Spreeder: Speed Reading E-Reader and Trainer Reviews

by Charms_01

Spreeder is ridiculous. I was excited to see it because I used to use the web page on Windows and the program itself is fantastic. This was far from fantastic. Maybe I’d have had a different experience if I’d wanted to read from their library, which, even if there is a good book in there, you’d likely never find it in the jumbled mess. I wasn’t able to copy/paste any text from my iPad. It kept freezing and I had to restart it many times. Finally I downloaded Google Drive, put a book on it, loaded it onto Spreeder. After several tries, I was able to view the book in Spreeder but when it came to selecting text to “spreed,” I was not able to select anything but a few words at a time and even then it wouldn’t allow me to proceed to the next page. It was just stuck there. Junk! I’m seriously disappointed!

by Serj-Review

Not what I expected, I want a fast reading course, Spreeder just keeps adding speed completely ignoring how I’m doing. There’s no technique teaching, no testing, no feedback on how I’m doing, it kept speeding up and I couldn’t keep up.
Also, it keeps repeating the same introduction over and over again. Their library is very limited, no easy reading or good titles, doesn’t let me add my Kindle books. It does give me the option to paste my own text, but that means I gotta go to a book, copy a part of it and paste it which is not convenient - besides, apps like Kindle limit how much you can copy.
Didn’t like it, feel it’s not as good as it’s advertised, would love getting my money back.

by IslandScribbler

Most of the time when I try to use Spreeder with a URL, it won’t work. Spreeder hasn’t been redesigned since the iPhone came out with a larger screen, so the top and bottom of Spreeder are clipped. The screen is too high resolution, like this is app was carelessly ported from some other platform. It would benefit from a total redesign. I give it two stars because at least the cloud-synced content works well. I may take advantage of their money-back guarantee since I’ve been totally underwhelmed with my $89 purchase of their program. Also, their core features are now available for free on the kindle, which is where i do most of my reading anyway. I think this company may have become complacent from holding market dominance for too long - I’m not sure whats gone wrong, but from their software, it just feels like they’ve stopped caring about their products.

by Raedtrab

I bought Spreeder so I can use it on my PC and devices I’ve using it for a while and think that the concept it’s fine but it can be improved drastically

1. It would be great to be able to upload our own books or articles to Spreeder directly from our mobile devices instead of going to our PC or Mac’s

2. The website needs to be more user friendly I recommend Spreeder but all my friends complain about the interface saying and I quote “this is like a labyrinth”

3. If the developers refuse to increase the quality of the website, app features and the user experience. They at least need to add a FAQ page and videos with instructions

In general the main issue is with the mobile app and the capability to upload our books there, the library they offer is great but I’d prefer to read the books and articles I have, I already paid for Spreeder and I believe it has a lot of potential

but please to the developers take the time to make some improvements. I’m giving Spreeder 2 stars I recommended it and I felt disappointed after my friend’s comments so I stopped!
Make improvements please I like Spreeder but it can be better

by Jack Smack

I love the concept of Spreeder - it takes away the physically limitation of moving my eyes to chase down words.

Spreeder can input sources easily from URL or text documents and there is a library of around 27k books to search from. However, here comes the negatives:

There are no search perimeters. It prompts you to start typing and you have to guess what books will show up. The developer needs to improve on search results.

Spreeder is also very slow to respond, ironically, and sort of throws me off my game when I'm in a fast kind of mood. But once you're starting the text and you don't need to switch screens it is find.

I wish the ability to increase and decrease reading speed (like on the demo on the website) was able more easily accessible while reading. The arrows that I thought would do it on the bottom instead just move the words once at a time - which if you're reading at 800wpm is not very helpful at all. Having the arrows change the speed seems more intuitive to me.

Those are my chief complaints. One suggestion I could recommend would be the ability to change the text color and background color. A white background can be more straining than a muted yellow, for instance. But the ability to have people change it to their preference would be cool.

I thought Spreeder cost money though! And I was surprised to see it was free. On the website I was expecting to pay around $35.! It looks like the desktop apps seem to be more polished...

by Chrandy2

Good potential but was disappointed because you can’t do specific training outside of the “course” tab. Also there is no “column” reader which is the actual recommended method for increasing reading speed, ie, breaks page up into columns and highlights a set of words then jumps columns. Column-reading actually simulates the real deal instead of “regression training” found in Spreeder where all words are left justified and you follow them downwards. Speed reading is all about eye movement training which for English means training left-to-right saccades and not up-and-down.

