EPUB Reader vs Own Shelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
EPUB Reader
This app allows you to import and read your DRM-free ebook files locally. It supports various formats and offers customizable reading settings for a personalized offline experience. You can also search, highlight, and annotate your books.
- Import DRM-free EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, TXT
- Offline reading with no account
- Customizable text and themes
- Full-book search and highlighting
- Chapter navigation and progress tracking
- Export notes and highlights
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EPUB Reader is an epub reader for the books you already own. Import your DRM-free EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and TXT files into one local ebook library and read them offline, with no account and nothing uploaded. An ebook reader that takes the file as it is. EPUB reflows to your settings. DRM-free MOBI, AZW, AZW3 and PRC open directly, with AZW3 read from its KF8 layer for better typography. FB2 arrives as .fb2, .fb2.zip or .fbz, and TXT is decoded as UTF-8 or GBK, with a long chapterless file split into chapters you can navigate. The format is read from the contents of the file, so a book that lost its extension in mail still opens; what will not open is reported as unsupported or damaged. Reading is paginated, not an endless scroll: tap a side of the page or swipe. The contents list opens on the chapter you are in, the bottom bar carries the chapter name, page X of Y and your percentage through the book, and the progress bar jumps only when you let go. A reopened book starts on the page you left. Search the whole book from two characters up. Every hit arrives with its chapter name and the words around it; tap one and the reader lands there with the match highlighted. Highlight any passage in one of four colors, attach a note or copy it. Bookmarks, highlights and notes share one panel and export as plain text. Type size, page brightness, justified or left-aligned text and the light, sepia and dark paper themes are all free, night reading included. Every pixel of the reader follows the paper theme, and a book's own CSS cannot turn sepia or dark into dark text on a dark page. Offline books are the normal case here, not a mode you switch on: on a plane, in the subway, in a dead zone on the highway, the library and the book behave the same. At night the dark paper theme and the brightness slider let you read beside someone who is asleep. Studying, you highlight what matters, write your thought next to it, then export chapter, progress, passage and note into your notes app. Most of what sits beside this app in search is a different product. Content platforms hand you a catalog and want you signed in. Converters turn one format into another. Borrowing apps need a library card. Read-aloud apps are built around a voice. This one opens the files that are already yours and stays out of the way. • Open DRM-free EPUB, MOBI, AZW, AZW3, PRC, FB2 and TXT files • Format read from file contents, even with a wrong extension • TXT in UTF-8 or GBK, long files split into navigable chapters • Import several files in one go and get a single summary • Ebook library as a cover grid, three to six columns • Search by title or author, filter by reading, not started or finished • Sort by recently read, recently added, title or author to organize the shelf • Continue Reading card for the book you had open last • Page turns by tap or swipe, with a draggable progress bar • Contents list, chapter name, page X of Y and whole-book percentage • Full-book search with chapter name and context per hit • Four highlight colors, notes and copy from the selection bar • Bookmarks, highlights and notes in one panel, exportable as text • Line spacing, page margins and font family (Pro) Your books and your reading position stay in this app's storage on the device: no account, no sync, no record of what you read. To be clear about the edges: no PDF, no comic archives, no DOC or CHM, no conversion between formats, no way into books locked by another store's DRM, no text-to-speech, no audiobooks, no translation, no dictionary. The free library holds three books; EPUB Reader Pro lifts that limit and unlocks line spacing, page margins and font family. Bring your own files, drop them in and start reading. Terms of Use: https://zeroplay.io/docs/legal/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://zeroplay.io/docs/legal/privacy-policy
Own Shelf
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Welcome to your Own Shelf. Import any EPUB you own and press play. The text rolls like a teleprompter or the credits at the end of a film, so you can sit back and read hands free. SET YOUR OWN PACE Set the roll anywhere from 60 to 450 words per minute. Tap to pause, tap to resume. A floating HUD shows your progress, time remaining, and words per minute, then tucks away so you can focus. YOUR LIBRARY, ORGANISED Import EPUBs you own, including public-domain books from libraries such as Project Gutenberg, and they appear in a clean grid with real cover art extracted from each file. Press and hold to remove a title. Pull down to refresh. Every book remembers exactly where you left off. CHAPTER NAVIGATION Open the chapter sheet to see the full table of contents, grouped into Front Matter and Story. Tap any chapter to jump straight there. A "Skip to start of book" button appears automatically when you're in a preface or copyright page. BOOKMARKS Tap the bookmark icon to save your spot. View all bookmarks with percentage and age, jump back instantly, or delete ones you no longer need. Bookmarks are stored by character offset so they survive changes to font size. READING STREAKS Build a daily reading habit. Own Shelf tracks your streak with milestone badges at 3, 7, 14, 30, 100, and 365 days. A weekly chart shows your reading activity at a glance, and a warning style nudges you when your streak is about to break. MAKE IT YOURS Choose from Light, Sepia, or Dark themes. Pick Sans, Serif, or Mono fonts. Step text size from 14 to 56 px. All preferences persist across your entire library. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything stays on your device. EPUBs are opened and parsed entirely on your iPhone. Own Shelf has no server and makes no network requests, so your files and reading never leave your device. Your library, bookmarks, reading position, and preferences are all stored locally. No accounts, no cloud sync, no tracking. Your reading is your own.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Own Shelf at none against EPUB Reader's 2. Own Shelf also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. EPUB Reader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per 7 days. Own Shelf asks for nothing beyond the download.
EPUB Reader ships an update every 2 months, Own Shelf every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | EPUB Reader | Own Shelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 104 MB | 33 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ZeroPlay Ltd. | DANIELLA TOPPLE |
In-app purchases
EPUB Reader
- Weekly3 Days trial$5.997 Days
- Monthly3 Days trial$14.991 Month
Own Shelf
No in-app purchases









