best book review app for iphone

Breaking up with Goodreads: The best book-logging apps for 2024

Fed up with the Amazon-owned book app? Check out these alternatives.

When Karen Ben-Moshe, a 43-year-old public health program manager in San Francisco, learned that Amazon owns Goodreads — the app she used to log her reading habits — she started hunting for an alternative.

“I just don’t love the monopoly Amazon has on our lives and our spending,” Ben-Moshe said.

Goodreads, which was acquired by Amazon in 2013, is one of the most popular book review apps. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) But as the app faces criticism for its buggy, outdated tech and poor content moderation, other options are rising in the ranks.

Some don’t like that Amazon uses Goodreads data to inform its book-selling business, while authors allege the app doesn’t do enough to combat bad-faith “review-bombing” and author harassment. Goodreads vice president of marketing and editorial Suzanne Skyvara said the company has expanded its customer service team and added a feature that pauses review submissions during “unusual activity” such as review-bombing.

If you want a less contentious or more privacy-friendly home for your to-be-read list, here are our CliffsNotes on four of our favorite book-logging apps for Goodreads defectors. (Keep in mind that any time you search a linked database — such as Google, Apple Books or Amazon — inside one of these apps, that company will receive information about your query.)

Port over your Goodreads lists

Ben-Moshe ended up switching to StoryGraph, a Goodreads-like app that doesn’t share data with Amazon.

Compared to Goodreads, StoryGraph, which has versions for iOS and Android, puts less emphasis on social reviews and more on personal metrics and automated recommendations. After I filled out its (quite detailed) recommendation questionnaire, the app generated a spot-on list on suggested reads. (First up is “Parakeet” by Marie-Helene Bertino.) Its “stats” tab generates monthly or yearly analyses of your reading habits, with fun breakdowns like mood and genre. And its colorful graphs are more shareable than Goodreads’ annual snapshots.

If you use book apps primarily to connect with other readers , StoryGraph may not be for you. However, the app does have user profiles, and you can invite friends to “buddy read” (go to a book’s page, tap the three dots and select “start a buddy read”). Or, visit the “community” tab to view active “readalongs.”

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StoryGraph is free, but you can pay $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year for advanced features. To upload your Goodreads data, visit StoryGraph on the web. Go to your profile icon at top right, choose “Manage account,” then “Goodreads import.” Upload your .CSV file and select “Import my Goodreads library.”

LibraryThing

If you want to log music and movies alongside your books, check out LibraryThing.

LibraryThing has bare-bones apps for iOS and Android, but it works best on the web. Search for past and future reads to add them to your personal library, or pull titles from Amazon, Overcat or the Library of Congress. You can also add movies and music from Amazon’s database.

LibraryThing, which is free to use, says it has about 3 million users. Detailed book pages include links to relevant discussion threads, as well as crowdsourced suggestions for similar reads. If you share your location on your profile, the site will connect you with local friends, bookstores and libraries.

Reading List

Looking for a book-logging tool with no social component? Try Reading List, available on iOS. You can add books and leave reviews for your eyes only.

This app is no-frills, but still includes some sought-after features like month-by-month statistics and the option to “pause” a book without messing up your metrics.

The “buy online” link on Reading List allows you to buy from independent booksellers through Bookshop.org.

Reading List works without an internet connection, but you’ll need one to add new books from the Google-powered search bar. A selling point for privacy buffs: The app’s developer says he doesn’t store or share user data. Reading List is free, and you can pay $2 a month, $14 a year or $34 a lifetime for additional features.

Easy wins, good habits, better living.

Unlike other book-loggers, BookWyrm is decentralized, meaning it’s owned by its users rather than one entity. (The social media platform Mastodon is probably the most popular example of a decentralized online network .)

BookWyrm is a collection of communities , but the largest is bookwyrm.social with about 15,000 users. Making an account is simple, so you can start tracking and reviewing books right away.

One unique BookWyrm feature is the “books” tab — a feed that shows activity from other users if they’re engaging with a book on your shelf.

BookWyrm is free and web-only. It’s clunkier than other options, but perfect for readers who want a homegrown online hangout.

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The Best eBook Apps On iPhone You Should Have Installed

Gone are the days when the only way to read content was on paper. Today's technology offers a new kind of reading experience where you don't have to walk into a bookstore or newspaper stand and carry heavy books or a stack of magazines around. All you need is your mobile device and an eBook app, and you're good to read to your heart's content. That's the beauty of digital content. Sure, they may not be as exciting to read, especially since turning (and smelling!) book pages is an unmatched experience, but they do come in handy for certain situations. Say you have too many books for school or the book you want to read isn't physically available in your location. Having an eBook app solves these problems and more in just a jiffy.

But the question now is, what eBook app should you use for your iPhone? We've made things convenient for you and compiled seven of the top eBook apps you can install for free from the App Store.

Apple Books

One of the best eBook apps to have on your iPhone is the iOS native eBook app, Apple Books . Since it's already pre-installed on your device, you won't need to scour the App Store in search of the perfect eBook app—you can just start using it right away. Apple Books comes with three primary features, each found in their own tabs: Reading Now, Library, and Book Store.

Reading Now is where you can track the eBooks you're currently reading and see suggestions for similar books you might like to read next. This is also where you can set your daily reading goal or how much time (in minutes) you'll devote to reading every day. At the start of a new day, a small indicator at the top of the Reading Now tab will show you how far you are from your goal or whether you've already met it. The Library, on the other hand, is just as its name suggests. It's a digital library of all the books you've read and downloaded from the Book Store. 

The books are already sorted into different collections like Audiobook, PDF, My Samples, Finished, and Want to Read to make it easier for you to find what you need. Finally, you have the Book Store filled with free and paid books for your perusal. Aside from the books themselves, you can even find Apple User Guides here for different Apple products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch.

Amazon Kindle

Developed by Amazon, the Amazon Kindle app brings the best features of the Kindle e-reader right to your smartphone. For one, it lets you personalize the reading interface with customizations, such as font style and size, screen brightness adjustment, themes, page layout (spacing, alignment, orientation), and page turn animation. There's even a reading ruler feature that overlays a colored ruler on the text to guide you while reading. Another nifty feature of the Kindle device that you can also find on the Kindle app is the annotation. You can highlight important lines, write your thoughts on a note, and bookmark pages. All your annotations are conveniently collated in a separate tab for quick reference.

If you're someone who loves sharing quotes from books, you'll be glad to know that you can easily do so using the Kindle app. Simply highlight your favorite lines and hit the share button. You'll then see a selection of images featuring the quote of your choice. Feel free to save them to your device, use them as your Apple Watch face, or share them on your social media feed. Built into the Kindle app is also a translator to translate from the book's language to your preferred language, Wikipedia to help you learn more about the people, places, or things mentioned in the book, and a dictionary to display the definitions of words you're unfamiliar with. Amazon Kindle is free to use, but you'd need to create an account first.

PocketBook Reader

Ranked #149 on the App Store's Books list, PocketBook Reader is the eBook app for people who frequently consume different types of eBooks. It supports at least 19 file types, from EPUB and MOBI to PDF and TXT. You can also read HTML files and CBZ comic books using the app. On top of eBook files, PocketBook Reader gives you access to audiobooks too — specifically those in MP3 and M4B formats. You can import your eBook or audiobook from a wide range of sources, including your local storage, Google Drive, Google Books, DropBox, and the PocketBook cloud storage. The app also connects you to network libraries like the BookServer Internet Archive catalog and Smashwords, where you can download free and paid eBooks.

Beyond the multi-file type support, what makes PocketBook Reader a powerful eBook app is its reading interface tools. You have an auto-scroll feature at your disposal, along with a text-to-speech service , text customization settings, and an integrated dictionary. There's also an option to create your own theme (where you change the color of the background, text, and link) to further personalize the reading interface.

Another major draw of PocketBook Reader is its ISBN scanner. It's simply a barcode scanner that reads the ISBN code at the back of your physical book and shows you its digital version that you can then buy, download, and read within the app. PocketBook Reader is completely free to use, but there are in-app purchases (for books) in the app's Store tab.

eBoox works like any other eBook app. You can use it to read different types of digital content, including ZIP, AZW3, DOCX, and typical eBook files like EPUB and PDF. However, what makes eBoox stand out from the rest is its minimalist and straightforward user interface. In fact, you'll find only two primary tabs on the app: "My books" and "Add books." The "My books" tab acts like your digital library. This is where you can see the list of all the books and documents you've imported and are currently reading. There are also four free books here that you can read if you want to test the app out before adding your own files. Within the "My books" tab is also a list of your custom collections called "Shelves" that organize your books into your defined categories and make them easier to find. For instance, you can have a shelf for your romance books, your math resources, and documents for your work project.

On the other hand, the "Add books" tab is where you import books. It includes a tutorial for how to add books to the app via browser, cloud, or AirDrop. It also features a book catalog that lets you access the most popular sources for books, such as Amazon, Kobo, and BookRub, right from the app, so you won't have to open your browser. You can enjoy eBoox completely for free and without having to deal with a barrage of ads.

At first glance, KyBook 3 looks a lot like Apple Books with its Reading Now, Library, and Catalog tabs. However, this eBook app packs a lot more features than the iOS native app. For instance, the Reading Now tab not only presents your reading progress for each book but also other relevant details, such as the number of words it contains, its file size, and the last time you opened the book. The Library tab is also more detailed and organized with different folders for different categories, including your book sources (e.g. iPhone, iCloud Drive), collections, tags, authors, subjects, and publishers, among many others. The Catalogs tab, on the other hand, is similar to Apple Books' Book Store but instead of an in-app bookshop, KyBook 3's Catalogs provides access to third-party book catalogs instead. This is where you can connect to Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, Internet Archive, and Smashwords.

Apart from these upgrades, KyBook 3 comes complete with a myriad of other functionalities that set it apart from other eBook readers. You have a relaxation timer that automatically displays an image or animation of your choice over the book content you're reading, indicating that you need to take a quick eye rest. There's also an auto-summarization tool that summarizes the entire book for you. You can edit this summary before exporting it as PDF, HTML, or RTF.

KyBook 3 comes in free and paid versions, with the paid subscription offering you synchronization, browser-like book tabs, and user dictionary.

Epub Reader

With a 4.5-star rating on the Apple App Store, Epub Reader comes in as one of the top go-to eBook apps, and for good reason. It features a no-nonsense and intuitive user interface, devoid of all the confusing and overwhelming bells and whistles found in other eBook apps. This makes Epub Reader the perfect option for those who prefer a more straightforward reading experience. Upon opening the app, you'll immediately see a minimalist list of all the documents you've imported. You can sort this by name, category (file type), and upload time, and move the files into different folders to keep your library organized.

The app's reading interface is also just as minimalist as the homepage. You won't see any other clutter on the screen beside the page number at the bottom. Although it only comes with a handful of simple customizations like background color and font size, what you'll love about Epub Reader is its page-turn animation that mimics the experience of turning a physical book page. This distinguishes it from other apps that only allow horizontal and vertical scrolling.

Importing personal files to the Epub Reader is pretty straightforward, as well. The app supports a range of file types, including CHM, RTF, 7ZIP, CBR, and RAR, and lets you import from your local storage, iCloud Drive, iTunes, PC (via WiFi transfer), DropBox, and Google Drive. Epub Reader is available for free, but to remove ads, you would have to upgrade to the Pro version.

Serial Reader

Trying to get out of your reading stump? Want to build a habit of reading for at least ten minutes every day? If so, you might want to check out Serial Reader . This app is unlike other eBook apps out there that simply load your books and documents and let you read the entire thing all at once. Instead, Serial Reader divides the eBooks into short issues (readable in 20 minutes or less), which are sent to you every day at a specific time you set. The number of issues depends on how long the book is, so you can have a book with as few as 10 issues or as many as 233.

Serial Reader already comes with at least 900 free eBooks for your enjoyment, most of which are classic tales like Little Women, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, and The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Once you find a book that piques your interest, just subscribe to it to get the daily issues. If you have a book that isn't in the library or a personal document you want to serialize, you can readily upload it to the app, as well. However, only EPUBs are supported at the moment. You'd also need to subscribe to the premium account to import more than one file.

When it comes to the reading interface, Serial Reader offers basic configurations to customize the interface to your liking. You can change the theme, font style, font size, margin, and number of columns.

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Whether you’re a bibliophile or a newbie trying to read more, you can benefit from the best apps to read ebooks on your iPhone. They make it easy to read anywhere, anytime, without needing a separate e-reader device like a Kindle, Kobo, or Nook.

What’s more? Ebooks are often significantly cheaper than their physical versions and convenient to store and carry. That’s perfect for travel enthusiasts like me who don’t need to worry about packing bulky books. So, here are the best ebooks reader apps for iOS that I’ve tried and loved.

• Apple Books
• Amazon Kindle
• Libby, by OverDrive
• Google Play Books
• eBook Search
• Serial Reader
• BlueFire Reader
• Ebook Reader

1. Apple Books: Editor’s choice

My top choice for the best ebook reader app for iPhone and other Apple devices is the default Books app that includes access to millions of ebooks from every category, including fiction, non-fiction, kids’ books, comics, and more. Of course, there are audiobooks too, so that you can read or listen easily on your Apple devices.

I love using Apple Books to set reading goals which motivate me to read more every day and conveniently track my progress. Moreover, there are plenty of special offers and free books to avail of. I also like how you can add your books and PDFs to read conveniently in one app and manage your library .

At the same time, you can use Family Sharing to share your books and audiobooks with up to five family members, which is a pretty sweet deal. This makes it a one-stop solution for your bookish needs! 

