Comparison

Halm vs Magic Read

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

Head to head
About

Halm

Learn German and English through engaging stories and adapted news articles. Tap any word for instant translation within the sentence context. Words you choose to keep are reviewed using an Spaced Repetition System.

Highlights
  • Read stories and news in German or English
  • Tap words for instant in-sentence translation
  • Spaced repetition for vocabulary review
  • Offline functionality
  • Privacy-focused with no account or analytics
  • Accessibility features
Features
Read full description

Read something you actually want to read — in German or English — and let the words stick. Halm turns short stories and adapted news into reading you can handle at your level. Tap any word to see what it means right here, in this sentence. Keep the ones worth keeping. EPISODES Multi-part stories set where you'd actually be: an apartment viewing, a doctor's waiting room, a Sunday at the lake. Each episode shares vocabulary across its parts, so words return on their own instead of being drilled. TAP ANY WORD Translation runs on your device. Halm reads the whole sentence, not the word alone. KEEP WHAT MATTERS You choose what enters review. Nothing is added behind your back. Kept words return on an FSRS schedule, and Halm shows you counts you can verify — never invented percentages. GERMAN AND ENGLISH Two full tracks. Pick one, or switch whenever you like. NO STREAKS Nothing to break, no leaderboard, no notification guilting you back. Read when you want to read. PRIVACY No account, no sign-up, no third-party analytics or advertising. Halm collects nothing automatically. ACCESSIBILITY VoiceOver throughout, Dynamic Type everywhere, Reduce Motion honored, and color never used as the only signal. Works offline. Requires iOS 26.

About

Magic Read

Features
Read full description

Read, listen and speak any text in a new language. Magic Read turns any text into a lesson: paste an article, a dialogue, song lyrics or your homework, or scan a page from a book. You get pinyin over every word, natural audio and instant translations, then say each sentence out loud and see how you really sound. READ • Pinyin over every word, with one tap • Natural voices, sentence by sentence, with a slow mode • Tap any word for its meaning and save it to a deck • Stories for every level, from A1 to B2 SCAN • Point your camera at a book or worksheet and the text appears, ready to practise • Chinese copied from PDFs is cleaned up automatically SPEAK • Say every sentence out loud and get a score for each word • See accuracy, fluency and completeness • Practise the same text you just read REMEMBER • Review saved words at the right moment, before you forget them • A gentle daily reminder tells you how many words are waiting • Learn and Check modes, plus speaking practice with your cards WATCH • Learn from YouTube videos with interactive subtitles FOR TEACHERS • Share texts and decks with your students through a link PLANS Every new account starts with a 3-day trial of everything. • Free: 1 reading text per day • Pro: unlimited reading, pronunciation scoring, saved texts, decks, review and video Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Terms: https://magicread.app/terms Privacy: https://magicread.app/privacy

Screenshots

Halm4 screens
Magic Read4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Halm at none against Magic Read's 2. Magic Read's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.1). On price, 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. Magic Read sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Halm asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Halm ships an update every 4 weeks, Magic Read every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Halm versus Magic Read: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHalmMagic Read
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size488 MB12 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperTimofey LavrenyukGeorgy Kikvidze

In-app purchases

None

Halm

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Magic Read

Subscriptions2
  • Magic Read Pro (Monthly)$6.991 Month
  • Magic Read Pro (Annual)$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Halm free?
Halm is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Magic Read free?
Magic Read is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Halm or Magic Read have ads?
Neither Halm nor Magic Read shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Halm or Magic Read?
Halm ships an update every 4 weeks, and Magic Read every 2 weeks. Most recently, Halm was updated on October 14, 2026 and Magic Read on October 24, 2026.

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