Bare Reader vs ReadIt
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Bare Reader
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Bare Reader is a calm, distraction-free way to read your EPUB books on iPhone. No accounts. No ads. No sync nags. No feed pulling you away from the page. Just your library and your books โ stored privately on your device. Less than 5MB in size, Bare Reader is as lightweight as it gets. READING, THE WAY IT SHOULD FEEL Open a book and everything else disappears. A clean, paginated reading view lets you move through pages the way that feels natural to you: swipe, tap the edges, or use the on-screen page buttons. PRIVATE BY DESIGN LeafReader works entirely offline. Your books and your reading never leave your device: there's no account to create and no data collected. What you read is nobody's business but yours. Bring your own EPUBs and enjoy a reader that gets out of the way. Bare Reader is completely free to use. If you enjoy the app, you can optionally purchase a one-time license to remove the occasional support reminder. Purchasing doesn't unlock anything or change how the app works; it's simply a way to support ongoing development.
ReadIt
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Turn the books you already own into audiobooks. Import any EPUB and ReadIt reads it aloud using the voices already on your iPhone. No streaming, no catalog, no account. Your library stays on your device. WHAT YOU CAN DO โข Import any EPUB you own โ books you bought, downloaded, or wrote yourself โข Listen with your phone's built-in voices, offline, with no network needed โข Follow along as each line is highlighted while it's spoken โข Pick up exactly where you left off, in every book โข Adjust speed, voice, type size, margins, and page colour โข Read in Paper, Sepia, or Night, whichever suits the room BUILT FOR LONG READING SESSIONS Playback continues with the screen off, and works from the Lock Screen and Control Center. A daily reading goal and a streak calendar keep the habit visible without nagging. STARTS WITH BOOKS INSIDE A handful of public-domain classics come bundled, so there's something to listen to the moment you open the app. YOUR LIBRARY STAYS YOURS Books, progress, and settings live in the app's own storage on your device. There is no account, and no copy of your library on our servers. Deleting the app deletes all of it. READIT PRO Free includes 2 hours of listening a day, up to 40 hours a month. ReadIt Pro removes both limits: โข Unlimited listening, with no daily cap โข No monthly hour limit โข Every book in your library, start to finish Monthly or yearly. Cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://readit.garcade.in/terms Privacy Policy: https://readit.garcade.in/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
Bare Reader and ReadIt are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters โ price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them โ neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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
Both are free to download. Bare Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ReadIt sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Bare Reader ships an update every 5 days, ReadIt every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bare Reader | ReadIt |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days โ better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 16.4 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 153 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nathaniel Rayestu Abdulrachman | Om Sharma |
In-app purchases
Bare Reader
- Support Development$1.99
ReadIt
- ReadIt Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- ReadIt Pro Yearly$19.991 Year