• Buy books directly in the app 
• Read across all Apple devices
• Family sharing
• Set reading goals to stay motivated
• CarPlay support 
• Add your reading material
• Ebook catalog available in limited countries 

Price : Free

2. Amazon Kindle: Biggest ebook library

The Amazon Kindle app changed how I read by making it convenient to access my entire library on my iPhone or iPad. It offers the largest collection of millions of books, newspapers, and magazines from across the world.

I love how you can adjust the display brightness, font size, and colors for eye comfort. Moreover, no matter how many books you’re reading at a time, it remembers your spot in each so you can seamlessly pick up where you left off.

Further, it doubles up as an audiobook app with access to Audible narrations at low prices. So, it’s easy to switch between reading and listening or enjoy both simultaneously for an engaging experience.

I appreciate that there is no mandatory subscription, and you can even add your books to read. But if you want to get free books, you can try Kindle Unlimited, which gives you unrestricted access to a range of ebooks at one affordable monthly price.

What’s more? If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can enjoy complimentary access to 1,000 books, magazines, comics, and more.

• Impressive catalog
• Get ebooks for cheaper
• Great accessibility options
• Highly customizable
• No way to organize your collection

You may also read:   How to buy Kindle books on iPhone and iPad

3. Libby, by OverDrive: Best to access public libraries

Do you miss going to the library like we did way before tech took over our lives? Well, here’s a way to virtually relive the experience. Libby lets you borrow ebooks and audiobooks from libraries you’re a member of.

You can download titles for offline reading and even send them to your Kindle if you’re in the US. I also love the wish list option that keeps my TBR list organized. Further, content from different libraries you use is stored on one shelf for easy access. It’s one of the best free ebook reader apps that’s easy to use and legal.

• Legal way to read free ebooks
• Supports libraries
• Access multiple libraries in one app
• You need a library membership
• Limited content based on your accessed libraries

4. Wattpad: Best for original stories

Wattpad is much more than just an ebook reader! It’s the place to be to discover original stories from writers you might not otherwise come across. Whatever you’re into—romance, mystery, science fiction, comedy, fantasy, young adult fiction, or fanfiction—it’s all available on this storytelling platform that boasts a vibrant global community.

You can save your favorite stories and read across devices such as your iPhone, iPad, Kindle, or laptop. This feature is only available to premium subscribers. But don’t worry, there’s plenty of free content to enjoy too.

I love how Wattpad is fast and easy to use. It makes reading convenient anywhere. Moreover, it’s an inspiring place to try your hand at writing too. Publish your story and connect directly with readers.

• Original unique stories
• All kinds of genres
• Global community
• Connect directly with readers and writers
• Most features for premium users only

Price : Free ($5.99 for monthly Premium)

5. NOOK: Best personalized ebook recommendations

Powered by Barnes and Noble, Nook has a vast online library of over 75,000 free ebooks, 4 million titles, graphic novels, comics, manga, and magazines. I love its personalized recommendations curated by expert booksellers. It ensures you’re never lost looking for what to read next.

Further, you can customize your experience with multiple fonts, adjustable line spacing, margins, page animations, and screen brightness. The nifty organization and social sharing tools further enhance the user experience. My favorite bit is a feature that lets you instantly turn any line you read into a shareable quote card!

• Lots of free ebooks
• Feature-rich
• Can’t purchase ebooks within the app

  Price : Free

6. Scribd: Best for varied content

Scribd is one of the best ebook reader apps for iPhone because of the sheer variety of reading material and other content it offers. You’ve got to try its membership if you want to access books, audiobooks, academic articles, magazines, newspapers, rare documents, and even music! You can download ebooks to read offline and annotate or use bookmarks to remember certain sections.

Of course, it offers a comfortable experience with custom font size and background colors. You can even choose horizontal or vertical page scrolling, which is not always possible on ebook reader apps. All in all, this one’s a digital treasure trove for every reader out there, often called the Netflix of ebooks!

• Excellent content library 
• Affordable subscription 
• Customizable reader
• Apple Watch-compatible
• There may be limits on some content you access 

  Price : Free (Subscription starts at $8.99/month) 

7. Blinkist: Best ebook app for busy people

 This app is one of the most useful apps on my iPhone because I can read without really reading. Yes, that’s right, Blinkist gives you handy summaries of books so that you can keep expanding your knowledge without the time commitment of reading full books.

You can choose to either read or listen to get the gist of popular fiction and non-fiction titles in just 15 minutes. Moreover, if you want to go for full-length versions, Blinkist offers you special discounted prices on over 4000 audiobooks. It offers an ideal burst of inspiration on busy days and is a must-have for personal development.

• Easy to use and convenient 
• Personalized recommendations and curated lists
• Based on neuroscientific research
• Book catalog is sort of limited

Price : Free ($12.99 per month for Premium)

8. Kobo Books – Best Kindle alternative

What I love about Kobo is its “Reading Life” feature. The service connects you to a community that shares your reading passion. Discuss books with friends, share quotes, and add notes too. There are millions of titles to choose from, and you can access your books offline too.

Further, you can even switch between devices, thanks to the seamless sync and preview books before getting them. It also has the usual customization options that all the best e-readers do, such as font size and dark mode. All in all, this one’s the best Kindle alternative that’s also compatible with CarPlay.

Moreover, you can read in various languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese.

• Impressive catalog 
• Supports multiple devices 
• Compatible with CarPlay 
• Book filters need to be refined

9. Google Play Books: Works in browsers

If you’ve ever Googled a book, you must have seen Google Play Books come up in the search results. That’s because not only is this an app but also an in-browser e-reader that makes it super convenient to read on your computer.

It’s one of the best iOS e-reader apps with a massive digital content library, including ebooks, audiobooks, textbooks, and comics. Moreover, you don’t need a subscription and can pick and choose what to buy. Your content syncs across devices and is also CarPlay-compatible.

• Subscription isn’t required
• Supports CarPlay
• Works in browsers
• Cannot buy within the app due to App Store policies

10. eBook Search: Best free ebook reader app

Here’s a one-stop free ebook reader app that gives you access to multiple libraries of books in the public domain. That’s over 2 million titles spanning every genre, from romance and mystery to classics, sci-fi, and more.

You can instantly download ebooks to your iPhone, iPad, or e-reader like Nook, Kobo, or Kindle. New books are added daily to ensure you always have new things to read. It’s one of the easiest apps to find great reading material anytime, anywhere.

The only drawback is that it’s difficult to search for the exact titles you’re looking for. That’s ironic, given the app’s name! Nonetheless, it’s an excellent resource for bibliophiles.

• Good selection of free ebooks
• Access multiple libraries from one app
• Search functionality needs to be improved

11. Serial Reader: Ebook app to build a reading habit

Here’s another must-have app for book lovers that helps you maintain a daily reading habit. Choose from over 800 classic ebooks and receive a new bite-sized bit to read from your selected book every day.

Each daily session will take you about 20-minutes to read, and premium users can read ahead if they want. You can customize the app’s appearance with a variety of themes and fonts. Earn badges along the way and track your reading progress! You can even add your EPUB books and get them serialized.

• Helps build a reading habit
• Keeps you motivated
• Lots of customization
• Only classic books are available

Price : Free ($2.99 for Premium)

12. BlueFire Reader: Best to read Adobe digital editions

If you’re into reading Adobe Digital Editions, this app is for you. It allows you to access PDF and EPUB ebooks from several publishers, libraries, and retailers.

Plus, it includes all the features you need, such as batch-import, bookmarking, notes, search, collections, and a fully customizable reading experience.

It boasts the best flow and rendering of EPUB documents I’ve experienced, displaying them in the clear, high-quality text that is a breeze to read.

• Read Adobe digital editions
• Add your EPUB and PDF files
• Customizable interface
• The book import process is a bit complicated

Price : $4.99

13. Bookmate: Best social e-reader app

I recently discovered this app and had to include it on my list of best apps to read ebooks because of its social element. You can browse through your friends’ feeds and bookshelves to see what they’re reading and also connect with new people who are your reading interests. In this way, it’s almost like a virtual book club!

Once you install the app, you will be asked about your preferred books and genres. This will help Bookmate give you personalized ebook and audiobook suggestions from its extensive catalog. You can also customize your reading experience and read in twelve languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, German, and Russian. 

• Bookish community
• Includes ebooks and audiobooks
• Twelves languages
• Access themed bookshelves curated by experts
• Limited library 

Price : $2.99

15. Ebook Reader: Best e-reader for PDF files

Here’s a specially designed app to read ebooks on your iPhone. You can add your own books and documents or download them from ebooks.com. It serves as a personal library that’s easy to access on any device.

I love that it works exceptionally well with PDF files, making them easy to read. This is one aspect where even the Amazon Kindle app struggles, so this is a great Kindle alternative. Further, it gives you extensive control over everything, such as landscape or portrait orientation, background and text color, zoom, etc. This ensures a smooth and personalized reading experience.

• Free and no ads
• Great for reading PDFs
• UI could be enhanced

That’s my list of the best ebook reader apps that are sure to keep every fellow bibliophile happy. What are you currently reading? Let me know in the comments below.

• Best audiobook apps for iPhone and iPad
• Best speed reading apps for iPhone and iPad
• How to merge PDFs on iPhone and iPad

Mehak has a master’s degree in communication and over ten years of writing experience. Her passion for technology and Apple products led her to iGeeksBlog, where she specializes in writing product roundups and app recommendations for fellow Apple users. When not typing away on her MacBook Pro, she loves being lost in a book or out exploring the world.

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• iPhone Apps

So…all proprietary readers that only allow people to read files acquired within specific ecologies? It looks like the last one comes close to being an actual “e-reader” that allows one to read one’s own ebook files; the rest are about as restrictive as it gets. I would assume that besides PDFs, it can also handle epubs,mobis, azw3s etc?

If you want to read your own ePubs, mobis, and azw3s files, you may consider using KyBook 3, PocketBook Reader, or MOBI Reader. Hope that helps!

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5 of the best apps to track your reading and discover new books

As 2022 comes to a close, you may be looking for the best reads of the year that you might have missed, or you may want to start compiling a list of books you want to read in the new year. There are numerous apps out there that are designed to help you keep track of your reading and discover new books, so we compiled a list of some of the best ones to help you pick one that’s to your liking.

Some of the apps on this list are somewhat new, while others have been around for a few years. Amazon-owned Goodreads , which is arguably the most popular book-related app, isn’t included in this list because we’re focusing on newer, lesser-known platforms.

StoryGraph is an  Android and iOS app that lets you track your reading and get personalized recommendations. You can mix and match the app’s set of filters to find your next perfect read. The app offers many reading challenges, such as reading one book from every country in the world or reading one book per week across several genres. StoryGraph also includes a built-in reading journal and annual reading and page goals.

The app’s rating system is unique because it gives users a series of questions that the platform will then use when recommending a book to another user. For example, if you say that the book you read would be good for someone who likes emotional and fast-paced novels, StoryGraph may recommend that book to someone who is looking for such a read. The rating system also lets you rate using full, half or quarter stars, unlike Goodreads, which only lets you rate on a full-star system.

StoryGraph is great for people who want something kind of similar to Goodreads. The app is free to use, but also offers a $4.99 per month subscription plan that unlocks additional features, such as advanced stats and more personalized suggestions.

Tertulia is a somewhat new iPhone app that differentiates itself from other similar book discovery platforms by using machine learning to scan online discussions to see what books people are talking about. The app starts off by asking you to specify what kinds of books you want to read. You can choose to get recommendations from people you follow on Twitter, along with fiction authors, feminist voices, journalists, book critics, scientists and more. Then, the app will serve you daily recommendations tailored to your interests, which improve the more you engage with books on the app.

The app lets you browse books that are currently popular, while also helping you keep track of what you want to read. If you find a book that interests you, you can purchase it directly from the app if you live in the United States. Tertulia’s app is easy to use and features an intuitive browsing experience.

Tertulia is great for people who want to discover what books are currently popular across social media, podcasts and the web. The app is free to use and is launching on Android soon.

Basmo is an Android and iOS app that is designed to help you create a reading habit while also tracking your books. The app is mainly geared toward people who want to become a better and more efficient reader. Basmo tracks the time you spend reading and gives you an overview of your overall reading progress. You can also create a personalized reading schedule to help you easily tackle your goals one page at a time.

As you read, you can use Basmo to digitally scribble your thoughts and ideas about parts of a book that you find interesting. You can also scan and highlight your favorite passages as you read. Once you finish a book, you can track how it made you feel. For example, you can note if the book made you feel excited, happy, angry, bored or confused.

The app is great for people who don’t care about the social or community aspects of reading and instead want to focus on their goals and progress. Basmo is free to use with standard features. The app also offers a $5 per month subscription that unlocks unlimited functionality and additional features.

Readerly is an Android and iOS book discovery app that helps you track your reading and find new books. Unlike every other app in this roundup, Readerly doesn’t include a five-star rating system. Instead, the app provides context with every review that shows you how much your tastes overlap with the reviewer, books you’ve both read and topics you both enjoy. The point of this is to prevent you from possibly passing over a book that you may actually end up liking, regardless of what it’s rated on another platform.

The app also moves away from long reviews and instead has Gists, which are the app’s short review format. Gists essentially get users to write a TL;DR version of a review in 200 characters or less. Gists are then turned into an Instagram Stories-like format. Once you’ve created your Gist, you can add additional slides with your favorite quotes, characters or other additional information that you think others might find helpful. In terms of book discovery, the app will surface Gists from readers with similar reading tastes as you.

Readerly is great for people who want to try a unique book discovery platform. The app is free to use and also offers a $2.99 monthly subscription fee for users who want to support the new platform and receive personalized ratings.