Spreeder would also benefit from the “hopscotch” task seen in the now defunct Acceleread where words would flash on different portions of the screen, which is a good way to train both eye movements and quick comprehension. Also consider creating a training task for the “Z method”

by TenthFloor

Spreeder is definitely helping improve my reading speed. The drills that it offers are very helpful and the ability to import all of my books and other files is great! The only thing holding me back from giving five stars at this time is a lack of app wide dark mode (unless i’ve just missed it). Staring at a bright screen while reading or doing drills is tiring on the eyes. There is the ability to make the reading screen background black with white text, but there is still a bright border surrounding it, and while training a white screen pops up between sessions that becomes even more straining when my eyes have become used to the dark area. If a dark mode was incorporated I would, at the moment, believe this to be a five star app. It is already worth the price.

by Lordshoggoth

I came to this app after trying several other apps, each one of which would crash constantly to the point of being unusable. Fortunately, this app actually works, and offers several useful ways to edit your reading style. One small thing—while you can edit the background and text color to make it easier on the eyes, the white interface for Spreeder can be distracting. Hopefully future updates will include a Night Mode option.

by Gutenburger

I am really pleased with the ease of use of Speeder! I really appreciate that I can copy and paste text and use website articles. The settings allow you to increase and decrease the word speed. Pause, backward and forward at any time. Reading is even more enjoyable to me now. There are more than 29,000 books already in the library—tons of generes. Thank you for making this tool free! The courses available on Spreeder are even more appealing to me because of the reading I am able to accomplish now. My next step may be and actually will be to unlock the training material. This way I can learn to read faster. Thank you!!

by Ejcropp

In the first week I went from reading 200 wpm (words per minute) to 381 wpm. Now I'm comfortable using Spreed at 500 wpm. There are two aspects of Spreeder that adds great value. First, are courses included to help you eliminate bad habits that slows your reading speed. Second, I received video tips via email on various topics such as things that slow you down when reading and how to improve reading comprehension. Because these video tips were so valuable in improving my reading speed and comprehension, I purchased the package as soon as it was offered to me. This apps along with the courses has made reading fun again. :)

by Mrs. Drewski

Spreeder is the best speed reading app I have ever used! It flashes 200 words per minute to start (which can be adjusted higher or lower). I would not be getting through my college reading without it. I was able to read 4 hours worth of reading in 20 minutes with comprehension. How? I really don’t know, but I’m happy I found Spreeder & I bought the software for my computer. I even realized, I’m able to read faster when I don’t use Spreeder . You can plug in a website, url, and copy and paste text. If you have to do a lot of reading, you won’t be sorry! Many thanks to the creator!!!

by Hiertjsi

I really like Spreeder. While I am not religious to use it daily I do use it often. It has a good choice of books although many are older versions. Overall I like the setup where you pick a book and read. I like how it bookmarks where you left off so you can keep reading from there. I haven’t tried to download any books as it has a vast majority of books to read from and I don’t mind reading old books. I like that you can change the speed, the number of lines and group size. You can change reading mode, font, color which is useful to switch it up

by BZZZE

Y'know how frustrating it is when you get a great piece of software and suddenly realize you didn't pass the PhD language level of "Technical-ese" required to use it? Or when the Technical Manual's author comes online and talks faster than a dealer at a meth convention and you didn't catch a single vowel, consonant, or diphthong? Well, that doesn't happen here! this app's document is clearly written, explaining processes in plain, understandable, everyday English. And Marc's frequent contacts are laid back and encouraging. Spreeder is amazing, allowing you to import practically everything! This is a Grabber AND a Keeper!

by Doodeedoodledoo265

Love Spreeder it helps me read my school books and if I'm in a hurry it helps me skim them and get the gist of it. It's strengthened my reading outside of Spreeder as well. I hope they keep improving Spreeder and adding more books and possibly a way to access e-books from your library. It would also be nice if you could search through the book by chapter or page number and just skip there instead of letting Spreeder run until it gets to the point that you need. Overall a good app I recommend it.

by Alduin(world Eater)

I've loved every minute I spent on Spreeder . There are too many choices to count in all the categories you could think of. I really liked that through many of the books I was able not just to improve my speed but also to improve my intellect. There is a lot to learn, especially through some of the titles on psychology. My personal favorite. I would recommend Spreeder to anyone who wants to try a new experience with reading.