Comparison

Lumen vs ViText

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

Head to head
About

Lumen

This app acts as a browser that remembers what you read, building a personal knowledge base from engaged pages. It allows you to ask questions in plain English about your reading history, with answers generated by an on-device AI. All your data remains private and offline.

Highlights
  • On-device AI knowledge base
  • Plain English questioning
  • Automatic content organization
  • Private and offline browsing
  • Tracker blocking
  • Source citation for answers
Read full description

Lumen is a browser with a memory. Most browsers forget the second you close a tab. Lumen does not. As you read, it quietly builds a personal knowledge base from the pages you actually engage with, and then lets you ask questions about any of it in plain English, answered by an AI model that runs entirely on your device. Nothing you read, nothing you ask, and nothing Lumen learns about you ever leaves your phone. WHAT IT DOES Lumen reads along with you. It distinguishes between pages you genuinely read and pages you opened and swiped away, and it extracts the meaningful content from the ones that stuck. That content gets summarized, embedded, and organized into a searchable knowledge base, all on-device. Later, when you want to find something, you do not have to dig through history or remember which tab it was in. You just ask: "What did I read about sourdough starters last week?" "Summarize that article about the new M-series chips." "What were the main arguments in that piece I read on Tuesday?" Every answer cites the pages it came from, so you can jump straight back to the source. AUTO-ORGANIZED Your reading sorts itself into a clean hierarchy: Topics, Websites, and Pages. Each level carries its own AI-generated summary, so you can scan what you have been learning at a glance. No tagging, no folders to maintain. Lumen handles it in the background. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Lumen has no server. There is quite literally nothing to send. On-device LLM: a quantized Llama 3.2 model runs locally through Apple's MLX framework. Local SQLite storage: your reading history, summaries, and embeddings never leave the device. Built-in privacy: tracker blocking, third-party cookie blocking, and fingerprint resistance. Secure: HTTPS-only by default, with mixed-content blocking. No strings attached: no accounts, no sync, no telemetry, no ads. The AI weights download once on first launch (~700 MB). After that, everything works fully offline: browsing, reading, asking, answering. BUILT FOR iOS Lumen is written from scratch in Swift and SwiftUI, designed specifically for iPhone and iPad. It uses Apple's own frameworks wherever it can: NLEmbedding for semantic search, WKWebView for browsing, SQLite with FTS5 for full-text queries, and MLX Swift for on-device inference. Zero third-party trackers. Zero external services. WHO IT'S FOR While most browsers treat the web as a feed to scroll past, Lumen treats it as a library worth keeping. If you read a lot online and constantly think "I know I saw something about this recently but I cannot find it again," Lumen is for you. Researchers, students, writers, developers, and lifelong learners. You do not need to change how you browse. Browse normally, and Lumen takes care of the rest. REQUIREMENTS iOS 18 or later. iPhone with Apple Silicon recommended for the fastest on-device AI performance.

About

ViText

Generate natural-sounding replies with AI suggestions directly from your keyboard. Choose from various tones to craft human-like responses. This privacy-focused app requires you to provide context manually, ensuring your conversations remain private.

Highlights
  • AI reply suggestions
  • Multiple tone options
  • Keyboard-first workflow
  • Privacy-focused context input
  • Image context support
  • Rewrite mode
Features
Read full description

ViText helps you reply faster with natural AI suggestions right from your keyboard. Paste the message, pick a tone, and get reply options that feel human, concise, and ready to send. ViText is privacy-first: it does not read your SMS, contacts, or conversations automatically. You stay in control by providing only the context you choose. Features: - AI reply suggestions - Rewrite mode - Friendly, confident, flirty, professional, short, and normal tones - Keyboard-first workflow - Companion app for setup, account, and subscription - Image context support - No SMS or contacts access Text with the right vibe.

Screenshots

Lumen4 screens
ViText4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lumen at none against ViText's 2. Lumen also leads on ratings volume (4 vs 1). ViText's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ViText sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Lumen asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Lumen against 5.0 for ViText. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lumen ships an update every 2 weeks, ViText every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Lumen versus ViText: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumenViText
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB35 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDaniel KosukhinMoussa Ali Adam

In-app purchases

None

Lumen

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

ViText

Subscriptions2
  • VibeText Pro Monthly$7.991 Month
  • VibeText Pro Yearly$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Lumen free?
Lumen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ViText free?
ViText is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lumen or ViText?
Lumen and ViText are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Lumen or ViText have ads?
Neither Lumen nor ViText shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lumen or ViText?
Lumen ships an update every 2 weeks, and ViText every 6 days. Most recently, Lumen was updated on September 28, 2026 and ViText on October 7, 2026.

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