TBR Bookshelf

TBR Bookshelf is a fairly new iOS app that is mainly catered toward #BookTok, a popular TikTok sub-community focused on popular books and literature. The app offers a simple and decluttered user interface. Like other book tracking apps, TBR Bookshelf lets you track books you’ve read, want to read and are currently reading. The app’s rating system lets you outline your favorite characters and quotes. You can also note if you reread a book or if you didn’t finish a book at all.

The app has specific rating categories for different genres that go beyond star ratings. For example, if you are rating a self-help book, you can give it separate ratings based on how inspirational and helpful it was. Or, if you’re rating a classic book, you can give it different ratings based on how heartfelt and interesting it was.

TBR Bookshelf is a good app for people who are part of #BookTok, as many of the features are geared toward these users. The app is free to use but also offers a $4.99 monthly subscription that unlocks extra features, including things like seasonal ratings, book playlists and TV show and movie adaption ratings.

Here are the best books that TechCrunch read this year

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Best ebooks apps in 2021

The best ebooks apps for smartphones will help you find something good to read

Forget about dedicated e-readers — the best ebooks apps let you read everything from books to articles to comics directly on your smartphone or tablet. Apple's Books and Google Play Books already do a great job as stock apps, but specialist reading apps bring additional features to the fix — highly configurable settings, support for odd formats and read-all-you-can subscriptions just to name a few.

Check out more than a dozen of the best ebooks apps, from convenient, all-in-one marketplace-reader combinations to feature-packed and customizable standalone readers, as well as subscription-based unlimited reading services.

• Best Kindles : Get a top e-reader
• These are the best audiobook apps
• Where to get free ebooks

The best ebooks apps to download today

1. kindle (android, ios: free).

Amazon's Kindle app is a multi-platform e-book juggernaut, featuring marketplace, reader and library management features. More than 1 million titles are available in the Kindle store, from the latest bestsellers to free classics. 

A customizable display lets you set font size, brightness and other settings. Also, Kindle syncs your last page read, bookmarks, highlights and notes between devices and platforms. 

One of the best things about the Kindle app is Kindle Unlimited program. Through that program, Kindle users are able to access to thousands of audiobooks and e-books for a monthly fee. Overall, Kindle provides an excellent mix of usability, legibility, value and variety to feed your reading habits.

Download Kindle: Android , iOS

2. Realm (Android, iOS: Free)

It used to be known as Serial Box, but a name change to Realm hasn't changed the app's approach to getting a good story. You don't have to shell out for a complete audiobook, with Realm instead offering shorter, episodic content in bite-sized chunks of novels. If you've resumed commuting, Realm's installments are just about the perfect length.

You can pick from a range of genres — drama, fantasy, sci-fi and more. The first episode is usually free, with subsequent installments costing $1.99. You get both text and audio versions of a story, and discounts on the full version are available with a season pass. 

With offerings such as “The Witch Who Came In From The Cold”, “Bookburners” and “Tremontaine” and a highly configurable reader and audiobook player mode, Realm is an interesting take on digital books.

Download Realm: Android , iOS

3. Scribd (Android, iOS: $8.99/month)

While Amazon boasts of its Unlimited program, it wasn't first off the bat in providing an unlimited access program for books. Scribd offers an unlimited access program for ebooks, which was compared to a "Netflix for books." 

Scribd features a library of more than 500,000 books from 900-plus publishers across a variety of genres. The app features a customizable display as well as curated editorial collections, personalized recommendations based on your reading history and the ability to download books for offline reading.

Download Scribd: Android , iOS

4. tiReader (iOS: Free)

Think of tiReader as an all-in-one iOS ebook reader option for consuming your DRM-free ebooks, audiobooks, and digital comics. The app supports a broad selection of formats, such as epubs, PDFs, cbrs and cbzs, as well as photos, archives, and more. 

A customizable reader includes bookmarks, annotation tools, day and night modes, library management and search filters, as well as cross-device syncing. tiReader also includes cloud support for ebooks that you store online, as well as OPDS support for publicly available ebook libraries and public domain content. 

The free version of this top ebooks app lets you try things out with a five-document maximum in the library (you can keep deleting files if you want to add new books). The $4.99 in-app purchase upgrades you to the unlimited version of tiReader.

Download tiReader: iOS

5. Libby by Overdrive (Android, iOS: Free)

Why spend a ton of money on ebooks if your local library already has a digital media lending system? Libby takes Overdrive's popular digital media management system and lets users to borrow ebooks and audiobooks from participating libraries. 

Simply sign in with your library card and then you can browse your library's digital media collection, allowing you to search for titles, set holds, borrow ebooks and audiobooks with a tap, and return or extend a lend just as easily. 

You can preview books from the app, downloading borrowed titles or streaming them to your phone or tablet if you prefer to save space.

Download Libby: Android , iOS

6. FullReader (Android: Free)

FullReader is an all-in-one Android ebook reader, supporting numerous formats, such as epub, PDF, CBR and CBZ, as well as office files like RTF, .doc, .docx and even MP3s (great for audiobooks). Users can sort their files into collections or simply use the built-in file explorer, and the app also includes cloud storage support as well as OPDS compatibility for exploring libraries of free online content. 

The reader itself is clear and easy to navigate, with access to bookmarks, the table of contents, text-to-speech, and the ability to make notes and annotations. The app is free and ad-supported, with an in-app purchase disabling advertising.

Download FullReader: Android

7. Madefire Comics & Motion Books (Android, iOS: Free)

Like other comic readers, Madefire gives you access to enough comic books to choke Galactus. But some of them also move, along with adding lashings of atmosphere with 3D elements and audio.

These aren’t cartoons — you get traditional panel layouts. But parts of the image transition in a manner that draws your eye to certain elements. Your reading pace is slowed, helping you take everything in. And the action is joined by rumbles and dark music in the likes of Hellboy, or iconic transformation sounds in Transformers.

This may be a gimmick — and it’s unlikely to tear you from your comic reader of choice. But as a glimpse into a different way of presenting comic stories, Madefire’s well worth a look.

Download Madefire: Android , iOS

8. KyBook 3 (iOS: $14.99/year)

KyBook 3 is one of the best ebooks apps because this all-in-one e-reader supports DRM-free formats like epub, RTF, DJVU, PDF, CBR and CBZ. Whether you're looking to read poetry or prose, comic books or RPG rules, KyBook's likely to do a solid job. 

You can configure the viewer's fonts (including supplying your own font files), themes, and other layout settings like margins and line spacing. Readers can upload files through iTunes, or access their ebooks in supported cloud services like iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Yandex Disk. There's even support for OPDS catalogs, allowing you to access tons of free and public domain content online. 

A premium subscription — $14.99 for a year, though three-month options are available — allows you to sync your ebook metadata and files across devices.

Download KyBook: iOS

9. Comixology (Android, iOS: Free)

Comixology is one of the most popular digital comic platforms online, featuring titles from major comics publishers such as Marvel , DC and Image. Readers can buy their favorite issues and series from the Comixology website and read them in the app, which in addition to being a top ebooks option is also one of the best comic book readers . 

Of particular note Comixology's the Guided View mode, which is great for reading on a small screen. US customers benefit from an Unlimited mode that works as a "read-all-you-can" subscription. On the downside, you can't import in an existing comics collection or make in-app purchases on iOS.

Download: Comixology: Android , iOS

10. Chunky (iOS: Free)

If you already have a collection of DRM-free comics, you may want to check out Chunky instead of Comixology. Chunky is a free and feature-packed comics option for the iPad . 

On the technical side, Chunky supports CBR, CBZ and PDF comics, as well as metadata tags from ComicRack and ComicBookLover. A smart upscaling mode renders even low-res files as crisply as possible, while multiple view modes let you read however you like. There's even an auto-contrast/tint fix to adjust for faded comic scans. 

The app can download comics from your cloud storage services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, straight into the app's self-organizing library. Plus, a parental lock allows you to flag and hide titles behind password protection. It's a fantastic free package whose only fault is a lack of iPhone support. For the cost of a $3.99 pro upgrade, the app can connect to Mac or Windows shared folders, FTP or SFTP servers, ComicStreamer, Calibre or Ubooquity libraries for sharing files in and out.

Download Chunky: iOS

11. Comicat (Android: $2.99)

For DRM-free comic reading on Android, check out Comicat, another app that blends a comic book reader with the best ebooks apps have to offer. This premium Android comic book reader gives you a ton of features and customizability for less than the price of a single comic issue. 

The app auto-scans your mobile device (or selected library folders) for comics in supported formats (such as CBR, CBZ, and PDF). It then automatically sorts them into series in a nice bookshelf view which you can manually organize. Once you're in the reader view, the interface is unobtrusive, with long press or slide controls bringing out options and settings. 

Comicat supports cloud storage folders, password protection, manga-style right to left displays, image enhancement to correct contrast, brightness, and saturation among other tweaks.

Download Comicat: Android

12. Moon+ Reader (Android: Free)

Moon+ Reader is a nifty Android e-book reader app known for its highly customizable interface. While it may not come with a dedicated marketplace, Moon+'s UI makes it stand out from the pack. You can set font styles and sizes, backgrounds, spacing, paging modes, autoscroll, multiple view modes and more. 

The app is free, but a $6.99 pro version is also available to remove ads and add PDF support, as well as other extra features. If you already have a sizable e-book collection and are just looking for an Android app to read with, then consider Moon+ for your e-book reading needs.

Download Moon+: Android

13. FBReader (Android, iOS: Free)

FBReader supports EPUB, RTF, DOC, HTML, MOBI and other formats on both Android and iPhones. While it doesn't feature an attached store like some other best ebooks apps, FB Reader makes up for it with its highly customizable nature. 

Users can tweak text fonts, size, hyphenation, text colors and backgrounds, margins, page animations and more. External dictionary support, a browser/downloader for finding books online, language localizations and plugin support for PDFs and library syncing round out an impressive free package.

There is a pro version of FBReader that sheds some of the limitations of the free version — you can store more than 10 books and the translation feature is enabled. That costs $6.99 of Android users and $4.99 on the iPhone.

Download FBReader: Android , iOS

14. Aldiko (Android, iOS: Free)

Aldiko is a neat e-book reader app that supports EPUB, PDF, and Adobe DRM encrypted e-books. A clean and customizable interface includes settings for text size, margins, page layouts, brightness, fonts, colors and more. 

A library management system allows you to easily sort your material by tags and collections. The core reader is free, but a Premium version includes the ability to add notes, highlights, notes and an ad-free experience.

Download Aldiko: Android , iOS

15. Kobo Books (Android, iOS: Free)

While not as well known in the US, Kobo is especially popular in Canada and France. Featuring a library of more than 5 million ebooks and publications, Kobo lets you access content from its online store while also letting you import your own content. 

The app supports numerous formats, such as EPUB, PDF, CBZ and CBR. Obligatory view and text customizations let you get comfortable, and the app syncs across devices and platforms.

Download Kobo Books: Android , iOS

16. Marvin 3 (iOS: Free)

Marvin is a feature-packed and extremely configurable iOS reader app for DRM-free EPUB files; it also supports CBZ and CBR comics. 

As a reader, Marvin boasts several great reading features, from a variety of fonts (including a specialty font for dyslexic readers), a night mode and customizable themes, highlighting, annotation and dictionary tools. You'll also find numerous format tweaks ranging from text justification, to paragraph indentation and spacing. 

In addition, you'll find a solid set of organizing tools, allowing you to sort into collections, choose from list or cover views, collection sorting and more. The app also supports iOS features like Split View on the iPad. There are also premium features require a $4.99 in-app purchase.

Download Marvin: iOS

• Best iPhone apps
• Best Android apps

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Craig Grannell has been writing about tech for longer than he cares to remember, and spends his days surrounded by black rectangles, cables, and countless devices going DING when a notification comes in. He’s written for a bunch of magazines and websites including Tom's Guide, TechRadar, Wired, Stuff and many others, and specializes in Apple, apps, games, design and retro. At some point, he’s hoping someone will pay him a full-time wage to write about Robotron: 2084 and Bubble Bobble all day.

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Which Is the Best Book Tracking App? A Comparison of 5 Book Trackers

Arvyn Cerézo

Arvyn Cerézo is an arts and culture writer/reporter with bylines in Book Riot , Publishers Weekly , South China Morning Post , PhilSTAR Life , the Asian Review of Books , and other publications. You can find them on arvyncerezo.com and @ArvynCerezo on Twitter.

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As a voracious reader with a never-ending reading list and an impossible reading goal to achieve, finding the best book tracking app can be tedious. You would have to try out various apps to see which one best suits your preferences. What if you find that the app you’re currently using doesn’t fit the bill? You transfer your data and start all over with a new one. Rinse, repeat, until you find what works. Fortunately, you don’t have to waste time.

In this detailed comparison, I ranked the top five best book tracker apps, with the best coming first. Though all of these apps track the books you read, they differ in many ways. I will break them down by price, whether they are free, paid, or freemium; their core features and what sets them apart; how each one works, how easy they are to navigate; how they differ; their strong suits and their shortcomings. At the end of the piece, you will find my recommendations for which app you should use based on what kind of reader you are.

Let’s start with Bookmory, the best book tracking app I’ve tried. Bookly, The StoryGraph, Goodreads, and Google Sheets come next.

Bookmory lets you keep track of how many books you’ve read and how long you’ve read them, save quotes, take notes, share reading accomplishments, see reading statistics, and much more. The premium subscription costs $3.49 monthly and $30.99 annually.

When you add a book, it shows the number of days you’ve spent reading it and the percentage. The homepage displays the books that you’re currently reading.

When you click on a book, you can use the timer to estimate how long it will take you to finish it. From there, you can add a note by writing, taking a photo with your phone’s camera, or uploading one from your gallery.

