Bootstrapped Readwise Launches a Books App to Rival Kindle
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A self-funded company is taking on Amazon's reading empire. Readwise, the maker of a read-it-later app and a highlights companion, has launched Readwise Books, an e-book store with a built-in reading tracker.
One app for buying, reading and logging
The company calls the app "a cross between Kindle and the Goodreads apps". The store offers "millions" of e-books from the big five publishers and others, starting in the U.S. More countries are planned. Print books, fulfilled through Bookshop.org's distributor, and some audiobooks are on sale too.
Readers can open books they bought or upload DRM-free EPUB files. The app can read aloud with text-to-speech, and users can share progress with friends. Outside its own ecosystem, it can log sessions from Kindle's browser-based Cloud Reader and track physical books through photos.
Reading data as the hook
Readwise wants to go beyond the start date and finished flag that Goodreads records. Its app shows words read, pace, depth, immersion and number of sessions. The company likens this to a "Strava for reading".
Co-founders Daniel Doyon and Tristan Homsi wrote that reading is wrapped in guilt, and that feeling bad rarely changes behavior. Tracking sessions, they argue, makes reading visible, and what is measured improves. The company says users most often report that the app made them read more, without goals, streaks or scheduling.
A crowded field against a big incumbent
Many new reading apps and book trackers have appeared to challenge Goodreads, with book clubs, widgets, goal-setting and habit tracking. Few indie developers have gone as far as a full e-book store. Kindle holds an 83% share of the market when Kindle+ is counted.
Amazon also has an advantage in offering everything from devices to the book log. Readwise sells no e-reader of its own and is building a community around reading instead.
Open tools, AI and pricing
Unlike Goodreads, Readwise opens its data through a public API and an MCP server. The latter lets AI agents suggest books, build a books page on a personal site, or log sessions from a hackable e-reader.
AI features inside the app, such as recaps, definitions, translations and questions about the passage on screen, need publishers' permission. So far only HarperCollins has agreed.
The Books app is free, though some AI features will later move behind a paywall. Readwise's earlier apps cost $7.99 a month each, or $9.99 for both. The new app is in beta and needs an invite, except for existing Readwise subscribers.
Our Take
The bet is that detailed reading data can pull readers away from a store that already has most of the market. The unknowns are publisher support for AI features and how many countries get the store. Those decisions will shape whether the app stays a niche tool for existing subscribers.
Source: TechCrunch