r/webtoons • u/Curious_Cranberry_67 • Jun 19 '26
Advice/Critique/Help Tappytoon, Tapas, Lezhin, Manta Cost Comparisons
Tappytoon Prices Table
Tapas Prices Table
Lezhin Prices Table
Manta Prices Table
I decided to make a quick spreadsheet to compare the costs of some of the webcomic apps! Since the prices of some episodes vary within certain platforms, you can make a copy here if you'd like to change those. I believe I've seen some similar spreadsheets before, but I wanted to factor in sale prices as well as the check-in points for Tappytoon's subscription. I personally tend to only spend during sales so I was curious about the price differences.
Note: The "episodes bought" columns are for how many episodes you could buy with each bundle, but I couldn't think of a better way to word it concisely. For platforms that have different episode prices depending on the series, I gave the cells dropdown menus to select from a list. Manta's is a mess mostly because the manga and novels have a wider price range, so sorry about that.
Lezhin is of course the most expensive, which makes sense because it has a lot more titles. It was also a lot more of a pain to understand how the monthly subscription worked, so I gave up and didn't include it.
Something else to consider is that Tappytoon and Lezhin both have daily check-ins while Tapas has a lot of events for free ink (which makes Tapas a lot more affordable than the math shows since I didn't factor that in). I decided not to include the first-time packages from Manta because you can only purchase those once, but I would say the deal you get for your first premium subscription month ($5.99 USD) is definitely worth it. I'm not sure about the regular non-premium subscription because I couldn't find how exactly the "extra gems with gem bundles" worked.
Also lmk if you notice any mistakes or if I missed anything, I made this at like 3am.
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Jun 19 '26
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
Forgot to mention Tappy's bonus points from the check-ins expire after 1 week, so you can save them. Lezhin's expire after 24hrs so you can get up to 20 coins normally with exceptions for the 10-day and 30-day streaks, where you get an extra 20 coins and 50 coins. So you can get a few free episodes occasionally with more effort involved. Just not as easily as Tappy/Tapas
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u/Metalheadzaid Jun 19 '26
I've basically given up bothering with any of these services because the cost to read a single series is way too high. Like, 100 chapters, you get like 3 chapters free on Tapas (or the joke that is WUF chapters...once a day or even every 3 hours lmao, a joke). So 97 paid chapters, at your given 405 average each - ~$35-40 USD. Which is a crap ton. Who can afford $40 to read a series when there's a thousand other ones to read (and this is assuming only 100 chapters still).
Webtoons is the only place I actually buy from - and have a sub (old model - 2 coin discount per chapter). $20/mon is worth it only because I only have to pay for the most recent few chapters on older series. Which gets me to actually buy in - because I'm wanting to continue reading.
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u/oujikara Jun 19 '26
Tbh I would gladly pay that much for a series I like if I got to actually own it then. Like download it into my device as a file
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
Man even for some ebooks you don't get the actual file and they make you read it through their app. It's ridiculous that you're don't actually own a lot of the digital content you buy. But that's when you rip the file yourself and save it to a hard drive
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u/oujikara Jun 19 '26
Yeah it really is frustrating. I only buy books I can download, thankfully sometimes authors have websites where they sell their works directly for a good price. Otherwise I borrow or use subscription services (which are unfortunately very limited for both books and webtoons)
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
I always try to go for physical first but most series I read only have digital releases. I'd consider buying official merch but that can get pretty expensive too. If you meant borrow as in from a library, I got a few new library cards recently just to have access to more stuff. Libraries are great
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u/oujikara Jun 19 '26
I like buying physical copies to share with friends, or just because of the aesthetic appeal of a bookshelf lol. Even though I prefer to read digital. But y up I meant through the library, for ebooks and audiobooks I use the Libby app, it's great but the catalogue depends on your library (to my detriment since my local library has almost nothing)
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
I'm the same, the physical copies are just for collection and supporting the author for me. You gotta check hoopla if you get that through your library, I've found there's more when it comes to graphic novels there at least. If you're interested in hoarding library cards there's also a website to see what locations you're eligible for (reiprocard).
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u/nobile 7d ago
Check out https://mihon.app/, you can download a .cbz of any unlocked chapters on Tapas, Tappytoon, and Manta.
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
It's really annoying that most platforms just have the same model where you have to buy each episode, I wish there was a good actual subscription where you could just read unlimited. Manta's the closest but it's pretty limited and the available series are on a rotation so... it really isn't that unlimited.
If you buy from Webtoon and use Android, there's usually a 50% off coupon for Play Pass users every month.
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u/Flat_Value5717 Jun 19 '26
I purchased Lets Play on Tapas after trying to get free ink with Games. At the Moment I am waiting for season 4 and playing monopoly go to get some free ink, I think it’s ok when you just read few Series because you can get enough free ink or the new chapters come so slow that you can purchase them with real money
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26
With how long hiatuses are it makes it easier to save some. I don't read that many series at once on Tapas either, Lezhin is the problem for me
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u/dotblot Jun 19 '26
For lezhin that price in you table comes with caveat, you need point.
