Afterglow vs Marca
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Afterglow
Experience ebooks with a personalized ambiance. This reader intelligently creates unique themes from book cover art, offering a clean interface with customizable typography and layout for comfortable reading.
- Ebook reading interface
- Cover Tone themes
- Custom ambiance per book
- Typography controls
- Layout controls
- Light and dark modes
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A beautiful way to read ebooks. With Afterglow, give each book it's own ambience with Cover Tone themes, intelligently created from the book's cover art. Key features • Ebook reading with a clean, focused interface • Custom ambience for each book • Typography and layout controls for comfort and style • Light and dark reading options
Marca
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Read more. Scroll less. Ten minutes a day adds up to about 9 books a year. Marca tracks every book, keeps your daily streak, and can lock the apps that eat your evenings until you've read. TRACK EVERY BOOK - Add a book in seconds: search, scan the barcode, or type it in - Shelves for your TBR, what you're reading, finished and set aside - Ratings, notes, and the quotes worth keeping - A yearly reading challenge - Home Screen widgets with the book you're reading BUILD THE HABIT - A tiny daily goal in minutes or pages (10 minutes to start) - A calm reading timer, with a Live Activity on your Lock Screen - A streak that forgives one missed day a week - One reminder a day, at the time you pick READ FIRST (APP BLOCKER) - Pick the apps that eat your evenings - They stay locked until you've met today's reading goal, then open until midnight - Something urgent? Two 5-minute passes a day - Free for 1 app. Marca+ locks as many as you like, and Strict mode removes the passes - Built on Apple's Screen Time: Marca never sees which apps you chose SEE YOUR READING - Books, pages, hours and streaks - How many days reading opened your apps - Your month in books, and a card for every finished book, ready to share MARCA+ Read First without limits, the full insights (genre, format, pace), every theme, unlimited quotes and a second daily goal. - Yearly: a 7-day free trial for new subscribers, then the yearly price shown in the app - Monthly, or pay once for lifetime access - Payment is charged to your Apple ID when you confirm. Subscriptions, including after the free trial, renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No feed. No ads. Your reading stays on your device. Terms of Use (EULA): https://adabastudio.github.io/marca/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://adabastudio.github.io/marca/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Afterglow at none against Marca's 3. Marca's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.4). 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
Both are free to download. Marca sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Afterglow asks for nothing beyond the download.
Afterglow ships an update every 6 days, Marca every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Afterglow | Marca |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 11 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.4 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mohammad Qureshi | Adrien Guinard |
In-app purchases
Afterglow
No in-app purchases
Marca
- Marca+ Monthly$4.991 Month
- Marca+ Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Marca+ Lifetime$49.99









