HTML Reader Offline vs Pagira
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HTML Reader Offline
This app allows users to read local HTML and ZIP files offline. It's designed for developers, students, and learners to access documentation and course materials on their devices without an internet connection. Features include smart ZIP support, a built-in reader, table of contents, bookmarks, and reading progress tracking.
- Offline HTML and ZIP file reading
- Smart ZIP support with index.html detection
- Built-in WKWebView reader
- Auto-generated table of contents
- Bookmarks and reading progress saving
- Light, Dark, and Auto themes
- Long-image export
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Open HTML files and ZIP websites on iPhone and iPad — completely offline. No account, no tracking, no ads. HTML Reader Offline turns your device into a portable library for local web content. Save a tutorial, a documentation site, an exported notebook or any .html / .zip bundle, then read it anywhere: on a plane, on the subway, or somewhere with no signal at all. WHY IT'S DIFFERENT • Truly offline. Files live on your device. Nothing is uploaded and no connection is ever required. • Single files or whole sites. Import one .html page, or a ZIP bundle with its CSS, scripts and images intact. • A private space per document. Each document loads in its own isolated storage area, so two tutorials never overwrite each other's saved state or progress. • Fits every screen. The interface adapts to the actual display — compact on a phone, spacious on an iPad or a folding phone's inner screen. READING THAT GETS OUT OF THE WAY • Automatic table of contents built from the page headings — jump to any section in one tap. • Full-text search inside the page, with a match counter and one-tap navigation between hits. • Bookmarks for the passages you want to return to. • Highlights in five colours, each with an optional note; they stay anchored to the text through font changes and rotation. • Adjustable font size, light / dark / sepia themes, and a subtle progress bar. • Reopens exactly where you left off. A LIBRARY YOU CAN ACTUALLY MANAGE • Folders with drag-and-drop, so documents stay organised. • Library-wide search: look across every document at once and land straight on the matching paragraph. • Reading statistics: total time, today's time, your daily streak, and a 7-day chart. • Backup and restore: export the entire library — documents, progress, bookmarks, highlights and settings — into one ZIP file, and bring it back whenever you need it. SHARE WHAT YOU'RE READING • Send a document to anyone as a single .html file, or as a ZIP bundle they can open in any browser or re-import into the app. PRIVACY, PLAINLY No sign-up, no analytics, no advertising, no third-party trackers. The app never makes a network request for you, and your files never leave your device. Tip Jar (optional): Settings → Tip Jar offers a one-time, voluntary tip. It unlocks nothing — every feature in the app is free for everyone. Have a question or an idea? The support link below reaches me directly.
Pagira
This app displays standalone HTML sites, individual HTML pages, PDFs, and EPUB books and comics offline. It renders HTML content like a browser, supporting CSS, JavaScript, and WebAssembly. Users can highlight, take notes, and search across files and even scanned PDFs.
- Full HTML rendering with CSS, JavaScript, and WebAssembly
- Built-in PDF reader with continuous scrolling and scaling
- EPUB and comic support (CBZ, CBR, etc.) with various reading modes
- Highlighting, notes, and bookmarks
- Offline access to all content
- Search across folders and scanned PDFs
- iCloud sync for reading progress and notes
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Pagira displays your standalone HTML sites, individual HTML pages and your PDFs directly on your iPhone and iPad, even without a connection, and also reads your EPUB books and comics. Where most readers settle for a rough rendering, Pagira opens a real, complete web folder (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, subfolders) and renders it like a browser, locally. WHO IS IT FOR? Pagira is for anyone who needs to read standalone HTML sites, individual HTML pages, PDFs, books or comics directly on their device, especially offline. Typical uses: - Students whose courses are exported as HTML (medicine, law and other fields), or delivered as e-learning modules. - Technical documentation shipped as a website: electronics, mechanics, engineering manuals, datasheets and reference guides. - Developers and writers previewing static sites and generated documentation (Doxygen, Sphinx, MkDocs, Docusaurus, Storybook, Javadoc). - Reports and exports such as Jupyter notebooks, R Markdown or test reports saved as HTML. - Web pages and articles you want to keep and read later, offline. If your content is an HTML folder, a single page, a PDF, a book or a comic, Pagira is built to open it cleanly. FEATURES - Full HTML rendering: CSS, JavaScript, images and subfolders genuinely work. fetch/XHR, ES modules and even WebAssembly are supported, because the content is served through a real local web origin, not a simple file preview. A site in a .zip is uncompressed and opened in one go. - Built-in PDF reader: continuous scrolling and automatic scaling, go to page, contents and thumbnails, for your local or iCloud PDFs. - EPUB books (light, sepia and dark themes) and comics in CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT: two-page spreads on iPad, manga, vertical scrolling, and Panel by Panel reading, made for iPhone. Word, Markdown, RTF and text too. - Highlights, notes and bookmarks in your books and PDFs. - Search a whole folder, even scanned PDFs (text recognized on the device), and by file name. Ask: ask a question, Pagira opens the page that answers it. Nothing made up. - 100% offline: once the content is on your device, everything opens without a connection. Perfect on a plane, while travelling or in areas with no network. - Local files and iCloud Drive: open from the Files app, your local storage or iCloud Drive, and also via "Open in Pagira" from other apps. - iCloud on demand: iCloud files are streamed as you go (without downloading everything), or downloaded in one tap for a permanent offline copy. Automatic resume after an interruption. - Home: Currently Reading, Favorites, Recent and Offline, with their covers. - iCloud sync: page, highlights, notes and favorites follow you between iPhone and iPad. - History: find every page you have viewed, including navigation within a site, grouped by day, and reopen it exactly where you left off. - Auto-reopen: pick up your last reading as soon as you launch the app (can be turned off). - Web archives: open a saved .webarchive file, rendered offline as is. - Universal: built for iPhone and iPad, in both orientations. - Multilingual: available in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish and Portuguese. PRIVACY Pagira collects nothing, tracks no one and requires no account. Your files stay on your device and in your iCloud: nothing is sent to a server. No ads, no tracking. TRIAL AND PURCHASE Try Pagira for free with all its features (up to 20 document openings, opening a folder doesn't count). After that, a single purchase, with no subscription, unlocks the app for good: Pagira Pro, or Pagira Pro Supporter, shared with your whole family.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HTML Reader Offline at 5.0 against Pagira's 4.0. Pagira's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. HTML Reader Offline sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Pagira sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
HTML Reader Offline holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
HTML Reader Offline ships an update every 6 weeks, Pagira weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HTML Reader Offline | Pagira |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 发达 陈 | Jimmy DE BRUYNE |
Customer experience
HTML Reader Offline
Pagira
In-app purchases
HTML Reader Offline
- A Cup of Coffee$0.99
Pagira
- Buy Me a Coffee$2.99
- Buy Me a Dessert$4.99
- Buy Me a Meal$8.99
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- Pagira Pro$11.99
- Pagira Pro Supporter$22.99








