Even though anime has gotten the world’s attention again, it has also put mangas in the spotlight. Manga is an umbrella term for Japanese comic books that are known for their unique art style and stories. Usually, they come out in parts called chapters. If you like this type of book, here are the six best manga reader apps for your phone.
Mangas used to only be available in paperback format, but in this digital age, creators are slowly moving towards technology and digitising their work. Even though there are a lot of manga reading apps out there, you should always check to make sure they’re real. So, we put together this list of the best manga reader apps for Android and iPhone. Let’s check it out.
Manga Reader Apps for Android and iPhone
1. SHONEN JUMP – BEST MANGA READER APP
When we talk about the best manga apps, Shonen Jump has to come up. Shonen Jump has become one of the most popular apps for reading manga because it has all of the VIZ Manga series. The fact that the app is easy to use and makes switching between chapters and series smooth helps.And even though almost all titles are paid, you can access most of the latest chapters for free.
Once you’ve opened the manga you want to read, you can switch between chapter panels by swiping right or using the app’s slider. You can also zoom in on the page to make it easier to read. Even though you don’t have to sign in to read the free chapters, you can if you want to get to the manga series you’ve already read and like.
You can also download chapters to read them offline, but you’ll only be able to do that for 7 days. If the series is still going on, you can read the first three and last three chapters for free.
For the finished series, however, you will only be able to read the first three chapters for free. There is a place in the app for chapters that can be read for free right now. Users who have paid can read up to 100 chapters a day. You can try the app for free for 7 days to see what it can do before you pay for a subscription.
- Top Titles: My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball series, JoJo’s Bizzare Adventures
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: 7-day free trial; Subscription: $1.99/month onwards
Get Shonen Jump for iOS
Get Shonen Jump for Android
2. CRUNCHYROLL MANGA – BEST MANGA APP FOR ANIME ENTHUSIASTS
Even though Crunchyroll is best known for its anime library, its manga library can hold its own. Even though the interface of the app might look a little old, the games make up for it. To use the app, though, you will need to sign in with your Crunchyroll account information.
Once you’re in, you can use different filters to sort through the titles and get to your favourite and bookmarked series.
Again, you can switch between chapter panels by either swiping to the right or moving the slider. But one thing we did notice about Crunchyroll Manga is that there isn’t much free content. Even though you can read some chapters for free, there are usually only a few of them. For most books, the limit on how many chapters you can read starts right after the first one.
Crunchyroll Manga doesn’t have its own subscription service. Instead, it’s included in the regular Crunchyroll subscription. You can also get a 14-day free trial before committing to a full subscription so you can try out all of its features first.
But when we switched between titles on the iOS app, there was a little bit of lag. We hope that it will be fixed soon. Also, you can only sign up if you use the desktop app for Crunchyroll Manga.
- Top Titles: Space Brothers, Re:Monster, Inside Mari
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: 14-day free trial; Subscription: $7.99/month onwards
Get Crunchyroll Manga for iOS
Get Crunchyroll Manga for Android
3. WEBTOON – BEST FREE MANGA READING APP
The Webtoon app is home to not just manga, but also manhwas, webcomics, short stories, and more. It also has a huge collection of its own content. Webtoon is one of the best free apps for reading manga, and most of the books on it are free to read. And while you need to create a profile to access features like reading lists, unlock episodes, etc. the free titles can be read even without signing in.
Here, to move between panels, you will have to scroll up and down instead of swipe. Most episodes in the app are free to watch after they’ve been out for a week. For some finished series, you also get a daily pass that lets you watch any one episode for free every day for up to 14 days.
There are extra episodes that are usually locked behind coins for those who want to read ahead. But you can only buy coins with certain devices and in certain languages. For example, if you bought coins for your Android app and set the language to English, you can’t use them for your iOS app or any other language.
Also, each account can only be used on one device at a time. You can unregister your old devices if you want to, but you can only reregister up to 3 devices a month.
