Panels - Comic Reader 4+

I’ve been using panels for going on 2 years now. In the beginning, it was really cool to be able to read my manga and comics on my iPad because I switched from physical books to digital thanks to the pandemic. Panels was really nice in the beginning albeit a bit lackluster feature wise. Over the course of my use, it’s been improving each update, adding all sorts of wonderful features and just making it a better experience. By far my favorite feature to day is them adding custom SMB server support. I have it connected to my home server where all my e-books are stored and now it’s just like my Plex server. Panels is definitely my go to app for all things comic related. You honesty can’t beat it in my opinion. I don’t even make reviews for apps but Panels is definitely one that deserves the praise. I put all my friends on to it and they love it just as much as I do. Please keep up the good work Panels time, y’all are truly making something special here for us comic lovers .

Important: Google Drive no longer support!!!

The application has been reorganizing its features to implement a strategy where users pay for specific functionalities, aiming to generate consistent revenue. However, if you seek a reader that also allows you to enjoy comics shared online, whether on forums or from public Google Drive links, the developer has chosen not to support this morally. Additionally, the support provided is lacking, with feedback being met with a defensive attitude. Moreover, users are unable to access their own library from the root folder, even if it's stored in their iCloud account. Essentially, enjoying comics through the app requires sacrificing storage space, and to exacerbate matters, personal server files must also be downloaded to function. Ultimately, these numerous restrictions render the app practically unusable. ——— Previous review: This is the best comic library app in App Store! I don’t understand why this developer is doing such an excellent app for a very small market as digital comic readers demographic. I mean, this is an app that Apple might design if they were after comic readers. So well executed and so user friendly that it need to be charged as a prime pro price level. Congratulations to the developer and hoping others apps will be as excellent as this one is.

I was trying to self host my own manga server using Jellyfin and once I got it working, I noticed that manga wouldn’t load to my phone using my reverse proxy. After many hours of troubleshooting, I downloaded Panels after reviewing some Reddit threads and figured it was worth a shot. I was a previous user of Chunky (another manga app that has been deleted I believe) and loved the OneDrive connection capability. I couldn’t find an app I liked since Chunky. Panels has easily taken that spot. I look forward to getting my Jellyfin server running and working properly but I think I’ll try the SMB connection first on Panel. If you are curious and want to try it out for a month, I’d say it’s worth the $2. At the moment, I’d probably pay the one time cost for a total unlock of the app just because of the convenience alone.