Comparison

HoneyBooks Romance vs Plain Reader

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

Head to head
About

HoneyBooks Romance

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Escape into stories where every glance lingers, every secret pulls you deeper, and every journey leads to love. HoneyBooks is your home for immersive romance audiobooksβ€”made for the moments when you want to leave the everyday behind. Discover slow burns, forbidden attraction, second chances, dangerous secrets, and sweeping love stories, then listen wherever the story takes you. LISTEN YOUR WAY β€’ Stream complete romance audiobooks β€’ Follow every line with sentence-synced Read Along β€’ Move effortlessly between listening and reading β€’ Adjust playback speed, browse chapters, or drift off with a sleep timer β€’ Keep the story playing in the background and from your Lock Screen FIND YOUR NEXT ESCAPE Explore a growing library across the moods and tropes you love. Listen to complete audiobooks freely, with no account or subscription required. Create an optional account to save favorites, build collections, and sync your listening progress. YOUR STORIES, ALWAYS WITH YOU With an optional account, your library, bookmarks, queue, and listening progress stay in sync across HoneyBooks. Whether you have ten quiet minutes or an entire evening, your next romantic escape is ready. Some stories include mature themes and non-graphic sexual content. Title-level guidance appears before playback. Privacy Policy: https://honeybooksromance.com/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Plain Reader

This app provides a distraction-free reading experience for various file formats including EPUB, TXT, PDF, and comics. It allows direct access to files from cloud storage or external drives without importing or creating copies, offering customizable reading settings and text-to-speech functionality.

Highlights
  • Read directly from Files, iCloud Drive, USB
  • Customizable text and theme settings
  • Text-to-speech in 31 languages
  • Supports ZIP and CBZ archives
  • Right-to-left reading for manga
  • PDF text selection and search
  • Distraction-free reading interface
Features
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Plain Reader opens your books, PDFs, comics and image folders right where they are β€” in Files, iCloud Drive, or on a USB drive or external SSD. No account, no import, no copies. READ, NOTHING ELSE β€’ Menus stay hidden while you read. Tap the center to bring them back. β€’ Pages fill the screen. Swipe, tap the sides, or drag the slider to jump anywhere. β€’ Turn your iPhone or iPad sideways for two-page spreads, with the cover on its own. β€’ Turn pages with a Bluetooth page turner or a keyboard. TXT AND EPUB β€’ Choose the font, size, line spacing, margins and theme β€” pages reflow to fit. β€’ Listen: books in 31 languages are read aloud by natural voices made on your device. β€’ Table of contents, search and bookmarks. TXT text encoding is detected automatically. COMICS AND MANGA β€’ Opens ZIP and CBZ archives without unpacking them β€” even ones with thousands of pages. β€’ Right-to-left reading for manga. β€’ A folder of images opens as one book. PDF β€’ Sharp pages, search, table of contents, thumbnails and text selection. β€’ Two-page spreads on wide screens. YOUR FILES STAY YOURS β€’ Files are read in place and never uploaded anywhere. β€’ Bookmarks and your reading position are kept for every book. β€’ Works with iCloud Drive and external storage through the Files app. PLAIN READER PRO Plain Reader is free with a small banner ad. Watch one short video ad to read without banner ads for 2 hours, or to use Listen for 1 hour. Plain Reader Pro removes all ads and adds unlimited Listen, Auto Page Turn, and blocking the apps you pick while you read. Choose a Monthly or Yearly subscription β€” Yearly starts with a 7-day free trial for new subscribers β€” or a one-time Lifetime purchase. Restore it on your iPhone and iPad with the same Apple Account. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel them in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://ourbeom.com/plainreader/terms Privacy Policy: https://ourbeom.com/plainreader/privacy

Screenshots

HoneyBooks Romance4 screens
Plain Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: HoneyBooks Romance at none against Plain Reader's shown. Plain Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 5 days). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. HoneyBooks Romance sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days and Plain Reader sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HoneyBooks Romance ships an update every 5 days, Plain Reader every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 6 level
HoneyBooks Romance versus Plain Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHoneyBooks RomancePlain Reader
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviewsβ€”100.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 3 days β€” better
AdsNo β€” betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetizationβ€”Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad β€” better
Requires iOS17.0 β€” better18.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size68 MB45 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperHoneyBooks OUOurBeom

In-app purchases

2 purchases

HoneyBooks Romance

Subscriptions2
  • Weekly Membership$4.997 Days
  • HoneyBooks Annual$89.991 Year
4 purchases

Plain Reader

Subscriptions2
  • Plain Reader Pro (Monthly)$0.991 Month
  • Plain Reader Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$6.991 Year
One-time2
  • Plain Reader Pro$2.99
  • Plain Reader Pro (Lifetime)$12.99

Questions

Is HoneyBooks Romance free?
HoneyBooks Romance is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Plain Reader free?
Plain Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do HoneyBooks Romance or Plain Reader have ads?
Plain Reader shows ads; HoneyBooks Romance does not.
Which is updated more often, HoneyBooks Romance or Plain Reader?
HoneyBooks Romance ships an update every 5 days, and Plain Reader every 3 days. Most recently, HoneyBooks Romance was updated on October 31, 2026 and Plain Reader on November 1, 2026.

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