Comparison

Readstead vs Libratory

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

Head to head
About

Readstead

Features
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Readstead is the reading tracker built for people who want to read more and actually stick with it. Whether you're chasing an annual goal, exploring a new genre, or just logging your progress, Readstead gives you the tools to build a real reading habit and keep your entire library in one place. TRACK YOUR READING Log pages as you go and watch your progress in real time. Add books by searching or by scanning the barcode on the back cover. Organize everything into Currently Reading, Finished, Want to Read, and Did Not Finish. BUILD A READING STREAK Your home screen shows your reading streak, a daily heatmap, and all the books you're actively reading. Everything you need to stay motivated and pick up where you left off. READING CHALLENGES Join curated challenges across genre, author, era, and award winners - from Stephen King's complete works to the BookTok essentials to the 2025 Hugo winners. Or create your own challenge and share it with friends. Track your progress book by book and earn a badge when you finish. MONTHLY RECAPS Create a beautiful, shareable reading recap any time of year. Choose from multiple themes and layouts to highlight your books read, pages logged, and stats. Save to your camera roll or share directly. BADGES & ACHIEVEMENTS Earn badges as you hit milestones - streaks, books finished, genres explored, and more. MORE - Import your Goodreads library to get started in minutes - Rate every book you finish - Full reading activity history at a glance Readstead is built for people who take their reading seriously. Start your first streak today.

About

Libratory

Features
Read full description

Libratory plays an audiobook over the real pages of the book, lighting up the sentence and the word being spoken as it reads. Double-tap a sentence to hear it again. Books are made on your Mac with the free Libratory desktop tool, which pairs a book with its narration and saves both as one synced EPUB. Send that file to your iPhone or iPad with AirDrop or the Files app, tap + on the shelf, and press play. Nothing is streamed, no account is needed, and everything works offline. The app comes with a short three-chapter guide already on the shelf. It is itself a synced book, so reading it is the fastest way to see what the app does. READ AND LISTEN • The voice plays over the printed page, with the sentence and the word highlighted as they are spoken • Double-tap a sentence to hear it from there • Three views of a synced book: Page shows the whole sheet with its pictures and tables, Column crops to the printed words, Text reflows the words at a size you choose • Playback continues with the screen locked, with the chapter, cover and controls on the lock screen • Change the speed and the highlight keeps up READ IN TWO LANGUAGES • A book exported with a translation opens with the original and the translation together, each with its own voice • Tap a word to hear the book from there, or to see what it means in the other language • Sentence pairs reads each sentence and then its translation; each language keeps its own speed, plays each sentence up to five times, and can pause to let you say it back • The original can stay on its printed page beside the translation JUST READ, OR JUST LISTEN • Open an EPUB ebook you already own and read it in Text view • Open an M4B audiobook, pick a chapter, and listen with the screen off PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF • The app remembers your place in every book and shows which parts you have heard • Hold a word to save it, put it in a group, and add a note; find it again in Marks • Search the book and your saved words, then jump back to read or listen KEEP YOUR LIBRARY IN ORDER • Folders and tags for your books, and a search across the whole library • Each book says which chapters light up word by word and which sentence by sentence SHELVES • Pair your phone with the desktop app by scanning the code on its Phone page, and every book it has made is a tap away over your own Wi‑Fi or Tailscale • A public shelf of free, narrated classics is built in, with a two-language Frankenstein among them • Each book says what it offers — read + listen, two languages, words or sentences lit — with its voice, length and a description PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no sign-in, no tracking. The app talks only to the shelves you add and the public shelf, to list and download books; what you read stays on your device. Works on iPhone and iPad with iOS 15.6 or later. On iOS 15 and 16, a simpler reader includes Pages and Text, playback, highlighting, chapters, saved progress, and two-language books in two panes. Bookmarks, search, folders and tags require iOS 17 or later. Synced books are made with the Libratory desktop app for Mac, free at libratory.dev. Plain EPUB ebooks and M4B audiobooks open as they are.

Screenshots

Readstead4 screens
Libratory4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Libratory at 3 against Readstead's 1. Libratory also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Readstead ships an update every 6 days, Libratory every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Readstead versus Libratory: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadsteadLibratory
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid SchulerPetar Sabev

In-app purchases

None

Readstead

No in-app purchases

None

Libratory

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Readstead free?
Readstead is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Libratory free?
Libratory is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Readstead or Libratory have ads?
Neither Readstead nor Libratory shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Readstead or Libratory?
Readstead ships an update every 6 days, and Libratory every 4 days. Most recently, Readstead was updated on October 24, 2026 and Libratory on October 24, 2026.

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