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An open-source alternative to Apple Books

Readest is the one project in our catalog listed as a replacement for Apple Books. It is entertainment software with 25.8K GitHub stars. Below is how it measures against the questions people usually ask first.

Readest

Entertainment

Read EPUB, PDF and other ebooks with notes and sync across devices.

Readest is an ebook reader for people who read on more than one device. It handles common formats, keeps your highlights and notes, and picks up where you left off on the next screen. Tools such as dictionary lookup, translation and read aloud help with study and language learning.

  • Parallel Read opens two books side by side with synced scrolling.
  • Highlights, bookmarks and notes, with full-text search across the library.
  • Syncs progress and notes with KOReader devices.

What people use it for

Read a translation next to the original

Long-press a book in the library and select a second book, or choose Parallel Read from the reader's sidebar menu. Each pane has its own table of contents, settings and progress, and scrolling stays in step by default. Turn the sync off for translations where page lengths differ.

Keep your reading in sync on every device

Sign in to a Readest account under Main Menu, Account, and turn on the Sync toggles. Library entries, progress, bookmarks, highlights and notes reach every signed-in device, while book files download only when you open them. KOReader users can also sync progress and notes with their devices.

Build a library from your own sources

Add books with the file picker, drag and drop, the share sheet on mobile or a link to an EPUB. Connect an OPDS catalogue or your Calibre library to browse and import books. Full Text Search in the library finds passages inside your books, with options such as whole words, regular expressions and fuzzy matching.

25.8K starsAGPL-3.0TypeScriptLatest release 17 days agoWebsite ↗Full profile →

Fact checklist

The same questions the pages with more alternatives let you sort by, answered for Readest.

  • Does not meet: Permissive licence (MIT, Apache, BSD)Licence: AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)
  • Open-source licence (copyleft or permissive)Licence: AGPL-3.0 (copyleft)
  • Released in the last 90 daysLatest GitHub release Oct 13, 2026 (17 days ago)
  • Does not meet: Gaining stars this weekNot enough star history yet to tell
  • Written in TypeScriptMain language on GitHub
  • Does not meet: Recommended in a stackNot in any of our stacks yet

Data from GitHub and our catalog. Every listing is hand-approved. List prices are what the vendor publishes, not a quote, and self-hosting has its own running costs.