The Best Free EPUB Reader for iPhone & iPad (When Most Are Paid)
The iPhone/iPad EPUB reader problem: pay upfront, or live with limits
Search "EPUB reader" on the App Store and you'll find a small, dedicated crowd of well-loved apps — and most of them ask for money before you've even finished your first chapter. Yomu is free to download, but the Pro unlock that removes the file-count limit and ads is a one-time in-app purchase (Yomu Pro is $7.99; the higher "Karma" tier is $12.99). KyBook 3 is free to install, but syncing your library across devices sits behind a subscription — $4.49 for three months or $14.99 a year. BookFusion gives you a real free tier, but it caps out at 10 uploaded books before you're nudged toward a $2–10/month plan. And Marvin, long considered the gold standard for serious EPUB readers on iOS, was pulled from the App Store entirely — it's gone for new users, and even existing installs are one iOS update away from breaking.
None of this makes those apps bad — some of them are genuinely excellent, and we'll say where. But if you just want to read the DRM-free EPUBs you already own, without a paywall between you and page one, the paid-first pattern gets old fast.
NovelGlide is free on the App Store — no ads, no subscription, supported only by an optional one-time tip jar if you want to say thanks. It runs on iPhone and iPad, and bundles three things the paid single-purpose readers above don't put together in one app.
What NovelGlide gives you for free
- Read-aloud, out of the box. NovelGlide can read your EPUB to you using your device's built-in voices — no add-on purchase, no separate TTS app.
- A built-in Chinese & Japanese dictionary. Tap a word and look it up without leaving the page — Traditional Chinese with 注音, Simplified Chinese with pinyin, and Japanese via JMdict.
- Sync through your own Google Drive. Your books, reading progress, highlights, bookmarks, and collections sync between your iPhone and iPad through a Google Drive account you already control — nobody else's server in between.
- Highlights, whole-book search, and vertical-writing support for the EPUBs formatted that way.
You still bring your own DRM-free EPUB files — NovelGlide is a reader, not a store — but everything above is included the moment you install it.
How NovelGlide compares to the well-loved paid readers
To be fair to the competition: Yomu's page-turn feel and Marvin's Calibre integration earned their followings for real reasons, and BookFusion's free tier is genuinely usable if 10 books is enough for your shelf. If deep Calibre metadata sync or a specific page-turn animation is what you're after, one of those may still be your app.
But stack up what each one asks for against what it gives you, and the pattern is the same: pay to remove a book-count ceiling, pay to sync across your own devices, or pay for a subscription just to keep using the app the way you already were. NovelGlide's free tier isn't a trial of a paid app — it's the whole app, including sync between your phone and tablet.
The dictionary is CJK-only — and that's by design
Worth being precise about: NovelGlide's built-in dictionary is not an English dictionary. It's built for readers working through Chinese or Japanese text — tap a Traditional Chinese word and see it with 注音, a Simplified Chinese word with pinyin, or a Japanese word via the JMdict dataset. If you're an English-only reader, that particular feature won't do much for you, but the TTS, sync, and search all work the same regardless of language. If you're studying Chinese or Japanese, or reading novels in either language, it's the one feature none of the readers above offer at all.
Getting started
Install NovelGlide, then add the EPUB files you already have — from Files, from a cloud drive, or from wherever you keep your library. Turn on Google Drive sync if you want your progress and highlights to follow you from your iPhone to your iPad. That's the whole setup.
If you're looking for the fuller picture of what a single EPUB reader can cover across formats and devices, see The only EPUB reader you need.
FAQ
Is NovelGlide really free, or is there a catch?
It's free to download and free to use — no ads, no subscription. There's an optional one-time tip jar in the app if you want to support development, but nothing is gated behind it.
Does NovelGlide work on both iPhone and iPad?
Yes, and your library, progress, and highlights can sync between them through your own Google Drive account.
Can NovelGlide open books from the Kindle or Kobo store?
No — like the other independent readers mentioned here, NovelGlide opens the DRM-free EPUB files you already have, not titles locked to another store's ecosystem.
Does the dictionary work for English words?
No — it's built specifically for Chinese (Traditional with 注音, Simplified with pinyin) and Japanese (via JMdict). It's aimed at readers of CJK text, not an English lookup tool.
Does the read-aloud feature keep playing with the screen locked?
NovelGlide's read-aloud uses your device's built-in voices to read your EPUB aloud from within the app. We're not claiming lock-screen or background media controls here — keep the app open while it reads.
Where do I download it?
iPhone and iPad: NovelGlide on the App Store. Android: NovelGlide on Google Play.