You can update your reading status by pausing, abandoning, or marking a book as read. You can also keep track of your purchases and rentals, put tags in your books, and group them together into collections. All of this is free.

The Bookmory app has a visually appealing design. It’s user-friendly as well, as it allows you to continue where you left off when you open the app again — even when you switch off your device. In addition to that, it sends out reminders to return books that you borrowed and keeps track of where you bought or borrowed them.

Along with those core features, the app has personalized settings for the timer, app color, note fonts, paragraph spacing, note decoration background, the ability to lock the app, languages, book calendar, and a lot more.

A downside is that the app may take some time to launch because it retrieves data from the phone rather than the cloud. Still, after the initial slow loading, it runs quickly and smoothly.

If you have multiple devices or need to switch between them, using this app can be inconvenient because your data will not automatically sync. When making significant updates on your reading progress, it’s best to make offline backups on a regular basis to restore them later.

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Bookly ’s core features include adding reading goals, whether daily, monthly, or yearly; adding the number of minutes you want to read; keeping tabs of reminders; seeing basic stats such as pages read and time read, whether that’s seven or 30 days; having a personal assistant that pushes daily suggestions, thoughts, word of the day, and daily motivation; and generating weekly, monthly, and yearly reports.

The pro version is $4.99 per month for a month’s subscription, $19.99 for six months, and $29.99 for a year’s subscription. However, you can take advantage of the free trial period of seven days. If you have a free account, you can only add 10 books to your tracker. Pro features include the ability to add unlimited books, create image quotes, see global stats, keep track of reading progress, enable cloud sync, use ambient sounds while reading, activate a personal assistant, remove ads, and unlock collections.

The Bookly app takes a gamified approach, so it may motivate you to read more. Reading more books earns you diamonds, which you can use to unlock costumes, extend monthly reading goals by adding extra reading days, add more books, and so on.

Bookly is similar to Bookmory in that it allows you to add books, set timers, and track reading goals. You can play ambient noise while reading, add a quote and your own thoughts on the timer page, save words, and set a countdown. After reading, the app prompts you to reflect on what you’ve read so far.

These may all sound good, but my greatest frustration with Bookly is that many basic features are not available with a free account. The free tier only allows adding 10 books, and if you’re constantly on the go, cloud support is not even available.

The StoryGraph

While there’s a free tier, The StoryGraph costs $4.99 per month, which removes ads, provides custom charts, adds even more stats filters, and unlocks more chart features.

The app allows you to track the books you’ve read, add reviews à la Goodreads, rate books, and see reading stats. It takes a community-driven approach and emphasizes the social aspect such as buddy reads, readalongs, and book clubs.

Since it’s a lot like Goodreads, the tracker is bare bones, with no timer, advanced features, or ambient sounds, but you can add private notes and edit page progress while reading.

The StoryGraph is mainly a bookish social media website, with reviewing and rating books being the core features. If you don’t want to use two apps for your bookish needs, it’s a tracker and a book review site in one.

The tracker is decent, but if you need more features, there are better apps available, such as Bookmory.

Goodreads has always been free, but as the saying goes, if it’s free, then you’re the product .

Similar to The StoryGraph, it’s a full-featured book app that functions as a tracker, book recommendation service, and review site. The tracker is a supplementary feature, though.

With Goodreads, you can create virtual shelves to which you can add books, something that The StoryGraph doesn’t support. If you update your progress, whether by page count or percentage, your friends and the rest of the world will see it. If you finish a book, you can leave a review, rate it, or add it to another shelf.

If you just want to keep track of what you’re reading, Goodreads does this best. Still, there’s no timer, no ambient sounds, no book calendar — nothing extra at all.

On the bright side, Goodreads runs the famous annual Reading Challenge where you track your goals and share them each year, much like Spotify’s Wrapped.

Overall, Goodreads has basic tracking features. It’s good enough, but if you want more features, you can use one of the better apps on the list.

Google Sheets

I know of many readers who still use spreadsheets to track what they read, apart from their budget, expenses, and bills.

Using Google Sheets is free, but then again, you’re Google’s product .

To use the app as a tracker, look for free reading tracker templates online. Some media companies, such as Book Riot, provide a free Google Sheets book tracker. Book Riot’s Reading Log has customizable sheets, so you can put in any data you want. Make your own copy and start tracking your books by editing the sheets as you read. Don’t forget to save it!

Using Google Sheets as a tracker generally gives you a variety of options. There are numerous free templates available from various sources, as well as features or data that you can input, which vary depending on the spreadsheet. It’s free and has a completely customizable data set. The downsides are that it may not be visually appealing, has no timer, no ambient sounds, no posting of updates on social media, no reviews, no sharing of ratings, and no badges to show.

The Best App for Certain Types of Readers

Bookmory: I recommend this app to any reader looking for a free, multi-functional book tracker app. It includes all of the advanced features that other apps lack, as well as a modern user interface. The caveat is that it doesn’t automatically sync because the data is saved offline, and you can’t publish ratings and reviews publicly.

Bookly: Use this if you want ambient sounds while reading, along with other tracker features such as note-taking and timer. Because the free tier only allows for 10 books, this may not be a viable option for those on a tight budget.

The StoryGraph: Use this if you don’t want anything to do with Amazon. Basically, its features are nearly identical to Goodreads’, but with a better user interface.

Goodreads: Use this if you don’t mind Amazon’s reputation (which some readers do). It runs an annual reading challenge, which can be motivating for some. All of your bookish friends may be in there (if they haven’t switched to other apps yet), making the community larger. A basic tracker allows you to keep track of what you read, as well as see reviews and ratings from other users.

This is for readers who care about the social aspect of reading.

Google Sheets: Use this if you fancy using spreadsheets and already use them to track your expenses or budgets. Use it if you want a customizable, free tracker that you can use year after year and repurpose for whatever you want!

When comparing these apps, Bookmory emerges as the clear winner. However, the lack of real-time syncing can be a deal breaker for some. And maybe because of that, others prefer Goodreads’ social features. But because it’s owned by Amazon, many people swear not to use it and instead opt for The StoryGraph.

I hope I was able to save you time in deciding on your book tracker app, allowing you to devote more time to reading . To help you be more organized, here are the best bookish planners !

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• Software and apps
• Printers and scanners

The Best Mobile Scanning Apps

By Ben Keough

Ben Keough is an editor covering cameras, working from home, powering, and hobbies. He also writes about coffee, beer, and food for Wirecutter.

Smartphones are the Swiss Army knives of the digital world, and mobile scanning apps are one of the best examples of why. Using your phone’s camera, these apps can scan and extract text from virtually any document—plus whiteboards, books, and more—while automatically correcting for distortion and skew. After spending more than 50 hours researching 22 scanning apps and testing 13 of them, our favorite is the lean, efficient, and free-to-use Adobe Scan (for Android and iOS ). It’s simple to use, capable of beautiful scan quality, and equipped with excellent text-recognition capabilities.

Everything we recommend

The best scanning app

Free and refreshingly straightforward, Adobe Scan is the best app when all you need is clean PDFs and reliable text recognition.

Buying Options

Upgrade pick.

Pricey but powerful

The paid versions of SwiftScan provide extra features and sharing options that make it a more versatile, powerful app than our other picks.

Microsoft Office Lens

Best for microsoft office users.

Lens is especially good if you use Microsoft’s Office suite, but it’s a solid option for anyone who wants free scanning with (mostly) properly formatted OCR results.

Apple Notes

Best free, basic scanning app for ios users.

Apple Notes isn’t just for celebrity apologies: It’s also great at capturing basic scans of documents, whiteboards, and more—and it produces some of the cleanest OCR results we’ve ever seen.

Adobe Scan (for Android and iOS ) is great at capturing the sort of documents life throws at you every once in a while—stuff like rebate forms, tax documents, and the occasional business card. It isn’t as complex or as powerful as our upgrade pick, SwiftScan , but it’s free, simple to use, and produces scans that look even better than those from other top scanning apps. It automatically stores every scan you capture on Adobe Document Cloud , which means your scans are accessible from any phone, tablet, or computer. And Adobe Scan’s useful dedicated scanning modes mean you can add new contacts from business cards and fill out forms right on your device. An optional Premium subscription at $10 per month offers extra storage, allows you to export scans to Word and Excel files, and adds the ability to extract text from even longer documents, but we think SwiftScan is a better paid option.

SwiftScan’s paid versions( SwiftScan Pro for Android and SwiftScan VIP for iOS) provide more features and customization than our other picks, including custom folders for better organization, smart file naming, iCloud syncing, and automatic uploading to your choice of more than a dozen cloud storage services. SwiftScan produces good-looking scans across a variety of document types, and it can perform optical character recognition (OCR) in dozens of languages without uploading your documents to the cloud. These text-recognition results are very accurate, if not quite best in class. However, given the subscription model—$5 per month or $25 per year for Android users and $8 per month or $40 per year for iPhone owners—we think it only makes sense for people who would use its extra features on a regular basis.

If you like the idea of Adobe Scan’s simplicity and zero-dollar price tag but spend a lot of time working in the Microsoft Office suite, then Microsoft Lens (for Android and iOS ) is the way to go. Its user interface is similarly sparse, but the output options include Word documents and PowerPoint slides in addition to PDFs. Its scans don’t look as clean as what you can get from Adobe Scan, Apple Notes, or SwiftScan, and you may find its sharing options annoyingly limited. But its excellent text recognition and well-formatted output almost make up for those drawbacks.

If you’re an iPhone user, you’re probably also an Apple Notes user. But you might not know that in addition to being a great place to jot down important info, it’s also a surprisingly powerful mobile scanning app. Like Adobe Scan, it automatically saves all of your scans to the cloud—in this case, iCloud—so you can access them on multiple devices, and it performs extremely accurate OCR by default. If you have an iPhone and are just scanning the occasional lunch receipt, business card, or homework assignment, you probably don’t need another app. But despite its pluses, Notes does have a few shortcomings: It can’t export searchable PDFs, it has a limited range of OCR languages, and it can only export PDFs and raw text.

The research

Why you should trust me, who this is for, how we picked, how we tested, our pick: adobe scan for android and ios, flaws but not dealbreakers, upgrade pick: swiftscan for android and ios, also great: microsoft lens for android and ios, also great: apple notes, other good mobile scanning apps, what to look forward to, the competition.

I’ve been writing about imaging gear—including cameras, printers, and scanners—for more than a decade, and I’ve been using smartphone scanning apps for nearly as long. Wirecutter has been covering scanners since 2013, spending more than 190 total hours on research and testing to find the best of the best. The knowledge we’ve picked up along the way has informed our testing of these mobile scanning apps.

Virtually anyone can benefit from having a scanning app on their phone, and for most people it can completely replace a physical scanner. Don’t get us wrong—there are plenty of specific tasks for which it still makes sense to own a scanner. But if you need one, you almost certainly know already (hello, CPAs and tax lawyers). If you find yourself merely wondering whether you need one, the answer is almost certainly no.

That may come as a surprise, but thanks to rapidly improving smartphone cameras, today’s scanning apps are perfectly capable of handling once-in-a-while scanning needs: receipts, business cards, legal documents, or the occasional form. And because your phone can go almost anywhere you can, scanning apps have the freedom to go places physical scanners are unable to. You can, for instance, use an app to quickly scan receipts at a business lunch, to capture pages from rare books at a library, or even to send in bills of lading and trip reports from big rigs on long-haul routes.

Still not sure what you need?

Here’s a quick rundown of the major reasons why you might want a dedicated scanner, and which kind you need:

• If your work involves transcriptions, contracts, and other legal documents, you probably need highly accurate text recognition and an automatic document feeder (ADF) to handle large jobs. You should look for a portable document scanner or an all-in-one printer with a scanner and an ADF.
• If you’re an avid photographer or scrapbooker and are dealing with a lot of photos, you would probably prefer a purpose-built photo scanner .
• And if you’re after ultra-precise, high-resolution scans for archival work, you almost certainly need a flatbed scanner .

Otherwise, save yourself some money and give a scanning app a try. Many of the best options are totally free.

You can find dozens upon dozens of mobile scanning apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, most of which have glowing reviews and attractive-sounding features. But, sadly, a lot of them are junk.

To narrow the field, we isolated the traits we think are most useful in a mobile scanning app:

• Ease of use: Above all else, scanning apps need to be easy to use, or else you won’t want anything to do with them. We looked for apps with intuitive controls, a thoughtful layout, and helpful features such as automatic document recognition and capture.
• Great image quality: Although the scan quality is partly dependent on the quality of your phone’s camera, it also has a lot to do with the app itself. Different apps provide different scan resolutions and different filters, some of which are better than others at smoothing out wrinkles, shadows, and other blemishes.
• Accurate text recognition: The best scanning apps use optical character recognition (OCR) to locate text in an image and convert it to an editable document. Some apps export raw text (either as a TXT file or copied to the clipboard), while others provide formatted text in RTF or DOC files. As usual, having more options is better.
• Ample sharing options: A good scanning app provides a convenient way to share your scans and OCR results on all the channels you like to use—email, Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, printers, faxes, and more. If the app can automatically back up scans to cloud storage, all the better.
• Diverse format options: You’ll probably end up scanning text documents and receipts most of the time, but a good scanning app should also be adept at capturing material from less-common sources such as whiteboards, book pages, newspaper and magazine articles, and business cards.
• Attention to security: We were skeptical of apps that encourage you (or require you) to upload your scans to their own cloud servers for storage and OCR, as well as those that don’t provide clear security and privacy policies. At a bare minimum, we looked for a promise that apps won’t sell or share your data without consent.
• Annotation and editing features: Once you have a nice, clean scan, you might want to mark it up—place some Xs so your client knows where to sign, for instance, or highlight text, add notes, or even put your own signature on a contract.
• A reasonable price: Given that there are several very good free scanning apps, we cast a skeptical eye on apps that require a recurring subscription. In other words, they need to offer a lot of extra features to justify their cost.

