Readest is a cross-platform ebook reader supporting desktop, mobile, and web platforms. It renders multiple file formats and provides reading tools including annotations and text-to-speech.
Project overview
Built on Next.js and Tauri v2, the reader covers macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and the Web while handling eight different document formats.
Project type
Audio & Speech
Use cases
Audio & Speech
Deployment
Refer to project documentation
License
AGPL-3.0
Best for
General users who need to read and interact with ebooks across multiple operating systems.
Users who require text-to-speech narration and annotation tools during reading.
Planned feature to generate summaries of books or chapters for quick insights.
Limitations and risks
Launching the application on Windows requires the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime.
The AppImage may fail to open a window on some Arch Linux systems using the Wayland display server protocol.
Telemetry practices and data boundary specifics are not documented, meaning users cannot confirm local-only data processing without further testing.
Getting started
Setup is rated easy because direct downloads are provided for binaries and a hosted web app is available at web.readest.com.
Download and install the binary for your operating system or open the hosted web app to begin reading.
Alternatives and comparisons
An open-source personal cloud operating system designed for managing digital assets locally, which may include reading applications among its broader self-hosted services.
Memory infrastructure for building stateful agents, applicable to projects requiring persistent context rather than direct ebook rendering.
Provides optical character recognition for Japanese manga, serving as a specialized text extraction tool rather than a full ebook reader.