Shelfie vs The Ardent Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shelfie
Effortlessly manage your reading notes by scanning book barcodes or using your camera with advanced OCR. Organize your collection, track progress, and share insights with elegant templates. Syncs across all your devices.
- Scan books by barcode or search
- Capture notes with OCR technology
- Organize books by shelves
- Track reading progress
- Share notes with templates
- Full-text search of notes
- Export notes as PDF/HTML
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Collect your books reading notes in one place by simply pointing your camera at the paperbacks. Managing your reading notes has never been so effortless! KEY FEATURES * Find books and add to your collection by scanning bar code, searching keyword, or entering book info manually. * Take a photo of the printed text and save your reading notes in a flash, empowered by revolutionary Optimal Character Recognition (OCR) technology. * Recognize texts in 45+ languages: English, Chinese, France, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, German, Italian, and many more. * Record your reading data. * Save images directly as your notes. * Organize your books by shelves. * Create a table of contents for your books and navigate your notes by chapters. * Set short title for your notes. * Share your notes and thoughts with multiple elegantly designed templates. * Search full-text and find your notes. * Track your reading progress. * Export your notes as PDFs or HTMLs. * Support various iOS features such as Handoff, Multitasking, and Search. * Website: https://shelfie.app HIGHLIGHTS * Access your notes anywhere: Everything is synced automatically and instantly across any computer, phone, or tablet. Once you create your account, your date stays in sync so that you always have the up-to-date version of your favorite quotes and inspirations (yeah we do not rely on iCloud). * Advanced OCR technology based on Google: Fast and precise. * Auto recognition of tables of contents: Take a photo of a book’s table of contents and we automatically turn it into chapters matched with pages. * Simple, but powerful. SUBSCRIPTION We offer monthly and yearly Premium subscriptions. App Store will renews the subscription during 24 hours before it expires. You can stop the auto renewal in the system settings of iPhone. When start auto renewal in trial period, the trial will stop automatically. If you encounter any problems, please try to restart Shelfie, or tap the restore button below. Privacy: https://yanwai.net/privacy/en Terms: https://yanwai.net/terms/en SUPPORT We love hearing back from you and we are constantly improving our app based on your suggestions! E-mail: hi@yanwai.app
The Ardent Reader
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You keep track of your morning runs, the cities you have visited, places to shop and maybe even the various beers you have tried. So why not keep track of the books you read as well? The Ardent Reader is a handy companion for all avid readers, who would like to keep track of which books they have read, when they read them and where. Using Google Books' extensive database you can easily register a book's information by scanning the barcode or supplying the ISBN manually. Mark the book as one you have read or a title you would like to read later; save location and add you notes. You can use the map function to check where in the world you read your books or sort your readings in order to se when you read a book or how many you read last year.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: The Ardent Reader at none against Shelfie's 5. Shelfie's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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. Shelfie sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. The Ardent Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Shelfie ships an update fortnightly, The Ardent Reader every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shelfie | The Ardent Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (201 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 201 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 85 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 志鹏 刘 | Jonatan Yde |
In-app purchases
Shelfie
- Premium Monthly Subscription$2.991 Month
- Premium Annually Subscription$12.991 Year
- Shelfie Lifetime (for yearly)$6.99
- Shelfie Lifetime (for monthly)$14.99
- Sheifle Premium Lifetime$19.99
The Ardent Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Shelfie free?
Is The Ardent Reader free?
Do Shelfie or The Ardent Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shelfie or The Ardent Reader?
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