It's not secret that I'm against DRM. Yet I somehow manage to often find myself on platforms with user hostile DRM, BookWalker is one such platform.

Bad user experience

Their mobile app isn't the worst, and recently got better. The app is still slow to boot and doesn't support dark mode, though that is my only real complaint about the mobile app.

While they "do have" a desktop app, it's not maintained and won't even launch on macOS Catalina. The web viewer doesn't support HTML5 offline mode, making the mobile app the only option for offline reading. This is an issue because the web viewer loads sluggishly, making the reading on computer a bad experience.

I feel like a second class citizen when I use bookwalker on desktop. I don't currently have a tablet and prefer to read on a larger screen, so I tend to read on my laptop. BookWalker really discourages me from doing so due to the slow loadings and lack of offline reading.

The Lock In

A popular DRM is Adobe Digital Editions, in short it allows a given customer to get their books into any approved reading application. I happen to have a tool that also allows me to read books in reading applications which aren't approved as well, so I can enjoy my purchased books in any way I prefer.

My issues with BookWalker would be easily solved if they supported ADE, however BookWalker is the only digital store I know of that doesn't support ADE. There's no way for me to get the books out of the platform in any shape or form.

Conclusion

BookWalker is a walled garden, even more tightly closed than the Apple Ecosystem, with no way out and a user hostile desktop experience. I honestly only ever use BookWalker when others gift me books or if I really want to read a exclusive.