Close Reader vs Brevier
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Close Reader
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Close Reader is an e-book reader for iPhone and iPad that helps you read any book, in a foreign language or in your own. Press and hold a word for a translation that fits the sentence, and save it to flashcards. Forgot where you left off? Get a recap of what you’ve read so far. Ask the AI who a character is, what a passage means or what lies behind an event, even where the book has no footnote. It knows the book only up to your page, so there are no spoilers. At a glance • Your own books: EPUB, FB2, MOBI, AZW3, PDF and TXT (DRM-free), from Files, Mail or a messenger, or from your OPDS library (Calibre, Kavita, Komga). No store, no sign-up. • Books in any language; translations into more than 40 languages; the app itself speaks 20. • Free to download and read. AI help is free for your first 7 days (1,500 energy, no account), then runs on a plan or energy you buy; Medium starts with a 7-day free trial. • iPhone and iPad, in sync if you sign in. • No ads. Your text isn’t stored or used to train AI models. Help right where you stumble • Hold a word: the translation fits this very sentence. Reading in your own language? You get a plain definition. • Drag the handles to take in a phrase, or translate the whole sentence or paragraph. • Select a name: “Who’s this?” reminds you who that character or place is, from the pages you’ve read, and where they first appeared. • “Explain” gives the background of a passage: history, allusions, idioms and old-fashioned phrasing. • Questions about real history or the author get answers from the web, with sources. No spoilers Every answer comes from what you’ve read, up to the last line on your screen. In “No spoilers” mode we don’t even tell the AI which book it is, so it can’t fill in the plot from memory. Rereading? Switch to “Whole book”. Talk the book over • Ask for a recap, who’s who, or why a character did what they did. “Detailed answer” goes deeper. • Ask where something happened: the answer lists the places, and a tap opens the book there. • Answers link to the passages they rely on. Keep several chats per book; your notes can come along. • Chapters you’ve read have recaps, and rings in the contents show how much of each you’ve read. Learn the words you meet • “Save word” keeps a word with its translation and the sentence where you met it. • Flashcards adapt to your memory, with a daily reminder. Vocabulary exports to CSV. Find your way, keep what matters • The slider is a map of the book: chapters, bookmarks, notes and the time left in the chapter. • Jump anywhere to look around: your reading place stays put, and one tap takes you back. • Search the book. Footnotes open over the page, pictures full screen. • Highlights, notes, quotes shared as pictures, saved AI answers, bookmarks and “I’m here”. Notes export to Markdown. Easy on the eyes Four themes, fonts, text size and line spacing; pages or scrolling; portrait or landscape, with a two-page spread on a wide screen. Energy and plans AI help runs on energy: translating a word costs 1, and bigger requests show their price first. Reading, notes and flashcards are always free. Every feature is on every plan: Light, Medium and Max give 15,000, 40,000 and 80,000 energy a month, enough for everyday help plus about 25, 70 or 150 detailed answers. Extra energy you buy never expires. Subscriptions Light, Medium and Max are auto-renewing subscriptions, billed monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Terms of Use: https://closereader.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://closereader.app/privacy
Brevier
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Brevier is a reader for the DRM-free EPUB, PDF, and plain-text books you already have. Highlight, take notes, and with Brevier Premium, ask about any passage and get answers that cite your book. Reading • Pages or continuous scrolling, with page curl on iPhone and iPad • Fonts, text size, spacing, margins, justified text, and themes, including dark • Search inside a book, follow its contents and links, and read footnotes without leaving the page • Bookmark a page and return to it • PDFs keep their own pages, with highlights, notes, search, and Explain • Opens where you left off on each of your devices, and Handoff continues the book you're reading Highlights and Notes • Highlight in five colors or underline, and attach a note • See every highlight and note in one searchable list • Export a book's notes as Markdown, or share a quote as an image Explain (Brevier Premium) • Select a passage and choose Explain for its meaning, context, and background • Explain a page, a chapter, or the whole book, and ask follow-up questions • Answers cite passages from your book, so you can check them • Avoid Spoilers leaves out later chapters until you choose otherwise • Catch Up recaps the story so far Explain asks before it sends anything and uses a third-party AI service in the cloud. Explanations may contain mistakes. Reading Goals • A daily goal, a streak, and the books you finish this year • An optional evening reminder on days you haven't met your goal Your books, notes, and reading positions stay on your device and sync through your own iCloud account. No account, no ads, no tracking. Brevier opens DRM-free EPUB, PDF, and plain-text files. Books protected by DRM, such as most ebook store purchases, and PDFs locked with a password can't be opened. Brevier Premium is an auto-renewable subscription, billed monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account, and the subscription renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hksw.io/privacy/#brevier
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Brevier at none against Close Reader's shown. Brevier also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks). Close Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (16.4 vs 27.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. Close Reader sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Brevier sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Close Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, Brevier every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Close Reader | Brevier |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 27.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ilia Ilinskii | HK Softworks AB |
In-app purchases
Close Reader
- Light – monthly$4.991 Month
- Medium – monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Max – monthly$19.991 Month
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- Light – yearly$39.991 Year
- Medium – yearly7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Max – yearly$149.991 Year
- 10,000 energy$2.99
- 30,000 energy$6.99
Brevier
- Brevier Premium Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Brevier Premium Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year