- Top Titles: The Remarried Empress, Island, Sweet Home
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: Free; Coins: $0.99/pack onwards
Get WEBTOON for iOS
Get WEBTOON for Android
4. INKR COMICS – GAME-CHANGING MANGA READER APP
The team behind INKR Comics is fairly new, but they were known before for their successful manga aggregator, Manga Rock. Their manga collection is already the talk of the town, even though they joined the party a little late.
Most books let you read the first few chapters for free, but after that, you can only see the chapter preview until you pay. You can also use the app without signing in to do things like read free chapters.
INKR Comics’ smart AI tools help it make great recommendations for you personally. Once you sign in, AI will look at the content you like and what you’ve read in the past to suggest similar books.
To switch between panels, you can use vertical scrolling. But sometimes pages take a long time to load. Also, if you tap on some tiles in the app, you might end up with blank pages when you open it.
The free app has ads, but you can get rid of them if you pay for a subscription. For the paid content, you can either rent the chapters for a certain amount of time using ink or buy them with coins so you can read them for as long as you want. You can also trade coins for ink.
Subscribed members also get extra benefits, like being able to read new releases for free before they are locked and being able to download chapters to read when they are not online.
- Top Titles: Attack on Titan, The Seven Deadly Sins, Tokyo Revengers
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: 7-day free trial; Subscription: $3.75/month onwards
Get the INKR Comics app for iOS
Get the INKR Comics app for Android
5. MANGA PLUS BY SHUEISHA – THE UNDERRATED MANGA READING APP
Those who have used MANGA Plus must have noticed how much the titles on Shonen Jump are like those on MANGA Plus. Since MANGA Plus used to be called Shonen Jump+, this is no coincidence. Shueisha, the original publisher of many of Shonen Jump’s titles, owns the MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA app, which has a number of titles in both English and Spanish.
So, you can read a few free chapters here, but some ongoing books may only have 6 chapters total, the first three and the last three. These are the original chapters that are locked behind a paywall in the Shonen Jump app and not available through Manga Plus.
You can only get around this by hiding the chapters. As the chapters change, so will the last three chapters. In this app, you can move between chapter panels by either scrolling horizontally or vertically, which is different from most other apps.
You don’t have to sign in to any account to use the MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA. You can also add your name, an avatar, and comments in the chapter’s comment section. There are also a number of older books that can be read without a subscription.
- Top Titles: Naruto, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: Free
Get MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA for iOS
Get MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA for Android
6. WEBCOMICS – YOUR GO-TO MANGA READER APP
Like the other apps on this list, the WebComics app only lets you read a certain number of chapters for free. Even if you don’t have an account, it’s easy to use the app and do things like read the free chapters.
You will need to sign in to the app, though, to read paid chapters. Here, you can move from one chapter panel to the next by swiping up or down. You can also download chapters to read on your own time.
The WebComics app is made by a lot of different people, so it has a lot of original titles. To unlock chapters in paid games, you’ll need to buy gems or coins. But you can also do tasks, watch ads, or check in every day to get free gems and other perks that can help you unlock paid chapters for free.
The app also has a section called “Wait For Free,” where you can get a free chapter every 24 hours. You can also choose the premium subscription if you don’t want to have to buy separate gem packs every time you read a paid book.
But it’s only available for the English version of the WebComics Android app. Only gems can be used to open chapters on the web and iOS apps.
- Top Titles: Strongest Cultivation System, The Devil Butler, The Last Hero
- Platform Available: Web, Android, and iOS
- Price: Free; GEMS: $2.99/pack onwards; Premium: $5.99/month onwards
Get WebComics for iOS
Get WebComics for Android
FAQS FOR USING MANGA READER APPS
No, the Crunchyroll anime and Crunchyroll manga are separate and there’s no guarantee that the manga for all currently airing anime will be available on the platform.
Yes, you can sign up for different manga reader apps with the same email address. But if you want to keep your accounts safe, you should always use a different password for each app.
Currently, the MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA app has neither the provisions nor the requirement to create or sign in to an account.
YOUR MANGA YOUR WAY
Even though there are a lot of apps, we did our best to put together a list of the best manga reader apps for Android and iPhone. Let us know in the comments if you use any other apps to satisfy your manga cravings. You can also read our other article about the best anime streaming apps to learn more.