Comparison

Dear Reader vs Readence

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

Head to head
About

Dear Reader

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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.

About

Readence

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Readence turns reading into something you do every day โ€” not something you mean to get back to. Fifteen minutes is the default goal. Meet it and the day is done: the ember fills, the streak survives, and tomorrow asks the same small thing. No targets you have to beat, no reading speed to defend. Consistency is the whole game. A LIBRARY THAT IS ALREADY YOURS Hundreds of classics from Standard Ebooks and the Hungarian Electronic Library, cleared title by title and free to open the moment you sign in. Browse by genre, see how long a book will actually take you, and start reading in one tap. BRING YOUR OWN BOOKS Add EPUB, PDF, TXT, DOCX, RTF, HTML or Markdown from your phone or iCloud. The file itself never leaves your device โ€” we keep the title, the author and a fingerprint, never the text. TWO WAYS TO READ Read the page the ordinary way, or switch on RSVP: one word at a time at a fixed point on screen, so your eyes stop travelling and your attention has nowhere to wander. Set the pace yourself, from a gentle 150 words a minute upwards. Long words are given a little longer. It is a reading mode, not a party trick โ€” and you can leave it off entirely. A STREAK WORTH KEEPING Daily goals, streaks, XP and levels, and eighteen hand-drawn achievements that mark real things: a first week, a month, a finished book, fifty finished books. Two streak freezes so one bad day does not undo a month. FRIENDS, QUIETLY Add the people you actually know โ€” both sides have to agree, so this list only ever fills up on purpose. See who kept the flame lit today, share a book you finished, and let a friend's streak be the reason you open the app at eleven at night. Your shelf is private until you say otherwise โ€” twice: once for the whole shelf, once per book. FREE, AND HONEST ABOUT IT Everything above is free. Ads appear when a session ends, never before it starts, and never in the middle of a chapter. Readence Plus removes them. After a one-time setup, Readence works offline. Your position, your streak and your books are on your phone first and synced when there is a signal. --- Terms of Use (EULA): https://readence.hu/terms Privacy Policy: https://readence.hu/privacy

Screenshots

Dear Reader4 screens
Readence4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Dear Reader at none against Readence's 2. Readence's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 9 days) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads 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. Readence sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Dear Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dear Reader ships an update every 9 days, Readence daily. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Dear Reader versus Readence: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDear ReaderReadence
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysDaily โ€” better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size51 MB43 MB
Age rating12+17+
DeveloperMoonsun YangLajos Gere

In-app purchases

None

Dear Reader

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Readence

Subscriptions2
  • Readence Plus (Monthly)$2.991 Month
  • Readence Plus (Annual)7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Dear Reader free?
Dear Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Readence free?
Readence is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Dear Reader or Readence have ads?
Both Dear Reader and Readence show ads.
Which is updated more often, Dear Reader or Readence?
Dear Reader ships an update every 9 days, and Readence daily. Most recently, Dear Reader was updated on October 19, 2026 and Readence on October 10, 2026.

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