page you stopped at. No streaks, no "you missed a day", and nothing at all on a day you already read. WHAT IS NOT IN HERE No advertising. No tracking. No crash reporting, and no analytics. No subscription and no paywall. The camera opens only to read a barcode; the barcode is decoded on your device by the system, and the picture never leaves your phone. The app never asks for your location, contacts or calendar. Turkish and English throughout, with a light and a dark theme.

Screenshots

Chapter4 screens
Kitava4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Kitava at none against Chapter's 3. Kitava also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

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

Both are free to download. Chapter sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Kitava asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
Chapter versus Kitava: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChapterKitava
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.016.4 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size37 MB51 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergiu ProdanMUHAMMED TAHA AKTAS

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Chapter

Subscriptions2
  • Chapter Pro Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Chapter Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Chapter Pro$9.99
None

Kitava

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chapter free?
Chapter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Kitava free?
Kitava is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chapter or Kitava have ads?
Neither Chapter nor Kitava shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chapter or Kitava?
Chapter ships an update every 2 weeks, and Kitava every 2 weeks. Most recently, Chapter was updated on October 28, 2026 and Kitava on October 31, 2026.

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