Over the course of four years we’ve tested 14 contenders, including:

• ABBYY FineReader ( Android , iOS )
• Adobe Scan ( Android , iOS )
• CamScanner ( Android , iOS )
• Clear Scan ( Android )
• ClearScanner ( iOS )
• Evernote Scannable ( iOS )
• Genius Scan ( Android , iOS )
• Microsoft Lens ( Android , iOS )
• Prizmo ( iOS )
• Scan Hero ( Android , iOS )
• Scanner Pro ( iOS )
• Smart Doc Scanner ( Android )
• SwiftScan ( Android , iOS )
• vFlat Scan ( Android , iOS )

We downloaded each Android and iOS app using up-to-date Pixel and iPhone devices. Where freeware versions were available, we started out by taking stock of what functionality we were able to enjoy without upgrading to a “Pro” or “Premium” version. This step was especially important since we hoped to recommend a low- or no-cost option for each platform.

Next, we paid for the premium versions of the apps (where necessary) and got down to serious scanning. Using each app, we scanned two documents—a standard IRS 1099 tax form (PDF) and a simple text document with the same sentence repeated in descending font size from 12 to 4 points—three times each in order to test OCR accuracy and consistency. Where cloud-based OCR was available, we tried that feature to see if it offered a noticeable improvement over on-device text recognition. We scanned the 1099 form again to check out each app’s batch-scanning mode, taking note of any hitches in the process and how easy it was to reorder or recapture specific pages. Then we scanned a handwritten note, a whiteboard, a business card, a page from a book, and both glossy and matte photos to see how the apps handled different kinds of source material.

During all of this scanning, we kept detailed notes on the quality of each app’s edge detection, automatic cropping, and image filter performance. Once we had the scans in hand, we spent time playing with the annotation and editing options in order to see how extensively each app could manipulate the images it captured.

Finally, we spent significant time going through each app’s sharing options, looking for snags that might catch you out, such as an inability to directly share certain file types, a lack of automatic uploading, or a limited selection of sharing channels.

If, like most people, you just need to occasionally create clean-looking PDFs of physical documents—and want to do it for free—we think there’s no better option than Adobe Scan ( Android , iOS ). Adobe Scan’s simple design and limited options may initially seem like a negative in comparison with the feature list of a more complex app like SwiftScan , but we’ve found that in practice the app’s simplicity makes it easier to get the results we want. Adobe Scan produced the cleanest-looking scans in our tests, from text docs to photos. It also has the ability to fill and sign scanned forms (with the help of other free apps in the Adobe ecosystem), provides excellent text recognition in 19 of the most common languages, and automatically stores all of your scans in Adobe’s cloud.

Adobe Scan’s layout is as simple as it gets. When you fire up the app, it opens right into the camera view so you can quickly capture the document in front of you. Here you’ll find dedicated modes for whiteboards, books, documents, and business cards (plus ID cards, in the Android version of the app). You can toggle auto-capture, choose from several flash options, and import documents or images that are already on your device for OCR.

The app can handily capture a single scan or dozens in a row; you tell it when to stop scanning and then proceed to add the finishing touches. This process differs slightly from that of other apps (like SwiftScan) that have a dedicated multipage mode, but in practice it makes little difference. When you do proceed to the editing screen, you can apply one of four filters to suit the kind of content you’ve captured, adjust the automatic crop, rotate the image, reorder multipage scans, or add more pages. The library view is simple, showing either a grid or a list of scans, sorted by name or date. You can also toggle between recent scans and a list of all scans, and you have to use this “View all scans” option to see any folders you’ve created in the app.

The 19 available OCR languages are fewer than you get from SwiftScan (102) or ABBYY FineReader (183), but they are sufficient for the needs of a huge percentage of the world’s population. OCR results were very accurate in our testing, matching Microsoft Lens and Apple Notes at typical font sizes with perfect results down to about 6 or 8 points, depending on the font. If OCR accuracy is extremely important to you, or you scan a lot of especially fine text, you’d likely be more satisfied with a hardware document scanner . But if you just want to produce searchable PDFs that work 99% of the time, Adobe Scan will do that.

Adobe’s auto-crop was reliably on point in our tests, with only occasional, minor adjustments required as long as we were scanning white pages on a darker surface. If you try to scan at crazy angles, or with a low-contrast background, you’ll need to adjust your crop lines. But Adobe helps you out there with a magnified view that makes it simple to pinpoint the corners of pages.

Adobe Scan’s Auto-color filter boosts saturation and contrast in a generally pleasing way while also brightening white areas and getting rid of the shadows caused by creases. In scans with mixed text and graphics, it did a better job than most other apps at balancing these elements. It performed similarly well on photos, though with glossy prints we had to work hard to avoid glare. We don’t recommend using a scanning app for photo reproduction, but it’s nice that this one works in a pinch.

We loved Adobe’s Fill & Sign feature, which lets you scan a form and send it to the (also free) Acrobat Reader app ( Android , iOS ) for checking boxes, filling in fields with typewritten text, and signing with your finger (or a saved image of your signature). It’s quick and intuitive, and when I filled out a scanned rebate form for a recently purchased PC power supply, the printed results looked startlingly similar to the original document. If you have a downloaded form, you can even import it directly—rather than printing it and scanning it—to make the ultimate image quality even better.

All scans you capture with Adobe Scan save as PDFs, and the app automatically uploads them to Adobe Document Cloud . You can also choose to share a copy of any PDF via the Android or iOS sharing menu, or send someone a link to download the file from Adobe Document Cloud. You can export any scan as a JPEG, too, in case you want to send it to someone via text message or upload to Instagram.

The optional Premium subscription for Adobe Scan costs $10 per month on both Android and iOS and adds a few features for power users. Namely, it allows you to combine scans into a single file, increases your Adobe Document Cloud storage limit (from 2GB to 20GB), raises the limit for the number of pages that can be OCR’d in a single document (from 25 to 100), compress and password-protect PDFs, and allows you to export OCR results in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats in addition to PDF and JPEG. All of these are nice to have, but not essential for casual scanners, and people who just want Microsoft Office-friendly output can get that from Microsoft Lens for free.

Adobe Scan is refreshingly simple and direct, but that simplicity means it’s lacking a few extras that we’d like to see in our ideal scanning app. The most obvious limitation is that since the app is made by Adobe, it’s extremely PDF-oriented, at least for free users. You can also export scans as JPEGs, but there’s no option for Word docs or PowerPoint slides unless you pony up for a Premium subscription. And the only cloud storage option is Adobe’s own Document Cloud. You can of course manually upload scans to your cloud storage service of choice, but we’d prefer it if Adobe let you set up automatic uploads to, say, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and other popular options.

We’d also prefer it if those automatic cloud uploads were optional, since users who scan documents like financial records, legal documents, and business contracts may be uncomfortable with uploads that they can’t control. And while Adobe has the security resources you’d expect from a large corporation, its record isn’t spotless . If automatically uploading to a different cloud storage service (or your own FTP server) is important to you, consider SwiftScan .

File management in Adobe Scan is limited—though the app does allow you to create folders, even in the free version—and the search function indexes only the names of the scans (which you have to manually edit). Other, more powerful scanning apps (like SwiftScan) offer smart file naming, and can index the OCR-captured contents of each scan instead of just the title.

The free version of Adobe Scan can’t output formatted text—just searchable PDFs and raw, unformatted OCR results. If you need formatted text from a free app, we’d recommend using Microsoft Lens or (for iOS users) Apple Notes .

SwiftScan ( Android , iOS ) combines excellent scan quality and solid OCR results with a logical, easy-to-use layout. In its paid form (SwiftScan Pro for Android and SwiftScan VIP for iOS) it also offers more extras than our other picks—stuff like file organization, advanced file-naming templates, additional PDF-markup features, and automatic uploads to various cloud services. And security-conscious users will appreciate that it performs all image processing and OCR on your device, rather than transmitting data to the cloud. However, the free version of the app is extremely limited, so we really only recommend SwiftScan for users who scan enough to make the paid features worthwhile.

Most scanning apps have similar layouts, but SwiftScan’s is particularly well-designed, especially for an app with so many features. When you fire it up, it automatically opens the camera and captures the document in front of you. (If you prefer, you can choose to have it open to your library instead, and you can turn auto-capture off.) We also like its dedicated multipage scanning mode, its reminders to rotate the camera for landscape documents, and its prompts to square up your scans when there’s too much perspective distortion. However, it’s missing one thing we like in Adobe Scan and Microsoft Lens: dedicated modes for different content types. SwiftScan does have a unique feature called Actions that analyzes OCR results and extracts actionable elements such as URLs and email addresses, but we found that feature only marginally useful in practice.

The captured document goes to the editing screen, where you can apply an array of filters, adjust the automatic crop, rotate it, and name the scanned file. (You can also set up a custom naming template, if you don’t want to name your documents each time you scan.) The library view is straightforward, grouping your scans by capture date. From there, you can tap into each scan, view the recognized text, annotate the PDF, and share it. You can also create folders (and folders within folders) to better organize your scans—a feature few other scanning apps offer. You even have an option to make folders show up at the top of the library view. (Folders are available only in the iOS version of SwiftScan, however.)

SwiftScan’s paid apps perform automatic OCR on every scan, and can do so in 102 languages in the iOS app and 60 in the Android app (including options like Cherokee and Middle French). In our testing, the results were nowhere near as accurate as what you’d get from a hardware document scanner but still ranked near the top of the pack for scanning apps. Adobe Scan, Microsoft Lens, and Apple Notes all performed slightly better, but SwiftScan is fine for quick OCR work.

As with our other picks, SwiftScan’s auto-crop function typically produces clean edges and straight text. In the rare cases when it messes up, a magnified view helps you precisely place the corners. One small complaint: If you turn off auto-capture in the iOS app, your have to press “Detect” to have the app crop your manually triggered scans. In the Android app, this happens automatically.

SwiftScan’s two “Magic” image filters—Magic Color and Magic Text—do a good job of enhancing contrast and eliminating shadows and creases, leaving clean, white backgrounds and clear, readable text. Oddly, though, the Magic Color filter doesn’t do well with mixed-media documents that include a lot of color graphics; for those files you’re better off with the Color filter, which also does a better job with matte and glossy photos than most apps.

You can share scans via email with one touch (PDF only), or you can tap the Share button to bring up the familiar Android or iOS share menu (PDF or JPEG). You can also share OCR results as a TXT file or copy the text to your clipboard. In addition, you can configure SwiftScan to automatically upload all scans (again, PDF only) to one of 14 cloud services, including popular storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive; note-taking apps like OneNote and Evernote; and more esoteric options such as FTP servers and WebDAV. Finally, you can send your scans as a fax, but that costs extra—each page costs one “credit,” and you can buy credits individually or in packs of 10 ($7) to 100 ($36), with increasing volume discounts.

Unlike some competing apps, SwiftScan doesn’t send any of your data to its own servers or perform OCR in the cloud, so the app itself presents minimal security risks. (What you choose to do with your documents once they’ve been scanned is of course up to you.) If you’re an iOS user, it also offers PDF encryption, allowing you to password-protect your files.

A couple caveats: First, although we think SwiftScan is great on both iOS and Android, the Android version lacks several perks that iOS users enjoy. In addition to PDF encryption, other iOS-exclusive features include passcode and fingerprint app locks and in-app folders. SwiftScan’s owners, Maple Media, told us in 2020 that they are working to bring feature parity to the Android app, but the gap remains. Second, even the paid versions of SwiftScan include permanent menu ads for other Maple Media apps, which we found slightly annoying.

If you prefer, you can get SwiftScan as a yearly subscription or a one-time purchase rather than paying by the month. Paying up front for a year costs $25 for Android users (saving $35 over the month-to-month cost) or $40 for iOS users (saving $56). A one-time purchase Business Access license costs $100 for Android users and $200 for iOS. People who buy this lifetime license still get access to new features that are added in the future, so if you expect to use the app for more than four or five years, this purchase may be the more cost-effective route. However, gambling on whether an app will still be around (or the available best option) in five years’ time is always a risk.

While Adobe Scan is focused almost entirely on PDFs, Microsoft Lens (available for Android and iOS ) is unsurprisingly geared toward working with Microsoft’s Office suite. The app generates excellent OCR results and can export them as fully formatted Word or RTF files in addition to the usual searchable PDFs. When you’re scanning business cards, it can recognize and export the contact info to OneNote , and its whiteboard mode can generate PowerPoint slides. Its image filters aren’t as effective as Adobe Scan’s, though, and it lacks a form-filling feature like the handy Fill & Sign, so unless you really need the Office-specific output formats, we think Adobe Scan is a better choice.

Lens’s layout is straightforward, with few distractions. It opens directly to the camera and offers a quartet of scanning modes along the bottom of the screen—Whiteboard, Document, Business Card, and Photo—plus a series of Actions (more on that later). The app automatically recognizes documents and outlines them with an orange box, but it has no auto-capture functionality; you have to hit the shutter button yourself. After you capture the scan, the app auto-crops it and gives you the option to manually adjust the crop and rotation, and add filters, text overlays, or annotations.

Lens performs OCR automatically on Word and PDF exports. The results we got in DOCX format were excellent: well-formatted and accurate down to about 6-point font, putting Lens’s accuracy in the same ballpark as Adobe Scan and Apple Notes (and maybe just a hair better). Lens also performs surprisingly accurate OCR on English handwriting, a feat no other app we tested could match.

