Ichigo Reader alternatives for manga translation
Looking for an Ichigo Reader alternative? Five manga translators compared: free plans or credits, extensions, editors and what they do with your pages.
Ichigo Reader is a subscription service with a free trial. If you would rather have a free plan, more target languages or a different way of working, these five alternatives are worth a look. The facts come from each tool's own pages, checked on 29 October 2026.
What to look for
- Where it runs: a website, a browser extension, an app or your own computer.
- Whether it re-letters the page, with the translation set inside the bubbles, or only shows the text.
- How you pay: a free plan, credits, a subscription or nothing at all.
- What happens to your pages and how long they are kept.
RuneManga
A WebApp and a browser extension made for manga, manhwa and webtoons, with a Free plan instead of a trial: 20 credits a day, one per page, with no card. It translates into 89 languages, takes images, a ZIP, a CBZ or a PDF, and lets you correct the result in Edit mode. Jobs are deleted about an hour after they finish.
Torii Image Translator
An extension for every major browser, Safari included, and a web app with projects, an editor and a colorizer. You pay with credit packs that do not expire, from 2,500 credits for $5.99, and you can choose the AI model or use your own key.
BallonsTranslator
A free, open-source desktop program for Windows, macOS and Linux. It translates a page and then lets you correct every bubble by hand in a full text editor. You install it and run it on your own computer.
manga-image-translator
A free, open-source pipeline you run yourself, with many translators and options, a web interface and an API. Its official online demo, Cotrans, translates one image at a time in the browser.
Google Lens
Free and built into the Google app and Chrome. It is a general image translator for more than 100 languages, quick for one line or one picture, but it does not take whole chapters or set the translation inside speech bubbles.
Questions
What is the best free alternative to Ichigo Reader?
RuneManga has a Free plan, not a trial: 20 credits a day, claimed on the site, with no card. If you can install software, BallonsTranslator and manga-image-translator are free and open source.
Which alternative translates into more languages?
RuneManga translates into 89 languages and Torii says more than 140, against Ichigo Reader's 18.
Is there an alternative that works on a phone?
RuneManga's WebApp works in any phone browser, and Torii's extension also works in Safari on iPhone and iPad.