Comparison

Lumen Reader vs Folio

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

Head to head
About

Lumen Reader

Features
Read full description

Lumen Reader turns any webpage, EPUB, PDF, or DOCX into a clean audiobook with on-device narration, lock-screen controls, and word-by-word highlights. Paste a link, tap Listen — no ads, no account, no subscription. PASTE A LINK. GET AN AUDIOBOOK. Found a 10,000-word essay you'd never sit down to read? An hour-long blog post? A web-novel chapter buried under five ad slots? Paste the URL into Lumen. The page is stripped of pop-ups, trackers, cookie walls, newsletter dialogs, and "related articles" carousels — then handed to a natural narrator that starts reading aloud while you keep walking, cooking, or driving. POCKET AUDIO PLAYER Lumen feels like a podcast app, not a reading app, when you want it to. The big Listen button is on every book and every imported article. Lock-screen controls let you play, pause, scrub, skip back 15 s, or jump chapter without unlocking your phone. AirPods double-tap, CarPlay, Dynamic Island, and Bluetooth headphones all work out of the box. Background audio keeps the narrator going when the screen is off. OR READ INSTEAD The same content is also a beautifully typeset, minimalist reader. Three themes (Dark, Sepia, Light) and four type families (Georgia serif, sans, rounded, OpenDyslexic) tuned for multi-hour sessions. Sentence-granular highlights in five colours, per-chapter bookmarks, and a notes catalog searchable across every book. A soft amber word-highlight scrolls along the page in time with the audio when you read and listen at the same time. BUILT-IN LIBRARY Open the app and there's already something to read or listen to. A curated catalog of public-domain titles is one tap away: • The Holy Bible (King James Version) • The Holy Qur-ān (public-domain English translation) • The Bhagavad Gita • The Dhammapada · Tao Te Ching · Analects of Confucius • Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) · The Art of War · Walden • Pride and Prejudice · Frankenstein · Dracula · Moby-Dick • Sherlock Holmes · Alice in Wonderland · The Iliad & The Odyssey • …plus developer docs (Snowflake, Databricks) rendered on-device. Books download straight from canonical archives like Project Gutenberg in seconds — no account, yours forever. YOUR OWN FILES TOO Drop EPUB, PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, or HTML in from Files, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. Lumen parses chapters into the same clean reader and audiobook UI. ONE LIBRARY ON EVERY DEVICE iCloud syncs your reading progress, highlights, notes, and imported books across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro — silently, with no login. Start a chapter on your phone, finish it on your iPad with the audio resuming at the exact word. OFFLINE BY DEFAULT Every page and audio session is generated on-device. Once a book is downloaded, you never need a signal to re-open it. PRIVACY No account. No analytics. No tracking. Highlights, notes, and progress stay in your own iCloud — never on our servers. The app talks only to the page you explicitly paste, or runs entirely offline against the bundled library. FINE PRINT Every catalog title is public domain or permissively licensed. Lumen does not bundle copyrighted prose and does not redistribute from its own servers — downloads go straight from the canonical archive to your device. For pages or files you import, you're responsible for the rights. Read it. Hear it. Pocket it.

About

Folio

This app helps you meticulously track your reading progress, manage your book library, and cultivate a consistent reading habit. It allows for detailed logging of quotes, reviews, and reading statistics, offering a private and organized space for bibliophiles.

Highlights
  • Organize books into shelves
  • Save and sync favorite quotes
  • Rate books with quarter-star precision
  • Import from Goodreads/StoryGraph
  • Search, manual entry, or ISBN scan
  • Track pages, minutes, and streaks
  • Set reading goals
Features
Read full description

Folio is a private book tracker and reading journal for keeping your books, TBR, reading goals, quotes, reviews, and progress in one focused place. Track what you're reading, build a daily reading habit, import your existing library from Goodreads or StoryGraph, add books quickly, and see your progress without turning reading into work. With Folio you can: - Organize books into Want to Read, Reading, and Read shelves - Save favorite quotes with page or percent markers, backed up and synced with your library - Rate books with quarter-star precision, publish written reviews when signed in, browse public reader reviews, and like the ones that help - Import Goodreads and StoryGraph CSV exports while keeping your local data - Search for books, enter them manually, or scan ISBN barcodes - Track pages, minutes, sessions, streaks, and reading days - Set reading goals for books, pages, time, days read, or streaks - Plan upcoming reads with target months and gentle pace guidance - See reading stats for pages, time, books finished, and long-term habits - Keep your current book and timer nearby with widgets and Live Activities - Find buy links from retailers like Amazon, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo where available - Export your library when you want a copy of your data Folio is built for readers who want a beautiful book tracker without social pressure, ads, or ad tracking. Your library stays personal, organized, and easy to come back to.

Screenshots

Lumen Reader4 screens
Folio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lumen Reader at none against Folio's 5. Folio's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Folio sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Lumen Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lumen Reader ships an update every 4 days, Folio every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Lumen Reader versus Folio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumen ReaderFolio
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—5 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size98 MB48 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSAMANTH GURRAMMiguel Pacheco

In-app purchases

None

Lumen Reader

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Folio

Subscriptions4
  • Folio Plus Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Folio Plus Annual$8.991 Year
  • Folio Plus Annual7 Days trial$8.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Folio Plus Annual14 Days trial$8.991 Year
One-time1
  • Folio Plus Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is Lumen Reader free?
Lumen Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Folio free?
Folio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Lumen Reader or Folio have ads?
Neither Lumen Reader nor Folio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lumen Reader or Folio?
Lumen Reader ships an update every 4 days, and Folio every 3 days. Most recently, Lumen Reader was updated on September 8, 2026 and Folio on September 11, 2026.

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