ScrollWizard vs SnailRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
ScrollWizard
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Your books deserve a better home. ScrollWizard is a full EPUB and PDF reader for people who care how they read -- not just what. Tune the type to taste -- font, size, line height, spacing, reading width, margins, alignment, hyphenation -- and override any of it per book. Speed-read with a built-in focus engine. No subscription, ever. Pay once, own it forever. READING, YOUR WAY -- 12 fonts including OpenDyslexic, with size, line height, and letter and word spacing -- Text alignment, paragraph indent and spacing, hyphenation -- Reading Width control sets your line length and centres the column on wide screens, plus top and bottom margins -- 5 built-in themes (Light, Dark, Sepia, Solarized Dark, Nord) plus unlimited custom themes -- Page-turn animations: slide, fade, or none -- Per-book overrides -- some books just read better in a different font -- A Lock Screen Live Activity shows your reading progress at a glance FOCUS READING (RSVP SPEED READER) -- Words appear one at a time at the pace you set, from 100 to 1500 WPM -- A focus mode: fewer distractions, one word at a time, your pace -- Adjustable word highlighting and a tunable pause curve -- Sentence navigation: swipe back or forward with full context -- Eases back up to speed after a pause, so you never lose the thread SPLIT READER (iPad) -- Two books side by side with a draggable divider -- Paragraph-proportional sync keeps both sides aligned -- Reference pane: open footnotes or an appendix beside the text without losing your place VOCABULARY & ANNOTATIONS -- Select any word for an instant dictionary definition -- Save words with their sentence and book attached, then export them to a flashcard file (Anki, TSV, or JSON) -- Highlight in 5 colors, with optional notes -- Export every annotation to Markdown, Obsidian, Notion, Logseq, or JSON -- no caps, no publisher limits -- Full-text search within any book YOUR LIBRARY -- Smart collections that sort themselves by your rules -- Browse free books from Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, and Feedbooks, plus Standard Ebooks for Patrons Circle members -- Connect your own Calibre server -- iCloud sync for books and reading position, in a folder you can actually see -- Cover grid with sorting, filtering, metadata editing, and batch actions READING STATISTICS -- Daily reading charts with 7- and 30-day views, goals, pages, and time -- See how far you have come -- not how far you have to go No ads. No analytics. No feed pulling you somewhere else. No account to make. Just you and the book. The base reader is completely free. Advanced Wizard Mode -- the RSVP Speed Reader, the iPad Split Reader, and custom font import -- is a one-time purchase. No subscription. No recurring charges. One wizard, one price, forever. Reflowable EPUB and PDF. App available in 12 languages.
SnailRead
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SnailRead is a calm, focused reader for people who want to read slowly and remember more. Open your PDFs and EPUBs in a clean, distraction-free space designed for deep reading โ not endless scrolling. Highlight what matters, add your own notes, and let everything you mark collect in one place you'll actually revisit. WHY SNAILREAD โข Built for focus. A quiet, beautiful reading surface with themes for day and night, adjustable fonts, spacing, and margins. โข Your own engine. A purpose-built EPUB engine plus rock-solid PDF rendering โ your books just work. โข Read slowly, on purpose. Reading goals, daily streaks, and gentle reminders that keep the habit without the pressure. HIGHLIGHTS, NOTES & QUOTES โข Highlight in color and attach notes as you read. โข Every quote and note gathers on one screen โ search, review, and come back to your best ideas. โข Reminders and spaced review bring your highlights back over time, so the ideas you loved actually stick. AN AI ASSISTANT THAT RESPECTS THE BOOK โข Ask about any passage and get a clear explanation โ in your own language. โข Instant dictionary for any word, in context. โข Chapter summaries when you want the gist. Your books stay yours: excerpts are sent securely only when you ask, and aren't stored after the answer. SEE YOUR PROGRESS โข Reading time, streaks, most-read books, and your most active day. โข "Books this year" goal and a yearly "Year in Books" recap. โข Home- and Lock-Screen widgets: continue reading, quote of the day, word of the day, streak, and goals. BRING YOUR LIBRARY โข Import PDF and EPUB from Files, Mail, the web, and more. โข Connect OPDS catalogs to browse and download. โข Convert other formats (like DjVu) to read them too. โข iCloud keeps your highlights, notes, and progress in sync across iPhone and iPad. READ TOGETHER (OPTIONAL) โข Add friends by code, share what you're reading, and react to each other's quotes โ privacy-first, and entirely up to you. Your notes are never shared. FREE & PLUS SnailRead is free to read your own books locally. SnailRead Plus unlocks sync, advanced stats, export, and themes. AI plans add the assistant, dictionary, and summaries. Subscriptions auto-renew; manage or cancel anytime in Settings. Read slowly. Think deeply. Remember more. Terms: https://snailread.app/terms Privacy: https://snailread.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
ScrollWizard and SnailRead are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters โ price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them โ neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. ScrollWizard sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and SnailRead sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ScrollWizard | SnailRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac โ better |
| Requires iOS | 16.2 โ better | 17.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Merijn Douwes | Yevhen Lebediev |
In-app purchases
ScrollWizard
- Advanced Wizard Mode$4.99
SnailRead
- Plus7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- AI7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- AI Pro7 Days trial$19.991 Month
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- Plus7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- AI7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- AI Pro7 Days trial$149.991 Year
- SnailRead Plus Lifetime$79.99









