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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Readwise Reader vs Notion

Readwise Reader 4.6★ · Free to download 70
Winner Tie
Notion 4.8★ · Free + IAP 70

Readwise Reader is better for dedicated content consumption and highlighting, while Notion is superior for comprehensive organization and project management, despite both struggling with mobile app performance and bugs.

Full reviews: Readwise Reader · Notion

Readwise Reader excels as a dedicated reading and highlighting tool, praised for its interface and text-to-speech, but is frequently criticized for bugs and high subscription cost. Notion offers powerful, flexible organization and AI features, but its mobile app is often buggy and users express frustration with AI being over-emphasized.

Head to head

Features & Functionality tieR5R7R8R11
Readwise Reader Readwise Reader is highly praised for its ability to consolidate all reading material, including articles, PDFs, and even YouTube transcripts, into one place, with excellent text-to-speech and highlighting features R5R8R29. Users appreciate its focused UI for deep reading and the ability to chat with highlights R8R20. However, some users note missing basic features like a compact RSS view, widget support, or reading statistics R7R11. PDF and Apple Pencil support are also described as limited or buggy .
Notion Notion is lauded as a versatile 'second brain' for organizing nearly everything, from personal affairs to business projects, with strong customization and sharing capabilities . Its AI features are seen as powerful by some, generating lists and pages , but many users are frustrated by the constant promotion of AI and wish for an option to remove it R66R70. Users also desire features like mind mapping, password-protected pages, and better font size control .
Ease of Use & Interface edge: Readwise ReaderR2R27R29R53
Readwise Reader Readwise Reader is praised for its impeccable and elegant interface, described as intuitive and easy to use, despite its many features R2R53R29. However, some users find the iPadOS app inferior to the web version, lacking a sidebar and feeling like a high-res phone app R27. There are also complaints about small fonts on iPad and the lack of external keyboard support .
Notion Notion is generally considered flexible and easy to use once understood . However, many users find the mobile interface confusing and difficult to navigate, especially when typing or dealing with long documents . The mobile app's auto-adjustment when typing is a significant frustration . Apple Pencil support is also described as poor, with issues like scrolling being misinterpreted as typing .
Reliability & Performance tieR3R4R6R9
Readwise Reader Readwise Reader suffers from significant reliability and performance issues, with numerous reports of bugs, crashes, and slow loading times R3R4R10. Specific problems include articles not saving correctly, TTS breaking, the app freezing, and excessive phone heating R3R4R6R9. While some users report fixes for battery and performance , recent updates have introduced new crashes and slowness R10R25R36.
Notion Notion also faces widespread complaints about bugs, crashes, and performance issues, particularly on mobile devices . Users report the app being slow, freezing, crashing during sign-in, and long documents failing to load . Many feel that updates introduce more bugs than they fix .
Price & Value edge: NotionR1R2R19R20
Readwise Reader Readwise Reader is a paid-only service, with users reporting prices around $10-13 per month or $95 per year R21R30R42R49. While some users find it absolutely worth the yearly subscription due to its features and support R2R20, many others consider the price too high for a reading app, especially given the reported bugs R19R21R30R42. The trial experience can be confusing, with some users reporting their trial expired without ever using the app R1.
Notion Notion offers a free tier and in-app purchases, with some users happily using the free version . Paid subscriptions can vary, with one user noting an increase from $12 to $26 . Some users find it a valuable investment for business and personal organization . However, the subscription model is criticized for charging per member, even for view-only access, and for not allowing granular sharing permissions within workspaces .
Customer Support edge: Readwise ReaderR2R19R23R43
Readwise Reader Readwise Reader generally receives positive feedback for its customer support. Users report the team being highly responsive to emails, extending free trials, and making them feel valued R2. When things break, issues are acknowledged quickly and usually resolved reasonably fast R23. However, some users note a lack of easy in-app bug reporting R19 and dissatisfaction with responses regarding missing features like printing or PDF export R43.
Notion Notion's customer support receives mixed reviews. One user reported difficulty contacting customer service after a billing increase, with the support form not allowing email entry . Another mentioned that the support bot incorrectly states iPad isn't supported, despite the app being available . There's also a general sentiment that developers aren't responsive to bug fixes .
Pick Readwise Reader if

You are a serious reader looking for a dedicated app to consolidate all your reading material, including articles, PDFs, and even YouTube transcripts, with excellent text-to-speech and highlighting capabilities, and you are willing to pay a premium for these features despite occasional bugs R5R8R20R29.