The only catch with the OCR in Lens is that you have to install Word (it’s free for both Android and iOS ) to access the DOCX output on your mobile device. (Alternatively, you can use the PDF output and open it with your default PDF reader, but in that case you’re better off with Adobe Scan.) Once you’ve opened your file in Word, you can share it through any app you like. (Note that you need to sign in to Word with a free Microsoft account in order to edit and save your OCR files.)

Those Actions we mentioned earlier are interesting, using Lens’s scanning prowess to accomplish more focused tasks. “Text” extracts text from an image without actually capturing a scanned image. “Table” does the same for data in … well, a table. “Read” captures text from a document and then reads it back to you in a synthesized voice. “Contact” captures a business card and populates the relevant info directly into an Android or iOS contact card. And of course “QR Code” recognizes and opens QR code links.

While they’re certainly good enough for most uses, the scans we got from Lens didn’t look quite as clean as those from rival scanning apps. Whites weren’t as bright, the filters weren’t very good at getting rid of shadows, and the auto-crop tended to leave slivers of the background around the piece of paper. (It occasionally whiffed entirely, as well, including a huge swath of desktop.) You can adjust the crop, so this is only a minor irritant in most cases, but it becomes a real chore when you’re scanning a long document.

Like Adobe Scan, Lens is laser-focused on its particular ecosystem, and is thus short on extras. File management is pretty much nonexistent, it offers no option to password-protect files, and it has no way to automatically upload scans to other cloud storage services.

For iPhone and iPad users looking for ultra-simple scans—especially for personal use—it’s tough to beat Apple Notes . It’s totally free and preinstalled on all iOS devices, and scans made with the mobile version of Notes sync to the desktop app on any Mac computers using the same iCloud ID. The scanning interface and options are fairly basic, and like Adobe Scan and Microsoft Lens, Notes is deeply invested in its own specific ecosystem. But as in those cases, the simplicity is a strength: Notes scanning is fast, images look great, the OCR results are among the best we’ve found, and they allow you to quickly search for any scan via keywords. The downside is that Notes can’t export searchable PDFs, so cutting and pasting raw text into a new note (or another app) is your only option if you need to share it.

To scan a document with Notes, simply create a new note (or open an existing one), click on the camera icon at the bottom of the screen, and choose Scan Documents . From this point, the scanning process is much like that on any other app: You can toggle between automatic and manual capture, change flash settings, and select one of four image filters. The app shades and outlines pages it detects in orange, and you can adjust the crop after you scan. There aren’t any format-specific scanning modes (such as for books or whiteboards), and there’s no dedicated multipage mode either.

We found that Apple’s filters did a great job of cleaning up stains, wrinkles, shadows, and other blemishes, and it was just as effective as our other picks at correcting for distortion. However, while some other scanning apps allow you to redact text, add additional text overlays, or annotate scans with a pen tool, Notes sticks to just these basics. And if you’ve scanned multiple pages for a single note, you need to apply filters to each page individually.

The OCR feature in Apple Notes is automatic, instantaneous, and very accurate. It also provides the best overall text formatting of any scanning app we’ve tested aside from Microsoft Lens, generally nailing paragraph breaks and even bulleted or numbered lists. The OCR results can be cut and pasted as raw text, and you can search all of your scanned notes using keywords in the Notes search bar. These scans can also be sent as PDFs, but the downside here is that these files do not include searchable text. And as with most other scanning apps, you can’t export the OCR results as formatted Word or RTF files, either. One workaround is to send a copy of the note, rather than a PDF, though obviously this only works if you want to share with other iPhone users.

The Notes app has rudimentary file management in the form of folders, but unlike with more advanced apps like SwiftScan, you can’t create subfolders. If you’d like to keep your scans separate from your other notes, we’d recommend creating a Scans folder and collecting them there. And while especially security-conscious users may not like the fact that Notes automatically syncs scans across devices linked by the same Apple ID via iCloud, for most people we think this will be a plus.

If you need the widest range of OCR languages you can get: ABBYY FineReader ( Android , iOS ) can recognize 183 human languages, eight formal languages (including programming languages and chemistry notation), and four constructed languages (like Esperanto). The next-most versatile app we tested, SwiftScan, claims 102 languages. In our testing, FineReader produced very good OCR results with decent formatting, though it had more errors than Adobe Scan, Microsoft Lens, and Apple Notes. Despite being a paid app ($5 per month for the Android version or $6 per month for iOS), it has a very simple interface and limited feature set, as well. Ultimately, we only recommend it if it offers a language you need that you can’t get from one of our picks. A full list of the supported languages can be found at ABBYY’s website .

If you scan a lot of books: vFlat Scan ( Android , iOS ) might be the scanning app for you. It’s explicitly designed for scanning books and magazines, and in our tests it did the best job of automatically correcting for the distortion caused by curved page surfaces. The app is totally free on both Android and iOS, and while it’s relatively short on features, it has a clean, simple user interface that makes it very easy to use. There are a few quirks, though. For instance, in the iOS version of the app, you can’t adjust the crop or rotate scans after they’ve been captured. In the Android version, meanwhile, you are able to crop and rotate, but the scan quality is noticeably worse for full-color images. And while OCR results were very good in English, it’s also unclear how many languages vFlat supports.

We are planning to re-test our picks, as well as a few recently updated apps from the Competition , including Genius Scan 7 . We’re also researching to ensure we test any apps that have been newly released since our last update.

CamScanner ( Android , iOS )—a popular competitor to our upgrade pick, SwiftScan —has had a troubled history involving Chinese malware . But even without that ding to its credibility, it’s not an app we love. The interface is overly busy, with permanent ads for other apps from the CamScanner team, plus several scanning modes that seem to be of limited usefulness (stuff like greeting cards, question sets, and QR codes). The free mode is extremely limited, filled with ads, and puts watermarks on all scans. The paid versions provide much more functionality but have a confusing pricing scheme.

We tested the Android-exclusive Clear Scan but found that its user interface wasn’t nearly as polished as that of our picks, lacking automatic document recognition and capture, a batch-scanning mode, and the ability to OCR an entire document at once. That made it more difficult for us to get quality scans.

Evernote Scannable is free, has a simple design, and produces good-looking scans, but it has some odd limitations. For one thing, it’s iOS-only. For another, the app itself will keep your scans on your device for only 30 days before they’re automatically deleted. You can manually share scans to any other app or cloud storage service you’d like, or send them to Evernote, as is clearly intended (you need to do so to get OCR, for instance). But if you’re not already an Evernote user, the appeal is limited.

Genius Scan ( Android , iOS ) is a very good, full-featured scanning app for iOS and Android, but we had issues with its OCR capability when we last tested it. The iOS version had a hard time with spaces, so if you extracted text from a PDF you ended up with a largely continuous string of characters, and the Android version of the app didn’t have OCR at all. However, the latest version of Genius Scan has added OCR for Android users, so we plan to test it again during our next major update.

Prizmo is only available for iOS. It has an ugly, hard-to-work-with interface, and its poor auto-cropping performance, limited sharing options, and unreliable filters further turned us off.

Scan Hero ( Android , iOS ) is a good-looking, relatively simple scanning app, but it has no free mode and lacks the extensive range of features that other paid apps like SwiftScan and CamScanner provide. It’s also let down by subpar OCR performance and a relatively limited selection of OCR languages.

Scanner Pro is an iOS-only scanning app. We liked its interface and performance with text documents, but were disappointed with the results when scanning other types of media.

Smart Doc Scanner was our budget pick for Android in a previous version of this guide. It’s totally free (though you can pay to remove the few included ads), and it offers a well-rounded feature set, accurate auto-cropping, and diverse export options. Unfortunately, its OCR functionality is currently broken and has been for some time now; attempting to download OCR libraries returns a “server is not responding” error. Reviews on its Google Play Store page suggest that the developer has been unresponsive to inquiries, which leads us to believe the app may now be abandonware.

We also dismissed several otherwise highly rated apps that didn’t offer OCR, came up short on features, were clones of other apps, had suspect security policies, or cost much more than other, comparable options: Fast Scanner ( Android , iOS ), Notebloc ( iOS , Android ), Tiny Scanner ( Android , iOS ), and TurboScan ( Android , iOS ).

This guide was edited by Phil Ryan and Erica Ogg.

Meet your guide

Ben Keough is the supervising editor for Wirecutter's working from home, powering, cameras, and hobbies and games coverage. He previously spent more than a decade writing about cameras, printers, and other office equipment for Wirecutter, Reviewed, USA Today, and Digital Camera HQ. After four years testing printers, he definitively confirmed that they all suck, but some suck less than others.

Further reading

The Best Cheap Scanner

by Ben Keough and Phil Ryan

We think the Canon CanoScan LiDE 300 is the best for high-resolution scans of delicate or thick items, and the Epson Perfection V600 is best for film.

The Best Portable Document Scanner

by Arriana Vasquez and Ben Keough

After more than 160 hours of research and testing since 2013, we’re certain that the Brother ADS-1250W is the best portable scanner for most people.

What a Wirecutter Home-Office Expert Uses to Organize Her Desk

by Melanie Pinola

Velcro strips, a glass easel, and a desk pad are just a few of the things our productivity expert uses to get through each workday.

The Best Tech and Apps for Your Home Office

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We’ve collected our favorite picks—from dozens of guides and hundreds of hours of research and testing—to make your home office more productive and comfortable.

The 6 Best Ebook or EPUB Readers for Your iPhone and iPad

If you enjoy reading ebooks on your iPhone or iPad, consider installing one of these apps.

Whether you're an avid reader on the go or are running out of space on your bookshelf, you can access countless books on your iPhone and iPad. While nothing can quite replace the feeling of holding a paperback, the world of digital reading opens up exciting possibilities.

With the right reading app, you can enjoy an entire library at your fingertips, anytime and anywhere. So, let's look at the best ebook readers you should download on your iPhone and iPad to read on the go!

1. Apple Books

If you've deleted most of the apps that come pre-installed on your iPhone and iPad to save storage, it may be time to download Apple Books again. The all-in-one ebook reading app features a virtual book store to help you fulfill all your reading needs and find your new favorite book.

If you believe listening to audiobooks is as good as reading books , you can also browse through the app's impressive selection of audiobooks. Apple Books automatically syncs your reading progress, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and library across all your Apple Devices. The app also doubles as a PDF reader and allows you to save your EPUB and PDF files to the app to ensure all your favorite reads are in one place.

Apple Books also tracks the number of books you read throughout the year and keeps track of how many minutes of your day you spend reading. We recommend using this feature to set realistic reading goals for yourself.

Isn't it remarkable how a few words on a page can have such a profound and lasting effect? Fortunately, Apple Books offers numerous ways to annotate your books. You can highlight and underline text in your books as you're reading. You can also add your own notes to the highlighted text. Once you've completed the book, you can view all your annotations by going to Bookmarks & Highlights .

Download: Apple Books (Free)

The Kindle app is ideal if you read on your Kindle often and want to continue reading on your iPhone or iPad. Once you sign up with your Amazon account, you can view all your downloaded books by tapping Library . Similar to Apple Books, Kindle features a built-in bookstore. To purchase a book, simply type the book's name in the search bar.

Kindle allows you to read the book's first chapter for free to decide whether it's a good purchase. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription or Kindle Unlimited, you're in for even more benefits and enjoy your favorite ebooks for little to no money.

However, you can do much more than purchase books in the Kindle app. While the convenience of sending ebooks and documents to your Kindle from your iPhone or iPad is an added benefit, the app offers numerous features to enhance your reading experience.

You can alter the font size and style, brightness, line spacing, and theme according to your liking. Kindle also has a "Popular Highlights" feature and displays underlined text if more than ten people have highlighted it. You can also annotate your ebooks by highlighting text and adding notes. The app also displays your reading progress as you read.

Download: Kindle (Free, subscription available)

3. PocketBook Reader

PocketBook Reader is an easy-to-use ebook reader equipped with all the features you need to enjoy a good book. You can choose from five themes, three reading modes, and over thirty font styles.

What we love most about PocketBook Reader is that it supports over 26 ebook and audiobook formats, including EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and DJVU. If you read comic books often, the app also supports CBZ and CBR formats. The app's built-in text-to-speech feature allows you to turn any ebook into an audiobook and enjoy it even when you're on a jog!

Once you create a PocketBook account, the free PocketBook cloud service allows you to access your digital library on all your devices. Along with the option to access your virtual library on all your devices, your bookmarks, reading positions, and notes are also synchronized.

If you've run out of books to read, you can choose from thousands of ebooks by exploring the app's built-in store. You can narrow your search down by using filters and selecting the genres you enjoy.

Download: PocketBook Reader (Free)

4. Google Play Books & Audiobooks

The likelihood of misplacing or losing your iPhone or iPad is notably higher when compared to the probability of losing access to your email account. Unless you've enabled Apple Book's synchronization option, you'd probably lose your digital library if this unfortunate scenario were to happen. Therefore, if you hold your virtual library close to your heart and don't want to risk losing it, we recommend using Google Play Books.

If you're already familiar with Google's workspace, simply log in with your account to use Google Play Books. Once you've logged in, you can view your downloaded books by tapping Library from the menu at the bottom of the screen. You can sort the books by the download date, title, or author.

For quicker access, you can organize your ebooks into separate shelves. We recommend creating shelves that reflect your personal reading preferences, like your favorite books, books to read next, and more.

Unfortunately, you cannot purchase books in the iOS app. Once you find a book you'd like to purchase and download from Google Books , go to the Google Play website on your device's browser and purchase it. You can also annotate your books as you read and bookmark your favorite portions.

