Textbooks 101 vs Shelf Scanner.
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Textbooks 101
This app helps college students save money by comparing prices for buying and selling textbooks. It allows users to scan barcodes, compare offers from multiple retailers, and even connect with other students on campus to buy or sell books directly.
- Compare buyback prices from 10+ retailers
- Scan ISBN barcodes for instant price lookup
- Sell textbooks to the highest-paying retailer
- Buy and sell with students on campus
- Built-in messaging for campus transactions
- Wait-list notifications for hard-to-find books
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Textbooks 101 is the #1 textbook price comparison app for college students. Compare buyback prices from every major retailer, sell your textbooks for the most money, and buy cheap textbooks — all in one app. SELL YOUR TEXTBOOKS Scan your textbook's barcode or search by ISBN to instantly compare buyback prices from 10+ retailers. See who pays the most and sell with one tap. Stop leaving money on the table. BUY TEXTBOOKS CHEAP Compare prices across every major retailer to find the cheapest option — new, used, rental, or eBook. Save hundreds every semester. CAMPUS MARKETPLACE Buy and sell directly with other students at your school. No middleman, no shipping — just meet up on campus. Built-in messaging makes it easy. BARCODE SCANNER Point your camera at any textbook barcode for instant price lookups. Perfect for comparison shopping at the bookstore. WAIT-LIST Can't find the textbook you need? Add it to your wait-list and get notified instantly when another student lists it. KEY FEATURES • Compare buy & sell prices from 10+ retailers • Scan ISBN barcodes for instant price lookup • Sell textbooks to the highest-paying retailer • Buy and sell with students on campus • Built-in messaging for campus transactions • Wait-list notifications for hard-to-find books • Works in the US and Canada • 100% free — no hidden fees Join thousands of students who save money on textbooks every semester with Textbooks 101.
Shelf Scanner.
Easily discover the value of books by scanning barcodes or taking photos of entire shelves. Get live pricing data from major online sellers to maximize your profit when selling your books.
- Scan book barcodes for value
- Photo scan entire bookshelves
- Live pricing data
- Sell books for profit
- Source from major online sellers
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Find Valuable Books. That's what Shelf Scanner makes it easy to do, our app can: - Scan book barcodes to find their values - Take a photo of a bookshelf and find the value of each book on the shelf - Provide live pricing data on any book you scan With Shelf Scanner you can easy find what your bookshelf, those old books you have laying around, or books from thrift stores, are worth, and sell them for a profit. Unlike other book scanning apps, we provide live pricing data of what your book is worth, sourced from the largest online book sellers and based on current listing prices. This means you get the most money for your books, quick and easy. Download Shelf Scanner today and start turning books into cash. Terms Of Use can be found at: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.termsfeed.com/live/619c315c-27b8-4e47-9aaf-20bad24d5d6e
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Textbooks 101 at 100% against Shelf Scanner.'s 9%. Textbooks 101 also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 7 months). Shelf Scanner.'s advantage is rating (4.5 vs 1.0) and ratings volume (263 vs 1). On price and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Shelf Scanner. sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Textbooks 101 asks for nothing beyond the download.
Shelf Scanner. holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shelf Scanner. has 263 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Textbooks 101's written reviews are positive against 9% of Shelf Scanner.'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Textbooks 101 ships an update every 3 weeks, Shelf Scanner. every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Textbooks 101 | Shelf Scanner. |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 4.5 (263 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 9.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 263 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Friday Software Group Inc. | Gabe Rogers |
Customer experience
Textbooks 101
Shelf Scanner.
In-app purchases
Textbooks 101
No in-app purchases
Shelf Scanner.
- Weekly Pro$4.997 Days
- Monthly Pro$15.991 Month
- Annual Pro7 Days trial$48.991 Year
