EpubReader vs Local Narrator
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
EpubReader
Read EPUB books offline with a customizable reader. Listen to your books with built-in text-to-speech and sync your library across devices. Organize your collection with custom collections and smart sorting.
- Offline EPUB reading
- Built-in text-to-speech (TTS)
- iCloud library sync
- Customizable reading experience
- Organize books into collections
- Multiple import methods
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EpubReader is a clean, powerful ebook reader built exclusively for iPhone and iPad. Read EPUB books offline, listen with built-in text-to-speech, and sync your entire library across devices with iCloud. Import DRM-free EPUB books in seconds, organize them into custom collections, customize every detail of your reading experience — fonts, themes, dark mode — and pick up right where you left off on any device. Effortless Book Import • Import EPUB files from Files or iCloud Drive • WiFi Transfer – drag and drop books from Mac or PC • Open in from Safari • AirDrop support Fully Customizable Reading • Light, Sepia, Dark Mode & True Black (OLED) night mode themes • Adjust font size, line height, margins, and spacing • Choose from premium, highly readable fonts • Page curl animation or smooth vertical scrolling • Bookmarks with notes and color highlights Built-in Text-to-Speech (TTS) — Read Aloud • Listen to your ebooks hands-free like an audiobook • Real-time sentence highlighting • Automatic page turning • Great for multitasking or resting your eyes Automatic iCloud Sync • Sync books across iPhone and iPad • Reading progress, bookmarks & highlights stay updated • Secure and private — powered by your personal iCloud Smart Library & Collections • Organize your books into custom collections • Create multiple bookshelves for different genres, authors, or projects • Quickly add or move books between collections • Smart sorting by recent reads so your current book is always easy to find • Full Table of Contents navigation Privacy First • EpubReader never tracks your reading habits. • No analytics tracking. • No data selling. • No mandatory sign-ups. • All books stay on your device or securely in your personal iCloud. Download EpubReader today and enjoy a distraction-free reading experience. Note: EpubReader supports DRM-free EPUB files only. DRM-protected books are not supported.
Local Narrator
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Your books, read aloud — privately, on your iPhone. Local Narrator turns any EPUB or text-based PDF in your library into a real audiobook, narrated by a warm neural voice that runs entirely on the Apple Neural Engine. Nothing leaves your device. There is no cloud. There is no account. There is nothing to opt out of. — BRING YOUR OWN BOOKS — Drop in EPUB or PDF files from the Files app, the share sheet, or AirDrop. Your books stay on your iPhone, and the audio they become stays there too. No upload, no forced sync, no backup you didn't ask for. — A REAL NEURAL NARRATOR — Local Narrator runs Kokoro-82M, a state-of-the-art on-device text-to-speech model, on the Apple Neural Engine. The voices are warm, natural, and quietly expressive. When you'd rather not download the model, Apple's built-in system voices work for free. — BILINGUAL, AND SMART ABOUT IT — English and Spanish. Local Narrator detects each book's language and picks a voice trained for it. Spanish voices are still in beta stage. — LIKE AN AUDIOBOOK SHOULD BE — • Background playback that doesn't stop when the screen sleeps • Lock-screen controls — play, pause, +30, −15, scrub • Home and Lock-screen widget with a clean amber progress ring • Sleep timer for reading yourself to sleep • Per-book reading position, automatically saved • Unlimited bookmarks • Adjustable speed from 0.5× to 3.0× • Light parchment or dark charcoal reading themes • Full Dynamic Type and VoiceOver support — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — No accounts. No telemetry. No advertising SDKs. No third-party trackers. The only network call the app ever makes is the optional, one-time download of the Kokoro voice model. After that, everything works in airplane mode. — ONE PURCHASE. YOURS FOREVER. — Free to download and try with one book and Apple's system voices. A single $4.99 in-app purchase ("Local Narrator Full Access") unlocks unlimited books, all neural voices, the full speed range, the widget, the sleep timer, and unlimited bookmarks. No subscription. Family Sharing supported. — BUILT FOR REAL iPhones — iOS 17 and newer. iPhone 15 or later (Pro version recommended), optimised for the Apple Neural Engine. A small, careful app for people who still read.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: EpubReader at none against Local Narrator's 1. EpubReader also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). Local Narrator's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). On price, ads and device support 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
Both are free to download. Local Narrator sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. EpubReader asks for nothing beyond the download.
EpubReader ships an update every 3 months, Local Narrator monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | EpubReader | Local Narrator |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (5 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Penghui Zhao | Carlo Mario Paolo Grimaldi Perez |
In-app purchases
EpubReader
No in-app purchases
Local Narrator
- Local Narrator Full Access$9.99









