Best websites and apps to read books with translation

How to read this comparison

Booklern is our product, so the fairest thing we can do is state facts that anyone can check on the other tools' own pages, name what each does better, and leave out prices, which change too often to print. Every row in the table below was verified on the date under the title.

The tools fall into three kinds. Readers with a translation built in (Booklern, Beelinguapp) show the whole text in two languages. Click-to-translate readers (LingQ, Readlang) show the foreign text alone and translate what you click, feeding a flashcard system. Translators (Immersive Translate) make a bilingual copy of any content and leave the learning to you.

Booklern: real books with the translation under every sentence

A web reader for learning English. 1,093 public-domain classics with an estimated level, or any EPUB you upload (up to 30 MB, or pasted text), shown in English with a translation into Russian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish or Arabic under each sentence or side by side. Hovering a word highlights the matching phrase in the translation. Each chapter can be read aloud with the current sentence highlighted, every word opens a dictionary card, saved words go to a practice page with generated stories, and a passage read into the microphone is scored word by word.

Where it is weaker: English is the only source language, there are no native mobile apps (it runs in the browser and installs to the home screen), and AI features carry a fair-use daily allowance during early access.

LingQ: import anything, learn words with spaced repetition

LingQ is a lesson-based platform for more than 50 languages, on the web and in iOS and Android apps. Its strength is import: EPUB, PDF, DOCX, TXT and MOBI files, YouTube videos with captions, Netflix, podcasts and web pages all become lessons, and words you save (LingQs) come back in a staged spaced-repetition review with flashcards, multiple choice, cloze and dictation.

Where it differs from a bilingual reader: the text is shown in one language, a word is translated on click, and a whole sentence only on request in Sentence Mode, which is a paid feature. The library is built from short lessons and user-shared content rather than a curated catalogue of full novels. The free plan caps saved words at 20 and imports at 5. LingQ's own review calls it weak for speaking practice.

Readlang: read any web page with click-to-translate

Readlang is a web app with a Chrome extension that translates a word, or a phrase you drag across, in place on any web page, and turns every translation into a flashcard with spaced repetition. It accepts TXT and DRM-free EPUB uploads, not PDF, and supports over a hundred languages. There are no native mobile apps; the web app is made for phones.

Where it differs: no parallel text, phrases are capped at 6 words on the free plan and 12 on the paid one, the free plan allows 10 phrase translations a day, and high-quality voices for whole texts sit on the top plan. Pronunciation practice is not listed.

Beelinguapp: narrated stories in parallel text

Beelinguapp is a mobile app (iOS and Android, no web reader) with curated short stories, news, fairy tales and some classics in about 23 languages, shown as full side-by-side parallel text and narrated by native speakers with karaoke-style highlighting. Press and hold a word for its translation; a glossary and a flashcard game are free.

Where it differs: you cannot import your own book, the content is short pieces rather than full novels (the pages do not say whether the classics are complete), changing the target and reference language is a paid feature, and the free tier carries ads.

Immersive Translate: make anything bilingual

Immersive Translate is a browser extension (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) with iOS and Android apps and a web document translator. It shows web pages with the translation under each paragraph, translates PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, DOCX and subtitle files, and can export a bilingual EPUB for any e-reader, with more than 100 language pairs and a choice of engines.

Where it differs: it is a translator, not a learning tool. There is no library, no vocabulary or spaced repetition (its own comparison page says so), no pronunciation practice, and audio relies on the browser's read-aloud. Free ebook translation is capped at 1,000 pages a month.

Which one for what

To read a whole English novel with a translation you can lean on, without installing anything: Booklern. To feed every kind of content, in many languages, into a spaced-repetition routine: LingQ. To read web articles in a foreign language with flashcards afterwards: Readlang. For short narrated stories on a phone: Beelinguapp. To turn a file you already own into a bilingual EPUB for your e-reader: Immersive Translate.