Best Apps Like Tachiyomi: Legal Manga Readers That Still Work

The best apps like Tachiyomi in 2026 are the official ones: MANGA Plus, Shonen Jump, VIZ Manga, K MANGA, INKR and Webtoon. Tachiyomi itself stopped development in January 2024, and most of the aggregator apps that copied it pull chapters from unlicensed sites. If you want a reader that keeps working and pays the people who make manga, start with a publisher app and add a second one for the catalog it lacks.

This guide explains what happened to Tachiyomi, compares the alternatives that still operate, and covers what it takes to build a reading app of your own.

What Tachiyomi was and why it ended

Tachiyomi was a free, open source manga reader for Android. The name combines two Japanese words, roughly "reading while standing", which describes browsing a book in a shop without buying it. That was a fair summary of how many people used it.

The app itself held no manga. It was a reader shell that loaded "extensions", small plugins that scraped chapters from third party websites. That design is what made it popular: one clean interface, hundreds of sources, offline downloads, progress tracking across every series, and settings for reading direction, page fit, brightness and color filters.

It is also what ended it. In January 2024 the maintainers announced they were ceasing development after legal pressure from a Korean publisher, cleared the official extension list and archived the code. A fork called Mihon carries the reader forward, but it ships without sources and is not on Google Play. Anyone using it still has to decide where the chapters come from, and that is the part that carries legal risk.

What readers actually miss

When people search for an alternative, they rarely want the scraping. They want the experience:

• One library that holds every series they follow
• Offline reading for flights and commutes
• Automatic tracking of where they stopped
• Control over reading direction, zoom and page layout
• Alerts when a new chapter lands

Most official apps now cover at least three of these well. None covers all five across every publisher, which is why many readers keep two installed.

The best official apps like Tachiyomi

The apps below are run by publishers or licensed platforms. Catalogs, prices and regional availability change often, so treat the notes as a guide to what each is good at, not a full listing.

MANGA Plus by Shueisha

Shueisha publishes Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan, and MANGA Plus is its international reader. New chapters appear at the same time as the Japanese release. Free reading is limited to the first and latest chapters of each series, and a paid tier opens the back catalog in English. It is the closest thing to "read it the day it comes out" for the biggest shonen titles.

Shonen Jump (VIZ Media)

VIZ licenses Shueisha titles for North America, and its Shonen Jump app runs on a subscription that opens a large vault of back chapters. The reader is simple rather than customizable, but the library depth is the reason to use it if you want to catch up on long running series from the start.

VIZ Manga

The VIZ Manga app sells and rents individual volumes and chapters from VIZ's wider catalog, including titles outside Shonen Jump. It suits readers who prefer owning volumes over a monthly subscription.

K MANGA

K MANGA is Kodansha's own reader, with simultaneous chapter releases for series such as Attack on Titan, Blue Lock and Fairy Tail. If most of your list comes from Kodansha magazines, this is the official home for it.

INKR

INKR is a licensed platform that brings together titles from several smaller publishers, with recommendations based on what you read. It is a good second app because it covers series that the big publisher apps do not carry.

Webtoon

Webtoon focuses on vertical scrolling comics made for phones, many of them Korean webtoons and original series. The format reads very differently from page based manga, and the app is built around it.

Kindle and publisher stores

Amazon folded comiXology into Kindle, so licensed manga volumes now sit in the Kindle store and app. It is a sensible choice for people who want to own complete volumes with no subscription.

How the alternatives compare

A note on aggregator apps

Older lists name apps such as Manga Rock, Manga Storm or Manga Geek. Manga Rock closed years ago, and most of the others are aggregators that host or scrape scanlations without a licence. They come and go from app stores, often carry heavy advertising, and give nothing back to the authors. We have left them out for that reason.

How to choose the right manga app

Start with your reading list, not the app store ranking. Write down the ten series you follow most closely and check which publisher owns each one. In most cases one or two apps will cover the majority.

1. Match the publisher. Shueisha titles live in MANGA Plus and Shonen Jump, Kodansha titles in K MANGA, and so on.
2. Decide between renting and owning. Subscriptions are good value for heavy readers. Volume purchases suit people who reread favorites.
3. Check offline rules. Some apps let downloads expire, which matters for long flights.
4. Test the reader. Try the zoom, the page turn and the right to left setting on your own device before paying.
5. Look at regional availability. Several apps limit titles or whole services by country.

How to build an app like Tachiyomi, legally

There is a real product gap here: readers love a single, customizable library, and publishers want control over licensing and revenue. A legal reader for a publisher, a comics platform or a creator community can deliver the first without breaking the second.

Core features

• Licensed content pipeline. An admin where staff upload chapters, set release times, add metadata and choose which regions can read each title.
• Reader engine. Page and vertical scroll modes, right to left support, double page spreads on tablets, pinch zoom and fast preloading of the next pages.
• Library and progress. Follows, reading history and progress that sync across phone, tablet and web.
• Offline downloads with rights. Encrypted downloads that respect expiry and device limits set by the licence.
• Payments. Subscriptions, coins or per chapter purchases, handled through the app stores where their rules require it.
• Notifications. New chapter alerts for followed series, with quiet hours.

Technology choices

A native Android build in Kotlin and an iOS build in Swift give the smoothest page rendering, which matters when a chapter has fifty high resolution images. A cross platform framework such as Flutter or React Native can work well for the library, store and account screens, with a native image viewer underneath. Images should come from a CDN in several resolutions so phones on weak connections are not loading print size files.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating the reader as an afterthought. People spend almost all of their time on that one screen.
• Ignoring right to left layouts until late. They affect navigation, gestures and the page turn animation.
• Building without an admin. Editors need to schedule releases without asking a developer.
• Skipping rights metadata. Regional locks and expiry dates must live with each title from day one.

Codeeo's team of 80+ across Dubai, Riyadh and Karachi has delivered 200+ projects across the UAE and the US, including content apps run from their own admin panels. If you are planning a manga or comics platform, our mobile app development team can help, and a short product scoping session is a good first step. You can also see a related build in the Path to Water case study or talk to our design team about the reader experience.