Comparison

ReaderView vs Lector

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

Head to head
About

ReaderView

Transform cluttered web pages and documents into a clean, distraction-free reading experience. Save articles, videos, and more for offline access, with features like highlighting, note-taking, and full-text search.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free reading mode
  • Save content for offline access
  • Highlight passages and add notes
  • Full-text search across saved articles
  • Organize content with folders
  • Sync across devices with iCloud
Features
Read full description

Web pages, documents, podcasts, and videos can be difficult to save, read, and search later. ReaderView transforms them into clean, distraction-free articles so you can focus on what matters. Save content for later, read offline, highlight important passages, and quickly find them again. ReaderView works with: - Web articles and blog posts - PDF documents, including images, tables, and mathematical formulas - Word documents and text files - Apple Podcasts and Spotify podcast episodes - YouTube videos - Vimeo and Dailymotion videos - X/Twitter posts, long-form articles, and videos TRANSCRIPTS THAT FEEL LIKE ARTICLES ReaderView looks for publisher-provided captions before generating a transcript, giving you faster and more accurate results whenever captions are available. With media transcripts, you can: - Read while listening or watching - Tap a word or timestamp to jump to that moment - Follow synchronized highlighting and automatic scrolling - Summarize any article with on-device Apple Intelligence (supported devices only) - Navigate with source-provided or automatically generated chapters - Play, pause, seek, and adjust playback speed - Show or hide videos for a distraction-free reading experience - Keep videos visible while scrolling when shown - Cancel queued transcriptions - Download source media when available READ, ORGANIZE, AND FIND EVERYTHING - Open a clean Reader View with a single tap - Listen with high-quality voices that work offline - Save articles and images for offline reading - Highlight passages and add notes - Search across your entire library - Find text within individual articles - Organize articles into folders - Sync across devices with iCloud - Find saved articles using Spotlight - Read comfortably with Dark Mode and Auto-Scroll - Support for Asian and right-to-left languages, including Arabic and Hebrew COPY, SHARE, AND EXPORT Export articles as plain text, Markdown, HTML, WebVTT, or PDF. You can also copy or share the original link. WebVTT is available for timestamped media transcripts. Share content with ReaderView from Safari, Apple News, X/Twitter, Feedly, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Word, and many other apps. When captions are unavailable, automatic on-device transcription for podcasts and X/Twitter videos requires iOS 26 or later. Have feedback or ideas? Contact laurent@appblit.com. If ReaderView helps you, an App Store review would mean a lot.

About

Lector

Features
Read full description

Lector is a clean and minimal reading app designed for people who want to focus. Upload your PDFs and read without distractions. No feeds, no noise, no clutter. Features: • Clean and distraction-free reading experience • Support for PDF documents • Simple navigation based on the original document pages • Dark mode support • Offline access to your files Lector is built for readers who value simplicity and clarity. More features coming soon (AI, VoiceReader, and more) Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://lector.thefndrs.com/privacy

Screenshots

ReaderView4 screens
Lector4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: ReaderView at none against Lector's shown. ReaderView also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.1). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ReaderView sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Lector sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ReaderView ships an update every 2 days, Lector every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ReaderView versus Lector: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReaderViewLector
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (67 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews88.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings67 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAppBlit LLCMarlon Geovany Castro Mejia

Bugs and requests

ReaderView

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Unable to read PDFs from web
  • Images get blurred in saved files
  • Error message: "No Content Yet"
  • App not working on iPhone 13 Pro
  • Lost all folders and files
Show 5 more
  • Forces sharing its own link
  • Disabled copy-paste
  • Comments not appearing in reader view
  • Formatting issues: gaps between lines
  • App not working with Apple's News app (iOS 10)

Requested features

18 requests
  • Support for Simplified Chinese
  • Folders displayed on home page
  • In-App Purchase for macOS version
  • Swipe to go back/exit function
  • Dark mode in reading mode
Show 13 more
  • More color options, tags, and note management tools
  • Sync with Instapaper
  • Add comments along with annotations
  • Import Instapaper articles with highlights
  • Filter highlights by color
  • Text search function
  • Return to page location after exiting reader
  • Sync saved stories across devices
  • Sync with Evernote and Dropbox with tags
  • Copy all text function
  • Copy text feature for text-to-speech
  • Sync with Evernote
  • Change default colors

Lector

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ReaderView

One-time1
  • ReaderView PRO$4.99
3 purchases

Lector

Subscriptions2
  • Lector Pro Access (Monthly)1 Month trial$5.991 Month
  • Lectro Pro Access (Yearly)$59.991 Year
One-time1
  • Early Founder Access$99.99

Questions

Is ReaderView free?
ReaderView is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lector free?
Lector is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ReaderView or Lector have ads?
Lector shows ads; ReaderView does not.
Which is updated more often, ReaderView or Lector?
ReaderView ships an update every 2 days, and Lector every 3 weeks. Most recently, ReaderView was updated on October 18, 2026 and Lector on October 8, 2026.

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