Scuba vs TomoTomo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Scuba
Discover and read classic books with a modern, mobile-first approach. This app breaks down stories into digestible beats, using vertical swipes for natural phone navigation. Story recaps and offline reading features help you maintain your reading habit.
- Story beats for easier reading
- Recaps to remember story progress
- Vertical swiping for phone reading
- Home screen widget for current book
- Offline reading support
- Curated bookstore
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Scuba is a new way to read books on your phone. Browse a curated bookstore, then read with Story Beats™, a new reading experience designed for your phone. Natural vertical swiping, beautifully designed pages and Story So Far recaps make books feel at home on your screen. Your first book is free. Features • Story Beats™ designed for reading on your phone • Natural vertical swiping • Story So Far recaps to help you dive back in • Adjustable text size, themes and page design • Home Screen widget for your current book • Offline reading • A curated bookstore of classic books Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
TomoTomo
Seamlessly switch between reading ebooks and listening to audiobooks. Your progress is automatically synced across both formats, ensuring you never lose your place. Enjoy a clean, distraction-free experience with support for standard epub and audiobook files.
- Sync position between epub and audiobook
- Switch between reading and listening
- Automatic position carry-over
- Distraction-free reading
- Supports standard epub and audiobook formats
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Read the book or listen to it. Switch from where you left off. Ask the AI questions about what you're reading. Have it generate images. This isn't a store and it isn't a subscription. If you already own the ebook and the audiobook, however you got them, TomoTomo just works with the files you have. No new library to buy into, no locking your books behind another app's account, no paying Amazon a second time for something you already paid for once. What it does: Reads your own EPUB and PDF files, full screen, nothing in your way Plays your own M4B and MP3 folder audiobooks, with real lock screen controls Pairs books to their audiobooks automatically, or manually if it guesses wrong Highlights the narrated sentence as you read, with word highlighting and a reading window if you want them Finds a passage in the text and jumps your spot to it Lets you highlight and keep notes as you read Asks an AI companion about your book, with spoiler-aware catch-ups Generates illustrations from passages, and custom covers Adjustable font, spacing, and five themes, including true black Playback speed and a sleep timer, because obviously Browses free public-domain books and audiobooks Keeps your files on your device. Reading, listening, page scanning and audio alignment all work without a connection Syncs your position, highlights and stats across your devices using an anonymous account. No email needed unless you choose to sign in No ads, no analytics, no tracking There's also an optional AI companion. Ask questions about the book you're reading, get caught up on the chapters so far, or talk through what just happened. You choose how much of the book it can see: just nearby text, everything up to where you are, or the whole book. Imagine turns a passage you're reading into an illustration, and you can generate a custom cover for any book or audiobook. Nothing is sent until you use one of these, and the app shows you what it will send first. Generated images stay on your device. That's it. No gamification, no login wall, no upsell before you've even started reading, no renting access to books you've already bought. Just your books, staying in sync.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: TomoTomo at free against Scuba's free with in-app purchases. Scuba's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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. Scuba sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and TomoTomo sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Scuba ships an update every 2 days, TomoTomo every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Scuba | TomoTomo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 50 MB | 88 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tim Brown | Tyler Mulvey |
Customer experience
Scuba
TomoTomo
In-app purchases
Scuba
- Scuba Reading Pass$4.991 Month
- Scuba Reading Pass7 Days trial$24.991 Year
TomoTomo
- imagine — 15 images$2.99
- companion — 50 messages$4.99
- pdf audio — 10,000 characters$4.99
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- pdf audio — 25,000 characters$11.99
- pdf audio — 50,000 characters$23.00









