A Readwise Reader alternative that quizzes you on what you read
Readwise Reader is a read-it-later app for people who read a lot and keep their highlights. Its flashcards live in Readwise, a separate app from the same company. Winda also saves what you read. Then it writes flashcards and quiz questions from it. It schedules them for review with spaced repetition, all in the same app.
Readwise Reader checked on Sep 26, 2026
Who should pick which
Stay with Readwise Reader if you collect highlights
- You read newsletters, RSS feeds and EPUBs as well as articles
- You want your highlights in Obsidian, Notion or Logseq
- A daily review of your past highlights is all the memory help you need
Try Winda if you want quizzes on what you read
- You want Winda to write the questions for you, not only keep your highlights
- You want multiple-choice quizzes as well as flashcards
- You want to read and review in one app, on one schedule
What Readwise Reader does well
Readwise Reader is one of the best places to read. It is made for people who read every day.
It opens almost everything
Reader opens articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, RSS feeds, X threads and podcasts. YouTube videos play with a transcript that follows along.
Apps everywhere
Reader has extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It has apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and an e-ink mode.
Highlights that go where you write
Your highlights sync to Obsidian, Notion, Logseq and other note apps. Readwise can also bring in your highlights from Kindle and Apple Books.
Ghostreader
Ghostreader is Reader's AI. It defines words, explains and translates passages, and summarizes documents. It can also answer questions across your whole library, with citations.
Where Readwise Reader gets harder to use
Problems start when you want a quiz on what you read, not only a reminder of it.
You write every card yourself
Readwise's Mastery turns a highlight into a Q&A or cloze card. You write the question or pick the words to hide, one card at a time. Ghostreader can draft a flashcard. It becomes a card only after you paste it into a note by hand.
No quizzes built in
Neither Reader nor Readwise has multiple-choice quizzes. Readwise suggests that you ask an outside AI assistant to quiz you. Its docs do not say how to keep or schedule the results.
You review in another app
Daily Review and Mastery are part of Readwise, not Reader. Your Reader highlights sync to Readwise for review. Daily Review picks highlights partly at random. Only Mastery cards follow a spaced schedule.
How Winda does it
In Winda, you read the web page, PDF or video itself. AI helps as you read. Winda makes flashcards and quiz questions from what you read. It brings them back for review on a schedule.
Read the whole page, not a summary
Winda opens web pages, PDFs, YouTube videos with their transcripts, Word and PowerPoint files, and images in one reader. The Chrome extension brings the same tools to any web page. Select a line to explain it, ask about it or turn it into cards.
Every card links back
Each card keeps the passage it came from. When an answer stops making sense, you can go back to that page.
Reviews come back on a schedule
Winda schedules every card with FSRS, the same algorithm Anki uses. A card you miss comes back the same day. A card you know waits longer each time.
Readwise Reader and Winda, side by side
| Read-it-later appReadwise Reader | ReaderWinda | |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | ||
| What it opens | Articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, RSS, YouTube, X threads, podcasts | Web pages, PDFs, YouTube, Word, PowerPoint, images and text |
| Browser extension | Chrome, Firefox and Safari | Chrome |
| AI while you read | Ghostreader defines, explains, translates, summarizes and answers questions | Select a line for an explanation or a translation in place, or ask about the whole document |
| Highlights in your note app | Obsidian, Notion, Logseq and more | No |
| Studying | ||
| Cards from what you read | Q&A or cloze cards you write from a highlight | You or AI write them from a selected passage or a whole document |
| Multiple-choice quizzes | Not built in | From a selected passage or a whole document |
| Spaced repetition | For Mastery cards only, while other highlights come back partly at random | FSRS across all your flashcards and quizzes |
| Where you review | In the separate Readwise app, on the web or by email | In the same app you read in |
| Where you use it | ||
| Apps | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and e-ink | Web on computer and phone, plus a Chrome extension |
Checked on Sep 26, 2026 at readwise.io/read, docs.readwise.io: Mastery, docs.readwise.io: Action tags, readwise.io/mcp. If something has changed, write to hi@winda.app, and we will correct it.
Questions
Not in Reader itself. Readwise, the companion app from the same company, has a feature called Mastery. In Mastery, you turn a highlight into a Q&A or cloze card. You write the question, or you choose the words to hide. Mastery cards come back on a spaced schedule. From Reader, you send a highlight to Mastery with a note in a special .qa format. Winda writes the cards from what you read, and you can edit them before you save them.
Not by itself. Readwise suggests that you connect an outside AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, and ask it to quiz you. Winda writes multiple-choice questions from what you read. It schedules them for review like flashcards.
Winda does the same first step. You can save web pages, PDFs and YouTube videos with the Chrome extension. You can tag them and search their full text. Then Winda writes questions and cards from what you read, and it schedules them for review.
Readwise Reader opens EPUBs, newsletters, RSS feeds and podcasts. It has extensions for Firefox and Safari, and apps for desktop and phone. It syncs highlights to Obsidian or Notion, and it brings in your Kindle highlights. If those matter most to you, Readwise Reader is the better fit.