Comparison

Paper Press vs Athene Reader

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

Head to head
About

Paper Press

Features
Read full description

Save articles, documents and ebooks in your own reading library. Paper Press keeps everything together, ready for a quiet moment or a busy day. With Paper Press Pro, listen to saved articles like podcasts while you walk, commute or cook. Import what matters and export it in the format you need. - Listen - Build a listening queue, choose a voice, adjust the speed and set a sleep timer. Follow the highlighted text as you listen. Voices vary by language and device. - Import - Save web pages from the share sheet. Import PDF, EPUB, Word, Pages and Markdown. Automatically collect articles from RSS, Wallabag and Pinboard. - Export - Export EPUB, PDF, Markdown, HTML, TXT, FB2 and audio. Send articles to Kindle or PocketBook, or save to iCloud Drive, Dropbox and Google Drive. Podcast players must support audio file imports. - Search & Highlights - Find passages with full-text search. Add tags, highlights and notes, browse by author or series, split and merge chapters, and customize your color theme. - iCloud Sync - Sync articles, highlights and metadata, with optional media sync. Read downloaded content offline. - Intelligence - Transcribe audio on device, translate articles, and get AI summaries or tag suggestions. Availability varies by device, language and service. OpenAI and Claude require your own API key. - Paper Press Pro - Save up to three articles per week for free. Pro unlocks unlimited saves, listening, document imports, exports and more. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled. Privacy Policy: https://voidstern.net/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://voidstern.net/terms-of-use

About

Athene Reader

Organize and read your digital books from various sources. Customize your reading experience with adjustable fonts, colors, and layouts. Listen to your books, take notes, and even ask questions about the content with an AI assistant.

Highlights
  • Import books from various sources
  • Customizable reading interface
  • Text-to-speech functionality
  • Note-taking and highlighting
  • AI-powered content questions
  • Offline dictionary
  • iCloud Sync
Features
Read full description

Athene is a reader for the books you already own. Bring your books from Files, from Mail, from your computer over Wi‑Fi, from a link, or from anywhere that can share a file, and they go on a shelf that looks like one. EPUB and PDF open as they are; MOBI, AZW3, Word, FB2, TXT and HTML files become books as they arrive. Free classics from Project Gutenberg are a tap away. If you keep your library on a calibre server, Athene browses that shelf too, from + in your Library — on your home network, or from anywhere through your own VPN such as Tailscale. THE PAGE Open a book and the app steps back. Just the page, on white, sepia or night paper, or paper in any colour you like, in the typeface and size you read best, including any Google Font. Highlight a passage, add a note, drop a bookmark, and find them all again under Marks. Select a passage in another language to translate it. The shelf itself follows the time of day — Morning, Sunset, Night — or stays on the one you pick. NOTES YOU CAN DRAW Type a note in the margin, or sketch in it. On a PDF, mark up the page itself with Apple Pencil. THE NOTEBOOK Every highlight, note and drawing from every book you read, in one place, with filters and search. Write what stayed with you after a chapter, a reading session or a whole book, typed or drawn; your reflections stay even if the book leaves your shelf. LISTEN Any book, read aloud in a warm, natural voice that runs entirely on your device, and keeps reading with the screen locked. PDFs too: Listen skips the running heads, page numbers and footnotes, reads scanned pages, and describes the pictures and tables as it reaches them. The voice is a one-time download of about 242 MB. A DICTIONARY Select a word to see what it means and how to say it. It is built in, and it works offline. ASK THE PAGE Tap the owl while you read and ask about what is in front of you. Who is she again? What did that word mean? What just happened? The Owl answers from the pages around where you are — this chapter at most, never the whole book, never your other books — and if the pages do not say, it tells you that instead of guessing. YOUR MODEL, YOUR CHOICE On a device with Apple Intelligence, the Owl thinks on the device and nothing you ask is sent anywhere. Or point it at your own Ollama server on your own network. Or bring a key from Claude, OpenRouter or OpenAI. Athene asks before the first question leaves the device, names the address it would send to, and remembers your answer. ON EVERY DEVICE Turn on iCloud Sync and your place, highlights, notes, drawings, collections and reading settings follow you between your iPhone and iPad. It goes only to your own private iCloud, and what you wrote is encrypted on your device first. With a calibre server, highlights go both ways: yours to your calibre library, and the ones you make in calibre's own reader to Athene. With KOReader on an e-reader, your books, your place, and your highlights, notes and bookmarks stay in step through a sync server of your own. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION Athene has no account, no analytics and no servers of its own. Your books, your notes and your questions stay on your device or go only where you have pointed them. The privacy policy says the same, in plain words. FREE Reading is free. No account, no subscription, no limit: the shelf, the reader, Listen, the dictionary, the Owl, the Notebook, iCloud Sync, calibre and KOReader, your highlights and notes. Nothing is locked. Athene requires iOS 26. The on-device Owl requires Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro and later, M-series iPad, iPad mini A17 Pro); on other devices the Owl works with your own Ollama server or an API key. Pictures in PDFs are described on iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence.

Screenshots

Paper Press4 screens
Athene Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Athene Reader at none against Paper Press's 2. Paper Press's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Paper Press sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Athene Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paper Press ships an update every 3 days, Athene Reader every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Paper Press versus Athene Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaper PressAthene Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.6 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—85.7% of reviews
Number of ratings—9 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size285 MB47 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperLukas BurgstallerAditya Sreedhar

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Paper Press

Subscriptions2
  • Paper Press Pro$1.991 Month
  • Paper Press Pro3 Days trial$14.991 Year
None

Athene Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Paper Press free?
Paper Press is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Athene Reader free?
Athene Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Paper Press or Athene Reader have ads?
Neither Paper Press nor Athene Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Paper Press or Athene Reader?
Paper Press ships an update every 3 days, and Athene Reader every 2 days. Most recently, Paper Press was updated on October 24, 2026 and Athene Reader on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons