# Anx Reader: a Flutter e-book reader with WebDAV sync and an AI assistant > Anx Reader is a cross-platform e-book reader for EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, TXT and PDF, with WebDAV sync and AI features. The interesting part is the sync design; the awkward part is the AI layer. **Anxcye/anx-reader** — Featuring powerful AI capabilities and supporting various e-book formats, it makes reading smarter and more focused. - Repository: https://github.com/Anxcye/anx-reader - Website: https://anx.anxcye.com - Stars: 8,903 · Forks: 633 - Language: Dart - License: MIT - Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/anxcye-anx-reader ## The problem: your reading position lives on one device Most free readers are good at exactly one platform. Android gets Moon+ Reader, iOS gets Apple Books, desktop gets something else, and the reading position, highlights and notes never travel. Anx Reader targets that gap. It is a Flutter application that ships for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, and the README's feature table lists cross-platform sync of books, notes and reading progress over WebDAV. The audience is a reader with more than one device and a preference for owning the storage layer. WebDAV is the tell: the project assumes you either have a NAS, Nextcloud, or some other WebDAV endpoint, rather than routing your library through a vendor account. The README also points at two community projects, a Calibre plugin and a web library manager, both explicitly marked as maintained by the community and not officially supported. That pairing says the intended setup is a self-hosted library plus the reader as a client. ## How Anx Reader is put together: Flutter, Dart and a WebDAV backend The repository is a Flutter project. pubspec.yaml and pubspec.lock sit at the top level, lib/ holds the Dart source, and android/, ios/, macos/, windows/, linux/, web/ and ohos/ are the platform shells. The presence of l10n.yaml and normalize_arb_files.dart indicates the UI strings are managed as ARB translation files, which matches the four README translations (English, Simplified Chinese, Turkish, Russian). Release automation lives in Fastfile, fastlane/, release.dart and release_build.sh, so builds are produced through Fastlane rather than by hand. Notably, the repository contains a linux/ directory and a web/ directory even though the README's platform badge lists only Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. The README does not describe a Linux or browser build, so treat those directories as scaffolding rather than shipped targets. The sync mechanism itself is not documented in the README beyond the WebDAV label; there is no description of conflict resolution, no mention of what happens when two devices edit the same note, and no rollback procedure. That silence is the single biggest thing to check before trusting it with a library you care about. ## Installing Anx Reader and syncing a first book over WebDAV There is no build-from-source tutorial in the README. Distribution is by store and by release artifact: iOS and macOS through the App Store, Windows and Android through the GitHub releases page, and Android additionally through F-Droid under the package com.anxcye.anx_reader. Start by picking the build that matches your platform. ```bash # Android, from F-Droid # package: com.anxcye.anx_reader # or download the APK from the GitHub releases page ``` On desktop, the macOS build is available both from the App Store and from the latest GitHub release; Windows is release-only. Once installed, import a book in one of the supported formats (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, TXT or PDF) and open it. The reading experience controls described in the README are letter, line, paragraph and margin spacing, plus font size, style and weight, and theme, background, alignment and style presets. The sync step is the one worth setting up deliberately. The README states that books, notes and reading progress sync via WebDAV, so you need a WebDAV endpoint and credentials for it. Configure that endpoint in the app's settings on each device, then confirm that a highlight made on one device appears on the other before you import a large library. ```bash # The README does not publish a WebDAV URL format or config keys. # Point the app at your own WebDAV endpoint (for example, a Nextcloud or NAS share). ``` If something fails, the README directs you to docs/troubleshooting.md and to the issue tracker, plus a Telegram group and a QQ group. Those are the documented support channels; there is no separate forum. ## The AI assistant is the least specified part of the product The README advertises AI features in some detail: shelf organization by progress and tone, mind maps, an on-demand dictionary and translation, perspective analysis and summaries. What it does not say is which model provider is used, whether an API key is required, whether requests go directly from the device or through a proxy, or what happens to your book text. For a reader whose other headline feature is self-hosted WebDAV sync, that is a real inconsistency. A user who chose the app precisely to keep their library off someone else's server has no documented way to know what the AI assistant sends and where. The README also does not state whether AI features can be disabled entirely. None of this means the features are bad; it means the privacy story is undocumented, and you should treat the AI layer as opt-in until you have checked it yourself. The full-book translation and one-tap simplified/traditional Chinese conversion sit in the same area: useful, but with no stated processing location. If you are evaluating Anx Reader for a locked-down environment, the AI panel is the part to test first. ## Where Anx Reader is the wrong tool Three cases stand out. First, if you want to read in a browser tab, this is not it. The repository has a web/ directory, but the README's platform badge lists only Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, and no browser build is documented. Second, if you need a stable release cadence with a long track record, look at the version history: v1.14.0 landed on 2026-03-19, and the 1.15.0 line has been running as pre-releases, with v1.15.0-beta.1 on 2026-04-29 and v1.15.0-alpha.9 on 2026-06-07. The last push to the repository was on 2026-09-12, so the project is not dormant, but the newest published version at the time of writing is still an alpha. Third, if your library is large and heavily annotated, the absence of documented sync conflict handling is a risk. The README says notes sync via WebDAV; it says nothing about merges, duplicates or recovery. For a handful of books and light highlighting, that is fine. For a decade of annotations across three devices, verify it before you migrate. ## Anx Reader compared with Koodo Reader Koodo Reader is the natural comparison, and the two differ in approach rather than in feature checklists. Koodo Reader is a web-first reader: you run it in a browser, typically self-hosted or as a desktop app built around that web core, and your library lives where the server lives. Anx Reader is a native mobile-and-desktop client: it targets iOS and Android as first-class platforms, with a Flutter UI tuned for touch, TTS with multi-voice, speed, tone and sleep timer controls, and reading statistics with a heatmap of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly time. The split follows from that. If your reading happens mostly on a phone and you want the library synced rather than served, Anx Reader fits better. If you want one URL that opens your library from any machine, including a borrowed laptop, Koodo Reader's model is the closer match. Neither approach is strictly better; they answer different questions about where the canonical copy of your library lives. The README also lists OPDS catalog support as in progress, which would eventually narrow the gap on library browsing, but it is marked as unfinished. ## Licence and the cost of keeping up Anx Reader is MIT licensed, which is permissive: you can read the source, modify it and redistribute it, including in commercial products, provided the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved. That is a plain statement of what the licence text says, not legal advice; if you plan to ship a modified build, read the LICENSE file in the repository and get proper advice. The practical cost of running it is maintenance attention rather than money. The release history shows a project that publishes pre-releases before stable tags, so if you install from the GitHub releases page you should check which channel you are on and decide whether you want the alpha line or the last stable tag. Upgrades are handled through the platform stores on iOS and macOS, and manually for Windows and Android release downloads. The README does not document a downgrade path or a database migration procedure, so pinning to a known-good release and keeping your WebDAV content backed up independently is the sensible posture. Community add-ons such as the Calibre plugin and the web library manager are not covered by official support, which means a bug in those is a conversation with their maintainers, not with the Anx Reader project. ## Conclusion Adopt Anx Reader if you read the same library on an Android phone and a desktop, already run a WebDAV endpoint, and want the AI features as an optional extra rather than the reason to switch. Skip it if you need a browser-based reader, if you want a long track record of stable point releases, or if you would rather not send book text to a model provider. Verify two things before committing: that your WebDAV server behaves with the client, and whether the build you install is a stable tag such as v1.14.0 or a 1.15.0 pre-release. ## FAQ ### Which e-book formats does Anx Reader support? The README lists EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, TXT and PDF as fully supported, and the platform badge repeats the same set. ### How does Anx Reader sync between devices? The feature table states that books, notes and reading progress sync across Android, iOS, macOS and Windows via WebDAV, so you supply your own WebDAV endpoint rather than using a vendor account. ### Is Anx Reader free? The repository is MIT licensed and the app is distributed through the App Store, F-Droid and the GitHub releases page. The README does not describe any paid tier, and it does include a donations section. ### Where can I get Anx Reader for Android? The README lists two sources: the GitHub releases page for the APK, and F-Droid under the package name com.anxcye.anx_reader. ### What should I do if Anx Reader has a problem? The README points to docs/troubleshooting.md, the GitHub issue tracker, a Telegram group and a QQ group as the support channels. ## Sources - [Anxcye/anx-reader on GitHub](https://github.com/Anxcye/anx-reader) - [License: MIT](https://github.com/Anxcye/anx-reader/blob/develop/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://anx.anxcye.com) - [README](https://github.com/Anxcye/anx-reader/blob/develop/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/Anxcye/anx-reader/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/anxcye-anx-reader