Pick Notion if

You need a highly flexible and customizable platform for comprehensive organization, project management, and note-taking across various aspects of your life or business, and you are comfortable with its learning curve and potential mobile app glitches .

Evidence note: Both apps have a significant number of recent negative reviews related to bugs and performance, which contrasts with their higher lifetime ratings. For Readwise Reader, the paid-only model means most negative reviews come from paying users frustrated with quality, while Notion's free tier likely contributes to some negative reviews from users encountering limitations or issues without paying.

Frequently asked

What are the main pricing differences between Readwise Reader and Notion?
Readwise Reader is a paid-only subscription service, with users reporting costs around $10-13 per month or $95 per year R21R30R42R49. Notion offers a free tier with in-app purchases, and its paid subscriptions can vary, with one user noting an increase from $12 to $26 .
Do these apps have good mobile performance?
Both apps receive numerous complaints about poor mobile performance, including bugs, crashes, slow loading, and freezing (R3, R10, R25, R36, , for Readwise Reader; , , , , for Notion). Users frequently report issues on both iPhone and iPad devices.
How do users feel about AI features in these apps?
Readwise Reader users appreciate its 'chatting with highlights' AI feature R8, though one review notes the use of an outdated GPT-3.5 model R40. Notion users are largely frustrated by the pervasive and often forced integration of AI features, with many wishing for an option to disable or remove them R66R70.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R5] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US Revolutionized how I consume media: I finally feel like I have a grasp on everything I read and a single place to read it all. Highly highly recommend
  2. [R7] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US No RSS compact view: Unlike every other rss app or similar apps such as email clients that all offer compact view vs default or vs expanded etc, Reader still has 0 options to customize the RSS screen. Can’t hide the image, can’t hide the excerpt etc so it’s a terrible rss experience and seems more aimed for the view one would want for curated saved articles not all ones rss feeds. Every years more
  3. [R8] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US Wow!: So I came from rss.app and Feedly cause I want to keep up with the playoffs.. I understand reader isn’t fast pace but it’s what I’m looking for .. use Flipboard and whatever is out there to find an article dump it in my library.. get feeds dump then then read them on my own time.. I been doing read later for now .. don’t get me started on chatting with highlights. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Using
  4. [R11] Readwise Reader 4/5 · US Great, but no Widget support?: I’m enjoying the app and the service. But it would be great to see a widget for the news feeder.
  5. [R2] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US absolutely worth it: this is the only app I’ve found worth paying a yearly subscription for. impeccable interface. so easy to use, yet so many awesome features. when I first started using Reader, I was between jobs. when my (already generous) free trial ended, they extended it by three more months for me + were highly responsive to emails. I did not feel like a random user; the Readwise team has
  6. [R27] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Inexplicably not the web-app on iPad OS: I love Readwise on my phone, my Palma, and my web browser. It’s the best reading app & it’s expensive enough that I almost trust it’ll stick around (unlike Omnivore…). For unknown reasons, though: the iPad OS app is the web browser’s inferior in every way. The lack of a sidebar is nuts and it’s basically a high-res version of the phone app. What’s up with t
  7. [R29] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US Elegant Interface - and a true 2nd Brain: I save everything in it - research, epubs, pdfs, feeds from twitter lists, and websites, blogs. The text to speech feature is excellent for anything from articles to books.
  8. [R53] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US Didn’t know how much I needed this: I try to minimize my use of apps/heavy tooling but this is downright incredible. It’s intuitive and exactly what I needed.
  9. [R3] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Great app, disastrous quality control: The amount of bugs this app has is amongst the highest I've ever seen on any app, whether high quality or otherwise . It's too bad, because this thing is really, really, really good when it works. For at least a year or two now, my inbox on my iPhone just does not want to work properly. It takes forever to load, and I've cleared the cache and done everything
  10. [R4] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US TTS broken again: No QA testing before each update? Now when using TTS and you tap the button to jump back, it jumps ahead instead. Acceptable for a free or cheap service, not acceptable at this price.
  11. [R6] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Unreliable: I love the idea of this app. I love the feature set. What I do t love is that a substantial portion of the articles I save get improperly saved. For example, I saved an article and the top and bottom sections (about 80% of the article) weren’t saved. I tried the same thing in GoodLinks, none. The article was as expected. Not sure what’s going on here but great features can’t make up f
