Comparison

Star Document Reader vs Dear Reader

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

Head to head
About

Star Document Reader

Features
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Star Readers is a smart, modern reading tool for people who want to read documents, e-books and text files with clarity and comfort. Use AI features to summarize texts and understand them even faster. Whether you open PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, CSV, Markdown, JSON or log files, Star Reader brings many useful formats into one clean app and keeps the focus where it belongs: on your content. It turns your mobile device into a versatile, elegant reader for everyday use, study, work and personal reading journeys. Highlights: - Elegant, minimal reader design - EPUB chapter view with navigation - MOBI reading with chapter and section navigation for DRM-free files - PDF viewer with annotations and image export - Share PDF annotations as images - Read text, Markdown, JSON and log files - View CSV files as a table or raw text - Favorites and recently opened files - Automatic reading position saving - Adjustable text size, line height and font style - Light, dark and system theme modes - English and German language options - File explorer for supported local files on your device Star Readers is built for longer reading sessions, with calm colors, clear typography and an interface that stays out of the way. Open local files, return to important documents faster and read e-books, notes, logs or tables in one app. Ideal for: - E-books and long-form reading - PDFs with visual annotations - Local document collections - Markdown notes - CSV files - JSON and log files - Focused reading by day or night Supported file extensions: .txt .csv .md .markdown .json .log .epub .pdf .mobi

About

Dear Reader

Read full description

Dear Reader is a quiet reading reflection journal for people who want to remember books by what they made them think, not by how many pages they finished. You do not need to complete a book to keep something meaningful from it. One sentence that stopped you, and one thought in your own words, can be enough. Dear Reader helps you save that moment as a discovery and revisit it later. โ–  One sentence, one thought Save a sentence from a book and add the thought it sparked. The original sentence and your reflection stay together on one discovery card. โ–  Reading without completion pressure Dear Reader is not built around finished books, page counts, timers, or productivity goals. It is built around the small moments when a book makes you pause. โ–  Prompts when the blank page feels hard Gentle prompts and quick reaction chips help you begin your reflection. You can write a sentence, a paragraph, or just enough to remember why the moment mattered. โ–  Revisit what you saved A saved sentence can meet you again later. Return to past discoveries and notice how the same words feel different with time. โ–  A bookshelf shaped by discoveries Your bookshelf is not only a list of books. It quietly shows the thoughts and discoveries each book left behind. โ–  Connect reflections across books Use tags to find discoveries that share a theme, even when they came from different books. Over time, scattered sentences begin to show the shape of your thinking. โ–  A private, local-first space Dear Reader starts without an app account. Your sentences, thoughts, books, and settings are stored primarily on your device. There is no public feed, follower count, or reading competition. Dear Reader is for readers who: - save good sentences but rarely return to them - want a reading journal without writing long entries every day - care more about reflection than finishing more books - want to keep book sentences and personal thoughts together - prefer a calm private space over a social reading feed Keep what books made you think. One sentence and one thought can become a reading habit that lasts.

Screenshots

Star Document Reader4 screens
Dear Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Star Document Reader at none against Dear Reader's shown. Star Document Reader also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 9 days) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Star Document Reader ships an update daily, Dear Reader every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Star Document Reader versus Dear Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStar Document ReaderDear Reader
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily โ€” betterEvery 9 days
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size41 MB51 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperMarkus StadiMoonsun Yang

In-app purchases

None

Star Document Reader

No in-app purchases

None

Dear Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Star Document Reader free?
Star Document Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dear Reader free?
Dear Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Star Document Reader or Dear Reader have ads?
Dear Reader shows ads; Star Document Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, Star Document Reader or Dear Reader?
Star Document Reader ships an update daily, and Dear Reader every 9 days. Most recently, Star Document Reader was updated on October 15, 2026 and Dear Reader on October 19, 2026.

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