Athene Reader vs Readora

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.

Read more. Keep the words that stay with you. Readora brings your own ebooks, favorite passages and reading history into one calm, personal space. Open a book, swipe through its pages and return to the ideas you want to remember. YOUR BOOKS, TOGETHER Import EPUB, PDF, TXT and DRM-free MOBI files. Add supported books from ZIP and unencrypted RAR archives, organize your library into categories and read downloaded local books offline. Readora does not include a book catalog; you bring the books you have the right to use. READ AT YOUR PACE Turn pages with a swipe, adjust text size in supported formats and choose a light, paper or night background. Your reading position is saved so you can pick up where you left off. MAKE GOOD WORDS LAST Highlight selectable text, add notes and collect passages by book. Return to the source, turn a quote into a shareable card or revisit your collection with quote reminders. SEE YOUR READING GROW Review reading time and progress in your calendar and watch your reading garden take shape. Bring your bookshelf, quotes and garden to your Home Screen with widgets. LISTEN AND CONTINUE Listen to supported text with available voices and adjust playback speed. Optionally enable iCloud sync for your books, highlights and reading progress across your Apple devices. Voice and text support depend on the file, language and device. START SMALL, GROW WITH PRO The free library holds up to 3 books. Readora Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks an unlimited library, highlights and notes, listening, widgets, the reading calendar and garden, quote reminders and iCloud sync. Your local price is shown in the app before purchase. Readora supports compatible, unprotected files. It does not remove DRM; encrypted or multipart archives and text recognition in scanned PDFs are not supported. Privacy Policy: https://readora.layseallone.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://readora.layseallone.com/terms