  12. [R9] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Severe overheating: I've subscribed for two years straight, and my phone always gets hot shortly after I open the app, so I mostly use the web version. iOS has had many updates in between, and each time I hoped an update would fix the overheating, but the developers still haven't solved this issue. I hope the developers take this problem seriously and resolve it soon. · translated
  13. [R1] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US Just downloaded but my trial is expired?: This app must be connected to to original in terms of subscription. I’ve never used this one before but I’ve used the Readwise app; just downloaded this, signed up and it told me to subscribe to continue as my trial is expired. I can’t move past that page to even see what the app entails. Thats a real bummer, really wanted to try it as I get back into read
  14. [R19] Readwise Reader 2/5 · US Good idea with lots of bugs without any fixes: The main idea is good but the app has several bugs which you encounter on a daily basis. And there isnt any way to report them easily in the app. Thats not fine with a paid app. I might cancel my subscription in the near future.
  15. [R20] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US The BEST media organization app: If you decide to use this app, prepare to expand your ideas of what is possible with a reader app. Wildly powerful and takes some time to get comfortable with, but for serious readers it’s 100% worth it. I wish there were TTS playlists but that’s not going to prevent me from happily giving 5 stars ✨
  16. [R23] Readwise Reader 5/5 · US The best all-in-one reader around: This app has changed the way I consume almost all online, and some offline content. While it’s not perfect (yet), it is very actively developed and supported. New features are coming all the time and when things break, they’re at least quickly acknowledged and usually resolved reasonably fast as well. It’s the best app I’ve seen in this category and I’ve tried pl
  17. [R43] Readwise Reader 2/5 · US Promising but disappointing: This app has much to like but it lacks some basic and fundamental features such as printing and export as PDF. It does a great job of formatting web pages for reading. I wanted to use it as part of my research process because I like it allows me to highlight and write notes and that I can export this notes. However, you cannot print or export as pdf. I reached out to
  18. [R21] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Subscription: Can’t justify $12/m
  19. [R30] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Good App, too pricey: I enjoyed my first day using the app, but learned that it costs about $10-13 a month! I read that a year ago it was $8-9. In a perfect world I would use this app, but this cost is ludicrously high for the service offered. Subscriptions are everywhere now and I’m frankly fine with a free version that is slightly worse.
  20. [R42] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US nice: but should be charge less 95$/yr for a reading app sounds crazy
  21. [R49] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US subscription price makes no sense: I am not really sure why the subscription price for this product is about the same as the subscription for any magazine/newspaper subscription. All it does is reference other information and provides no distinct value on its own to warrant that price.
  22. [R10] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US Last update introduced crashes.: Been us the Readeise reader app to have it read to me the details of a very large PDF and after the recent up the app crashes after about 5 minutes. This happens on both iPad and iPhone. I hope the developer fixes soon. All what good until then update yesterday.
  23. [R25] Readwise Reader 1/5 · US Extremely slow to refresh: App is extremely slow at initial open. It get better once everything is loaded but that takes forever
  24. [R36] Readwise Reader 3/5 · US Great app and service but performance issues: Really like using readwise reader for all my rss feeds and reading purposes but the big problem i have is performance issues with the app (on an iPhone 14 pro). The home screen and daily digest is basically unusable due to how slow it is and how much it lags while scrolling. The library and feed tabs are mostly fine, though reading articles can also la
  25. [R40] Readwise Reader 2/5 · US gpt 3.5 is outdated: Readwise should upgrade to gpt 4o to make better use of AI
  26. [R66] Notion 3/5 · US I love Notion, Not AI…: I use Notion everyday to help me stick to a schedule and plan my life. I despise AI, and the fact it’s even in the title name is repulsive. It’s painful to love this app due to them feeding into this.
  27. [R70] Notion 2/5 · US Pls cut back use of ai: Love notion, great app. Hate that ai is shoved down your throat at every turn. Can’t click a single thing without “ai can do this for you!!” I don’t want ai to do it for me. I am here because I want to do it. Ai sucks the fun out of everything. The second I find an alternative that does not use ai is the second I drop notion like a hot potato and switch over everything.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store