All in all, Google Play Books' intuitive interface and seamless integration with Google apps make it the perfect choice for both Apple and Android users!

Download: Google Play Books & Audiobooks (Free)

5. Kobo Books

With over five million titles to pick from, Kobo Books is undeniably a must-have app for book lovers ! The app supports the following book formats: EPUB, PDF, JPEG, GIF, TXT, HTML, and MOBI.

Like the other apps mentioned above, you can create your virtual library and access it across all your devices, annotate your books, and customize your reading experience. Kobo Books also features numerous customization features to ensure a smooth reading experience.

If you prefer reading late at night to wind down from a tiring day, we recommend trying the app's dedicated night mode to avoid eye strain because of your screen .

You can also organize all your books into categories by tapping the More tab from the menu at the bottom of the screen and tapping Collections . Now, tap Add Collection . Kobo can also help you find your next read. Type the title of a book you enjoyed by tapping the search icon at the top of the screen, and the app will automatically suggest a list of related titles.

Like Google Play Books, you can't purchase books within Kobo's iOS app. Therefore, we recommend heading to Kobo's website using your device's browser once you find a book you'd like to purchase.

Download: Kobo Books (Free)

6. Yomu EBook Reader

If you want a reading experience free from distractions, look no further than the Yomu Ebook Reader app. It supports the standard file formats, including EPUB, MOBI, PDF, CBZ, and CBR. While reading a book, you can highlight your favorite sections and add notes. If highlighting your favorite section wasn't enough, you can also save it as a widget on your Home Screen.

The app features thousands of free public domain ebooks from publishers like Manybooks and Feedbooks. Alternatively, you can directly download books from your browser or import them to Yomu from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft One Drive.

While most of the apps mentioned above sync with all your devices, you'll need to upgrade to the app's paid version to enjoy Yomu's cloud library. The paid version also allows you to download unlimited books and removes ads.

Download: Yomu EBook Reader (Free, premium version available)

Read Anywhere and Everywhere With These Apps

Gone are the days of organizing your messy bookshelves every few days. Whether you read all day or are an occasional page-turner, all you need to do is download one of the ebook readers we mentioned above to enhance your reading experience!

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Review: Barnes & Noble Nook App for iPhone and iPad

The Nook app is a solid addition to iOS e-readers

• Ithaca College

In This Article

Jump to a Section

The iOS Nook App at a Glance

Customization for a personalized experience, a major drawback, the bottom line.

One of the major benefits of using your iPhone or iPad as your eBook reading platform is that you're not locked into a single app and store, as you are with the  Kindle  and  Nook  hardware. While Apple may promote its Books app as the best reading experience on iOS, if you prefer Amazon's Kindle app or Barnes & Noble's Nook app, or want to use all three, you're able to do so.

If you're an iOS user who buys eBooks from Barnes & Noble, using the Nook app makes sense. The Nook app is a solid app that deserves a place on the iOS device of any book lover.

Strong integration with Barnes & Noble's online store.

Speedy download of new purchases to the app.

Good display customization options.

No way to buy eBooks directly through the app.

The iOS Nook app is free to download from iTunes to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 9 or later. While you can't buy eBooks from Barnes & Noble's online store directly through the app, purchases completed on the Barnes & Noble’s website will automatically appear on your device.

While it doesn't break any new ground, the Nook app provides a solid reading interface. Text is displayed on the screen; as you finish reading a page, simply swipe to move to the next page. Text, of course, looks especially great on the high-resolution Retina displays  offered by the iPhones, iPads, and the iPod touch.

The Nook app for iOS offers many customization choices to make your reading experience comfortable and enjoyable. Tap the center of the screen to reveal a menu with customization options. Change the book's font size or style, line spacing, margins, page animations, and text justification. Use preset themes, such as Day, Night, or Evening, or create your own background and text color combinations. Save your personal theme for later use.

Lock the screen rotation and adjust brightness settings. (These changes will apply only when you're in the Nook app.) Search inside the book and look up words with the downloadable in-app dictionary.

Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights as you read, and organize your Library with custom stacks of eBooks, magazines, and your own files.

Quote Cards are another nice feature. If you find a particularly moving passage, highlight it, tap Share, and create a Quote Card to share with friends via social media.

The Nook app offers accessibility features for blind and low-vision users leveraging Apple assistive technology, including screen magnification and VoiceOver.

As mentioned, the only real downside to the Nook iOS app is that there's no way to purchase books when you're in the app. This is likely because of Apple's App Store rules. If an app allows purchases, they're considered in-app purchases , and Apple takes a percentage of sales. Barnes & Noble likely omitted a purchase feature in the Nook app to prevent Apple from taking a share of its sales and forcing prices up. Amazon made the same decision with its Kindle app .

While purchasing a book while in the app would be nice, the buying process is easy. Go to the Barnes & Noble website, find the book you want, and buy it. The book will then automatically appear on your device.

The Nook app isn't perfect. Regardless of the business wisdom behind the decision, excluding the ability to buy books from within the app is a drawback. Beyond that, though, the Nook app offers just about everything a book lover expects from an eBook reader app.

Many users appreciate Barnes and Noble's vast eBook library that includes more than 75,000 free eBooks, daily streams of free book excerpts, magazine articles, reviews, and book news. Since iOS allows you to use multiple eBook apps on one device, there's no reason not to add the Nook app to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

B&N has some unique features, such as a free reading program called Serial Reads. A book is delivered free every month in daily chapters directly to your device, with titles picked by B&N editors across genres.

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iPad Pro (2024) review: Apple's most advanced tablet is no MacBook, and I'm okay with that

Zdnet's buying advice.

I 'll say it: The new is Apple's most advanced piece of hardware in 2024, besting the Vision Pro and likely any new AirPods and iPhone 16 models to come. From the moment you pick up the ultra-thin slab of glass and aluminum to when you discover finer details in darker scenes thanks to the Tandem OLED display, such burdenless design choices make Apple's premium iPad model a justifiable option for those willing to spend the money.

With configurations ranging from $999 to $2,599, keep in mind that the higher storage tiers (1TB and 2TB) also come with double the RAM (16GB vs. 8GB) and an extra CPU core. It's a subtle, under-the-hood difference that's easy to miss, especially when cross-shopping between iPad models . If you can use the greater compute, have an offline-heavy workflow, and/or want the most future-proofed iPad on the market, it's worth the upcharge. Otherwise, the base 11- or 13-inch model will serve you just fine, as they have for me.

Specifications

How i tested the ipad pro (2024).

Over the past week and a half, I've used (or attempted to use) the 11-inch iPad Pro as my primary computer for work and as a secondary, entertainment-only device. When it wasn't paired to a Wi-Fi connection 90% of the time, it ran off my phone's T-Mobile hotspot. While Apple sells an of the iPad Pro, my primary testing grounds for the device have been at home, a local café, and my work office -- nowhere adventurous enough to justify the always-connected upgrade.

I also paired the iPad with Apple's revamped . The $299 starting price gave me pause when I first checked out the accessory, but the thinner, lighter aluminum form factor, larger trackpad, and a new row of function keys this year make the keyboard case more essential than ever for the full iPad experience.

What are the best features of the iPad Pro (2024)?

Not just any OLED panel : "Tandem OLED" is the term Apple uses to describe the arrangement of light panels underneath the new iPad Pro. By stacking two layers of OLED, the iPad Pro gets remarkably bright (up to 1,600 nits for HDR content) while offering the same traditional benefits of the display type, including better contrast (it's easier to discern the lighter and darker pixels on the screen) and improved color accuracy at a per-pixel level.

In practice, Tandem OLED makes the iPad Pro a phenomenal tablet for visual experiences. I've been able to complete text-heavy and photo-editing work -- which often require adequate viewing angles -- under a New York City sun that thinks it's already summer. Watching Netflix and Disney+ on the iPad is straight eye candy; colors pop, and the darker, moodier scenes have a level of shadow detail unseen on older Pro models.

This could pass as an iPad Pro Air: There's an old SNL skit  about Apple making the iPhone too thin and light, and it immediately came to mind when I first held the new iPad Pro. While I've never heard someone complain about the iPad Pro being too thick, I don't mind the even slimmer form factor. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch models are thin. Super thin. So thin, in fact, that it's almost inexcusable not to pack the tablet whenever I'm traveling. Dropping the iPad when watching movies in bed also hurts a little less now.

Also: I tested the 11-inch iPad Air for a week, and it made my $1,200 Android tablet feel old

The biggest yet most subtle advantage of being nimble is how much more burdenless it feels to carry the iPad around while it's encased in a folio or keyboard cover.

Everyone benefits from the M4 : The subtle wins carry over to the new M4 chip that powers the iPad Pro, from supporting the Tandem OLED's variable refresh rate (10Hz to 120Hz) to enhancing the accuracy of Face ID, which captures from a front-facing camera situated on the longer side of the iPad now -- I've dug that design change since testing the iPad in 2022 . 

Also: iPad Pro (2024) vs. iPad Air (2024): Which Apple tablet is best for you?

A more efficient processor means the iPad absolutely speeds through app load times, 4K video exports, detecting and cropping subjects out of images, and more. On a recent flight, I played 30 minutes of Genshin Impact at max graphics settings, 120fps and all, and the iPad got lukewarm at its worst -- a major improvement over my 2022 model, which would overheat after 10 minutes.

Professionals will notice the performance gains even more, with services such as Final Cut Pro (for iPad) gaining new capabilities like Live Multicam and color grading. I'm not exactly sure how many creatives can or have already switched to an iPad-iPhone-only workflow, but it feels less challenging now than ever before. This ultimately lowers the barrier to entry for videographers, digital artists, and other content creators, which is never a bad thing.

What I'd like to see in the next model 

More flexible software: The limitations of iPadOS remain with every generation of iPad reviewed; I can talk all day about how lovely it'd be to have native apps that give me something remotely close to their desktop counterparts or how every iPadOS update feels like another small step towards an ever-distant touchscreen MacBook dream .

Also: The M4 iPad Pro's true potential will be realized at WWDC, and AI will have a lot to do with it

iPadOS 17 still has some kinks to work out, and several missing features. For example, text sizing on Safari is inconsistent across split-screen mode, floating windows, and Stage Manager . There are also moments when I need to import and export large files, and a compulsive swipe-out to a different app is all it takes to put those tasks on pause. In an ideal world, some memory -- which the iPad Pro has plenty of -- should be dedicated to keeping those processes running in the background.

I'm also aware that Apple sells iPads like no other tablet maker, generating an  underwhelming $5.6 billion in revenue last quarter. So it doesn't surprise me that Apple continues to distance the iPad and Mac experiences to satisfy the greater portion of the two user bases, beyond the tech enthusiasts who want one device to rule them all.

More ports, even if they're not on the iPad: Adding more port options, from an extra USB-C to MicroSD/SD to a headphone jack, may be a potential fix for professionals who want to make the most of Apple's magical glass slab. The ability to quickly import photos and videos via an SD card and then edit them on Lightroom or Final Cut Pro/Premiere Rush would be helpful for creatives; a 3.5mm headphone jack would solve any audio latency and quality issues that engineers and sound designers face; and an extra USB-C port would give users more flexibility to charge and connect the iPad to other devices.

Of course, slimming down the iPad Pro means Apple likely won't move towards adding ports. Given how essential the Magic Keyboard is to the iPad, however, it could be even more so with the additional I/O.

Final thought  

Apple's tablet lineup is ultimately (and has always been) confined by an operating system that promotes flexibility and ease of use over high-power multitasking. That balance may shift come WWDC, should the company pitch a more ambitious, AI-driven version of iPadOS.

Regardless, the future of the iPad shouldn't be a dealbreaker because the is, for all intents and purposes, an iPad -- a tablet you carry around for getting certain tasks done and for consuming content. For many, being the best tablet on the market -- not the best laptop or PC -- is more than enough.

 Alternatives to consider 

Featured reviews.

• I tested the 11-inch iPad Air (2024) for a week, and it made my $1,200 Android tablet feel ancient
• Dell XPS 16 (2024) review: This Windows laptop gives the MacBook Pro a run for its money
• OLED vs. QLED TV: Which panel type is best for you?
• One of the best productivity laptops I've tested is not made by Dell or Apple

This article may contain affiliate links that Microsoft and/or the publisher may receive a commission from if you buy a product or service through those links.

Vision Pro Marvel app reviews: ‘Best experience’ or ‘flimsy and meh’

Hands-on reviews of the new Vision Pro Marvel app What if…? are in, and are best described as mixed.

One reviewer said that it was “maybe the best hour I’ve spent on the device since I got it,” while another described it as a “flimsy” and “meh” experience. Both, however, were upbeat about the future potential …

Vision Pro Marvel ‘What if …?’ app

The Marvel What if…? app was first announced earlier this month, as a Vision Pro exclusive.

Fans will be invited to step inside the Multiverse like never before and have the chance to dive into an immersive, narrative-driven and innovative story in mixed reality [that] will deliver a technologically advanced and engaging experience to fans.

We subsequently learned that the app would be free for a limited time, and got the chance to view a trailer for the experience.

One thing that wasn’t clear was whether the app was more like a film or a game, and that much has now been cleared up: It is interactive in the sense that you can look around, and it will wait for you to initiate the next chapter, but only one thing you can do actually changes the outcome.

‘Maybe the best hour I’ve spent on the device’

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors , was thoroughly impressed.

I really enjoyed the environments, which are cleverly designed to resemble the style of the animated “What If?” TV series, but upgraded a bit so that they make sense in a 3-D, 360-degree context. I was especially impressed by a few surprising easter eggs littered around, and the design of a see-through pod containing something very interesting […] The hour I spent with “What If?” was maybe the best hour I’ve spent on the device since I got it. If Apple is looking for a single app that demonstrates all the features of the Vision Pro at its best, “What If?” may be the answer.