The usual one that can be purchase directly is
240 - USD 5.99
400 - USD 9.99
800 - USD 19.99
1200 - USD29. 99
2000 - USD 49.99
- not included bonus coin
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Ah I didn't consider that, I can update the sheet when I get a chance. I usually have points on hand when I do spend so I never even look at the original packs
edit: nvm it's already included, I just labeled it as the PLUS exclusive bundles
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u/Tiny-Hotel7867 Jun 19 '26
Am a fan of tapas's package model. Also, Webtoon app is costlier too.
Great work though bro 👍🏽👍🏽
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u/PhoenixWvyern1454 Jun 21 '26
I use Tapas and Manta the most. I feel they are cheaper and the best price for episodes. They have often sales and discounts on episodes. Also, it is annoying to wait 24 hours for another free episode, but to save money it's worth it.
I do use Lezhin, Tappytoon, and Webtoon, but not as often. They seem more expensive per episode and with less discounts and ability to get into a comic before having to invest heavily into it, I use them less.
Examples: Tapas in April ran a promotion where everyday for a week a different manwha had a 100 episodes for free. I was only able to the first 20 to 30 episodes of 3 of the manwhas, but I'm continuing to read two of them, and each of them have free episodes every 24 episodes. I also get an occasional free episode due to promotions, and I do buy an episode occasionally if it's a cliffhanger. On Manta, they'll have promotions of the first 3, 5, 10 episodes for free then sometimes the next episodes will be free after 24 hours and it'll like that for most of them until the last 20 episodes. So then, you'll only have to spend coins on the last 20 instead of all the episodes.
Lezhin, Tappytoon and Webtoon don't seem to do these types of things as much, so it's harder to use them as much.
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 22 '26
I've noticed Manta has Gem-back events where you spend and can get a certain amount back. It also seems like a good amount of series are WUF compared to other platforms. The other platforms have the occasional gift pass for free chapters but you get more of them on Lezhin along with some bonus coins that are limited to certain series. I currently only have the Manta subscription just because I wanted to buy gems but hopefully they end up expanding their catalog in the future
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u/Subtlynotme 26d ago
So much for the ink promotions from Tapas... 😭
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 25d ago
It was nice while it lasted 😞 I've been seeing people say they've contacted support and were just told that they're "optimizing the platform" or something like that. Unfortunately it looks like prices will only continue to go up, Tappytoon has been adding a lot of series with chapters that cost 400 points (rather than 300).
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u/more_tea_wesley 9d ago
Was looking for something like this, thank you for your service. Tapas - RIP - was my app of choice if they had the series I wanted. Tappytoon has started a lot of new series at 400/chapter which really sucks. I like Manta but there’s no way to earn free gems and I rarely see sales on them, so I only use it if what I want to read isn’t available anywhere else.
I end up buying the most on Lezhin though, because they have the largest catalog. They used to have MUCH better deals, though. When I first joined they’d run regular flash sales where a whole series would be available for 5 coins per chapter. I see that once in a blue moon now but it’s never for popular titles.
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 7d ago
yep it's kind of a pain to keep track of when series are on sale for Lezhin. they do have occasional coin back sales which is nice but you kind of have to keep tabs on everything you read because it's easy to miss. Tappytoon just added a new subscription similar to Manta where you can read some series for free (though there aren't that many series included yet). looks like costs for most apps are going up and a lot of them are starting to rely on AI for some things which is disappointing. RIP tapas indeed.
I've been busy but I'll try to get around to updating the spreadsheet with Tappytoon's new subscription tier for those wondering if it's worth the upgrade
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u/schroobster Jun 22 '26
My frustration with Lezhin is that they used to have better subscriptions, better coin sales, more free coins (now many of the daily free coin offers don't cover a single episode), and they give out more free passes than coins. The points are utterly useless if you have a subscription; there is never a better deal on coin purchases using points so they're a completely wasted currency on the platform.
If all the changes were to keep the app out of the red (and keep authors from getting less compensation), I'd at least accept it if they were more upfront that they effectively raised prices. But the swap to the [not] better ecommerce backend where all the grandfathered subscriptions couldn't be honored.... and the less generous perks.... it's vexing.
(It also doesn't help when they want more per episode but some of the recent translations have been poorer versus other platforms)(esp some of the older titles coming from Pocket)(RIP).
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jun 24 '26
To me Lezhin seems like the least straightforward when it comes to buying their in-app currency. I only made an account at the end of last year, but I did notice they changed the subscription. I don't know the specific differences but I imagine it would've been annoying for people that had already been subscribed. I have noticed the differences in their free coins/tickets, though. I think I'm definitely starting to prefer Manta over Lezhin, seeing that their exclusives library is starting to grow.
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u/rex_606 Jul 29 '26
Can tapas not go back to 335 ink? Bro it's too much fr
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Jul 29 '26
Prices for everything will probably just keep going up unfortunately. I've found Tapas gives the most free currency but I get it (I've been using it since you were able to keep the WUF episodes instead of them expiring)
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u/rex_606 Aug 01 '26
I mean the ads feature is more or less gone now
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u/Curious_Cranberry_67 Aug 02 '26
That's true, I'm glad at least Tappytoon still has ads. Most have those Tapjoy offers which can be alright (but that's if they even work). Best you can do for Tapas is keep up to date with the events and check-ins. I usually get enough bonus ink (3,600) to get the 10-episode bundle deals once a week/every other week. I wish there were more subscription models like Shonen Jump because buying by the episode is super expensive
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u/chibikatana Jun 19 '26
Appreciate the work you put into it. Thank you 😊