Readwise Takes on Kindle and Goodreads With New All-in-One App

For years, digital reading has felt trapped in a tug-of-war between closed corporate ecosystems. If you buy e-books, you likely use an Amazon Kindle. If you want to track what you read or chat about books, you probably use Goodreads—a platform that hasn’t seen a major design or structural upgrade in over a decade. Meanwhile, power readers who love keeping notes and highlights often rely on third-party tools like Readwise to glue the fragmented experience together.

Now, the team behind Readwise is making its boldest move yet. They are launching Readwise Books, an ambitious new application that acts as a direct competitor to both the Kindle store and Goodreads. Instead of forcing readers to buy hardware or lock their libraries into a single proprietary app, this new platform blends an e-book store, an e-reader, and deep tracking metrics into one seamless space.

By taking on Amazon’s 83% stronghold in the digital reading market, Readwise is betting that readers want freedom, open standards, and a better way to understand their reading habits without being boxed into a walled garden.

Reimagining Reading Metrics Like a Fitness App

Traditional book trackers like Goodreads are pretty binary. They ask one basic question: Did you finish the book, and on what date? While that is fine for building a casual reading list, it completely ignores the actual experience of reading. Founders Daniel Doyon and Tristan Homsi wanted to change that psychological relationship by treating reading stats with the same visibility you get from athletic training software.

Think of how running apps like Strava track your cadence, elevation, and pacing to keep you motivated without turning exercise into a punishing chore. Readwise Books brings that exact philosophy to books. Instead of focusing on strict daily streaks or guilt-inducing willpower tricks, the app visualizes your actual reading pace, active session lengths, total words read, and cognitive immersion depth.

Early feedback shows that seeing these nuanced metrics naturally encourages people to read more consistently. Best of all, you aren’t forced to buy titles directly from Readwise to use the tracker. The platform fully supports uploading any DRM-free EPUB files, tracking physical books by snapping photos of printed pages, or logging sessions read via Amazon’s browser-based Kindle Cloud Reader.

An Open Technical Architecture Built for Portability

Amazon’s dominance relies heavily on digital rights management (DRM) and proprietary formats like KFX, which intentionally make it difficult to move your books to other devices. Readwise takes the exact opposite approach by building its foundation on standard EPUB files and an API-first framework.

Under the hood, the app’s database doesn’t just log a single timestamp when you finish a chapter. It processes continuous behavioral telemetry—tracking page turns, scroll velocity, and active duration to calculate real-time reading speeds. Because the app utilizes open file standards, typography and layout metadata render cleanly across mobile and desktop devices without breaking.

For tech-savvy readers and developers, the standout feature is the platform’s public API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. This allows you to build direct data pipelines between your personal reading history and external software. You can programmatically query your archives, pull highlights into custom apps, or connect localized AI agents to parse your library. In a market defined by corporate lock-in, Readwise is giving total data ownership back to the user.

Partnering With Independent Sellers and Major Publishers

Taking on an e-commerce giant requires creative partnerships. While Readwise offers digital titles sourced from major US publishing houses, it handles physical book fulfillment through Bookshop.org. This ensures that a portion of every physical book sale directly supports independent bookstores rather than a massive corporate warehouse.

Publishers are also taking notice of the platform’s unique approach. Traditional e-reader platforms keep publisher analytics heavily guarded. Readwise, however, offers an experimental channel featuring publisher-approved artificial intelligence features. HarperCollins has stepped up as the first major publisher to grant integration rights for AI-powered contextual definitions and session recaps. This establishes a fascinating precedent for how publishers might license backlist catalogs to AI-enabled reading environments in the future.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Readwise Books different from Goodreads?

While Goodreads focuses primarily on social networking, community reviews, and basic completion tracking, Readwise Books functions as a full e-book store and reader while offering granular performance metrics like reading pace, session depth, and immersion data.

Do I need to buy books exclusively from Readwise?

No. Users can upload any DRM-free EPUB files, track physical book reading progress by taking photos of pages, or log sessions read through external platforms like Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader.

Is Readwise Books free to use?

The app is currently free to use during its beta phase and for existing Readwise subscribers, though certain advanced AI-powered tools will require a paid subscription in the future.

How does the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server work for readers?

The MCP server allows developers and technically proficient users to connect AI agents directly to their Readwise reading data, enabling automated workflows such as personal library analysis, custom website generation, and real-time reading log synchronization.

Sources and further reading

Primary reporting and source details sourced from TechCrunch.