‘I spent an hour in it and am still not sure why’

Wired’s Marah Eakin disagreed.

Having recently spent an hour or so in Vision Pro’s What If…? universe, I’m not actually sure if it’s a win for anyone outside of the big companies backing it. While it’s initially intriguing and visually complex, the more time you spend within it, the flimsier the experience becomes […] My hour in  What If…?  left me kind of  meh  on the actual technology and gameplay, for lack of a better word […]  Just sitting on a couch flopping my hand around like a fish felt anti-climactic, considering I was supposedly tasked with saving all of humanity. 

But shows future potential

Both agreed that, whatever we may think of the experience today, the real take-out is the potential for immersive gaming in the future.

Snell described it as “a sampler platter of ways this sort of entertainment could evolve in the future.”

Eakin said that even if this app felt like “a cruel tease of what could’ve been,” it did leave her “intrigued by the possibilities.”

Image: Marvel

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!

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'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?

ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.

When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.

ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form .

Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it?

Microsoft's Copilot tool is already freely available as a dedicated webpage, mobile app, and built-in Windows tool, offering quick and easy access to an AI chatbot that will answer your questions, generate content, and create images. But Microsoft upped its game with a Pro version of Copilot that kicks in more features and better access for $20 per month.

Also: Microsoft adds Copilot Pro support to iPhone and Android apps

The free flavor offers the following features:

• Copilot use on the web and in Windows, MacOS, and iPadOS.
• Access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo during non-peak times.
• Upcoming access to GPT-4o .
• Use of text, voice, and images in conversational search.
• Ability to create and edit AI images with 15 boosts (15 images) per day with the Designer tool.
• Ability to use plug-ins and shared GPTs.

Also:  How to use Image Creator from Microsoft Designer

The Pro version kicks in several additional benefits:

• Faster performance and priority access to GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo during peak times.
• Copilot availability in core Microsoft 365 desktop and web apps (Microsoft account required).
• Faster AI image creation with 100 boosts (100 images) per day using Designer .
• Ability to resize AI-created images between square and landscape formats without leaving Designer.
• Ability to create and share your own custom and tailored Copilot GPTs via a Copilot Builder tool .

Beyond using Copilot Pro at the Copilot website through any browser, you can launch it directly in Windows 10 or 11. Simply click the Copilot icon on the Taskbar. The Pro flavor is also accessible in the iPhone and Android Copilot apps . You can use Copilot Pro with a Microsoft 365 subscription in Windows, MacOS, and iPadOS. And you can even tap into the Pro flavor with the free Microsoft 365 apps on the web .

You should use Copilot free if…

1. you don't use microsoft 365 on the desktop or on the web.

For most people, the main advantage of Copilot Pro is the support for Microsoft 365. This means you're able to use AI to create and edit text and perform other advanced tasks in Word, Excel, and other apps both in the desktop suite and on the web. If you don't use any of the Microsoft 365 apps, then the other benefits by themselves probably aren't enough to justify the $20-per-month price tag.

2. You can get by with GPT-3.5 and non-peak use of GPT-4

GPT-4 offers some clear benefits over GPT-3.5, including faster and more accurate responses, longer prompts, a better understanding of context and nuance, greater creativity, the ability to solve complex problems, and fewer biased responses and hallucinations.

Also: ChatGPT vs ChatGPT Plus: Is it worth the subscription fee?

You can access both GPT models through the free version, though you may not be able to use GPT-4 during peak load times. In that case, Copilot will drop down to GPT-3.5. For many people, however, the sporadic GPT-4 access should suffice.

3. Your image generation needs are modest

Using the built-in Designer tool with DALL-E 3, Copilot is able to generate images based on your text descriptions. The free flavor limits the number of images you can generate, granting you 15 boosts (15 images) per day. If you don't need more, then the free flavor of Copilot will work just fine.

4. You already subscribe to ChatGPT Plus

ChatGPT Plus duplicates some of the benefits of Copilot Pro and throws in extra features such as the GPT Store and the ability to create your own custom chatbots. If you already pay $20 per month to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus , there's not as much reason to also subscribe to Copilot Pro. Save yourself some money and stick with the free Copilot flavor.

You should use Copilot Pro if…

1. you use microsoft 365 and want generative ai assistance for the apps.

With its AI skills, Copilot Pro will help you write and edit text and summarize documents in Word, generate formulas and analyze data in Excel, create presentations in PowerPoint, compose text in OneNote, and draft replies and organize your inbox in Outlook. If you use Microsoft 365 on the desktop or on the web and those AI smarts will help you write, create, and work faster, then Copilot Pro can easily be worth the price.

2. You rely heavily on GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo

With the Pro edition of Copilot, you won't get saddled with GPT 3.5, even during peak times. Instead, you can switch between GPT-4 and the latest GPT-4 Turbo model. 

If you use GPT-4 heavily and frequently throughout the day and require fast and reliable access all the time, then Copilot Pro gets the nod over the free version.

3. You need to generate a lot of images

While the free Copilot limits the number of images you can generate to 15 per day, the Pro version allows as many as 100. Plus, the image creation tends to be much faster. If you need to create batches of artwork, logos, and other images as part of your job, then you won't run into as many roadblocks with the Pro version.

Both the free and paid versions of Copilot let you edit your images inline without leaving the Designer tool. Copilot Pro goes a step further by allowing you to resize and regenerate images between square and landscape formats.

Also: The best AI image generators

4. You don't subscribe to other premium AI services

Depending on your job and workload, a paid AI service can help you be more productive. If you don't already subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, Google's Gemini Advanced , or a similar service, then Copilot Pro could be just what you need. And remember, you can always try it for a month and then decide if you want to continue or cancel.

5. You'd like to create your own custom Copilot GPTs

With Copilot Pro, you're able to create and configure your own Copilot GPT chatbots . You might try this if you want to design a niche and unique GPT devoted to a specific skill or resource. Using the Copilot GPT Builder, you can either chat with Copilot for AI-infused assistance or manually give your GPT a name, description, and instructions. When done, you can preview your GPT to make sure it works and then either restrict access just to yourself or make it available to anyone with whom you share the link.

Now, let's look at how and where to access the free and paid editions of Copilot.

Free version access at the website

To access the free version on the web, browse to the Copilot webpage . Choose a conversation style and then type your question or request at the "Ask me anything" prompt. On the right, you should see specific Copilot GPTs, including Designer for image generation, a vacation planner, a cooking assistant, and a fitness trainer. The website also offers access to Copilot plugins, such as Instacart, Kayak, and Open Table.

Free version access in Windows

More easily, click the Copilot icon on the Windows 10 or 11 toolbar. A similar interface appears where you choose the conversation style and then dive into your questions.

Free version access in the mobile apps

To use Copilot on your mobile device, download the app for iOS or Android. Choose your preferred conversation style and then submit your requests.

Paid version access at the website

To sign up for the paid version of Copilot, browse to Microsoft's Copilot Pro webpage . Click the button for Get Copilot Pro. At the subscription page, confirm your payment method, and then click the Subscribe button. 

Also: This iPhone app fuses AI with web search, saving you time and energy

After the payment process finishes, click the "Get started" button. You're taken to the Copilot webpage where you'll see Pro as part of the Copilot logo. The Copilot GPTs and plugins are all accessible in the Pro model.

Paid version access in Windows

After subscribing on the website, log back into Windows 10 or 11. Click the Copilot Taskbar icon, and the Pro version will pop up.

Paid version access in the mobile apps

Open the iOS or Android Copilot app and you'll see that Pro is now part of the logo, indicating that you're tapping into your Pro subscription.

Artificial Intelligence

Chatgpt vs. copilot: which ai chatbot is better for you, what is copilot (formerly bing chat) here's everything you need to know, chatgpt vs. microsoft copilot vs. gemini: which is the best ai chatbot.

SpeedReadist: Book Summaries 17+

Summary of bestselling books, designed for ipad.

• 5.0 • 3 Ratings
• Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description.

Book Summaries:Get bite-sized ideas from bestselling books! Dive into Book Key Points in Just 15 Minutes! Listen&Read, anywhere, anytime, micro-learning made easy! SpeedReadist - Book Summary: Your Essential Book Summary App, microlearning made easy! 10000+ of bestselling book's summaries are here waiting for you to explore! Simplifies your quest for valuable insights,skills,suggestions,and knowledge from the books in 20+ categories like career, family,work,health,and relationships. Ready to embark on this self-growth journey with SpeedReadist? ----------------------- WHAT YOU GET WITH SPEEDREADIST * A Book-filled Library: Effortlessly access a vast Collection of Books summaries. Regular Book Additions, Swift and diverse inclusions in our book hub for all your reading needs. * 20+ diverse categories: Personal-development, Business&Career, Society&Tech,Productivity, Money&Investments, Leadership, and many more. * Quality SUMMARIES:We read top books, highlight key insights, and provide summaries.Easily Understand & Expand Your View;Just 15-20 minutes per book to acquire KEY CONCEPTS and glean insights. * Listen& Read: While relaxing,driving,exercising,before sleep,Anywhere, Anytime!Microlearning Made Easy! * Explore and Search: Provides multiple ways to find books for you.Quickly and effortlessly locate books of your preference * Book Requests: Search, ask for, and customize your own reading list with an endless stream of books. * Offline Listening: Supports downloading, making it easy for users to listen to books without any network environment or obstacles; ----------------------- WHO WILL BENEFIT? * Want to challenge yourself to read more * Feel guilty about not reading a recommended book * Can't get through your growing stack of must-read books * Want to be more efficient and productive by learning on the go * Get frustrated when an author repeats the same concept over and over * Need to learn the big ideas of a book before attending an event or walking into a meeting ----------------------- WHAT USERS HIGHLIGHT * Inspiring & motivating * Huge library of book summaries * Easy to read & listen * Would recommend ----------------------- GROW TOGETHER & FEEDBACK! Questions? Recommendations? Talk to SpeedReadist! Please email us at:[email protected] . We would love to hear from you! We're devoted to supporting everyone who desires self-betterment and positive transformation. As such, we will attentively listen to and work on each of your ideas and feedback. SpeedReadist shares universal voices with you and eagerly anticipates your input, too. Ready for progress? Let's speed onward with SpeedReadist to evolve into improved versions of ourselves! ----------------------- Privacy Policy: https://docs.qq.com/doc/DRHBldFlOQXRoUUFF User Agreement: https://docs.qq.com/doc/DRGRKd1p5QkhaYVV0 Email Address: [email protected]

Version 1.2.6

We've polished things up and waved goodbye to pesky bugs. Your on-the-go learning journey just got smoother with this update!

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App privacy.

The developer, 镇源 余 , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Identifiers

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese

• Monthly $9.99
• Yearly $29.99
• 3 Months $19.99
• App Support
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These are the best iPhone apps and games of 2024 so far, according to Apple

Shortlist revealed for iPads, macOS, and the Vision Pro

Every year Apple hands out Design Awards to the apps and games that it thinks really stand out (the 2023 winners are here ): it's a prestigious accolade, and the shortlist for the 2024 batch of awards has now been announced.

The full list (via Neowin ) is split into seven categories, covering Delight and Fun, Inclusivity, Innovation, Interaction, Social Impact, Visuals and Graphics, and Spatial Computing. The winners are set to be named at WWDC 2024 , which gets underway on June 10.

There are some top-tier apps here. In Delight and Fun we've got Dudel Draw for drawing, Bears Gratitude for journaling, and Rooms for playing around with 3D spaces. The games in this category are the chaotic racer What The Car? , the more slow-paced NYT Games , and the "sweet adventure" Hello Kitty Island Adventure .

For Inclusivity we have Oko to help pedestrians, Complete Anatomy 2024 to reveal the wonders of the human body, and Tiimo , a calendar app for neurodivergent people. In this category the games are the meditative Unpacking , the puzzler Quadline , and the brilliantly colorful Crayola Adventures .

Heading into the Innovation category, the apps list features Copilot for helping you with your finances, SmartGym for helping you with your fitness, and Procreate Dreams for digital art. Games-wise, there's the actioner Call of Duty: Warzone , the graphic novel-esque Lost in Play , and the board game adaptation Wavelength .

Interaction and impact

As for Interaction, Procreate Dreams appears again, and we've got the Arc Search app that's taking on Google ( which we're fans of) and the Crouton app for managing recipes. The games here are the "engagingly eerie" Little Nightmares , music rhythm game Rytmos , and Finity , which is a thoughtful matching game.

When it comes to the Social Impact finalists, the picks are How We Feel , Ahead: Emotions Coach , and Gentler Streak Fitness Tracker (as previously featured on TechRadar ), all designed to improve your well-being. The games in this category are visual novel The Wreck , city sim Cityscapes: Sim Builder , and bedtime experience The Bear .

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For Visuals and Graphics, the finalists are Sunlitt for tracking the sun, Meditate for tracking your meditations, and Rooms again. The games shortlisted for this category are Death Stranding Director's Cut – which looks fantastic, even on mobile – then the imaginative and immersive Lies of P and turn-based combat game Honkai: Star Rail .

The final category (with a nod to the Apple Vision Pro ) is Spatial Computing. Here we've got the apps Sky Guide (for stargazing), NBA (for basketball), and Djay (for music making). The games shortlisted here are "effervescent rhythm game" Synth Riders , and the peaceful puzzlers Blackbox and Loóna .

We haven't been able to test out all these apps and games, but they all seem to be of a very high quality – as you would expect, if they've been shortlisted by Apple. Maybe give some of them a try while we wait for WWDC 2024 to roll round next month.

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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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