Comparison

Beanstack Tracker vs Sora, by OverDrive Education

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Beanstack Tracker

This app encourages reading for all ages through engaging challenges and easy progress tracking. It allows family profiles, individual logging, and offers features like barcode scanning and reading timers. It prioritizes user privacy by not selling data or showing ads.

Highlights
  • Motivating reading challenges
  • Easy reading progress tracking
  • Barcode scanner for titles
  • Reading timer and logging
  • Streaks and badges
  • Reading recommendations
  • Friend leaderboards
  • Reading fundraisers
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Beanstack helps schools, libraries, and families bring the fun back to reading with reading challenges, easy tracking, and insightful data. We invite students, families, and readers of all ages to a world of reading inspiration and motivation. You can create profiles for everyone in your family within a single library or Beanstack Go account, or you can use SSO to sign in to any of your students’ school accounts and swiftly toggle between them. Beanstack helps you grow your reading habits together, while also logging and tracking reading progress individually. We never sell your data or use it to show you ads, so Beanstack is safe for everyone. Features: - Join motivating reading challenges created by librarians, educators, and reading specialists. Our ever-growing reading challenge collection features seasonal challenges like summer reading, yearlong literacy initiatives, and diverse custom challenges for all ages, levels, and communities. - Track reading progress and create an all-time reading log. - Use a barcode scanner to quickly and easily find titles. - Record reading sessions with a reading timer or log an entire book with a click. - Achieve streaks for reading multiple days in a row and badges for reaching reading goals. - Complete fun enrichment activities and leave book reviews. - Access reading recommendations and resources. - Add friends from your organization to see what they’re reading and compete on leaderboards. - View reading stats, including totals and averages of time spent reading and titles read. - Participate in reading fundraisers: Raise money for your organization with reading! With Beanstack’s reading fundraisers, you can earn badges while collecting donations to fund important priorities at your school or library. Beanstack is created by Joyful Reading Co, where we're dedicated to nurturing a lifelong love of reading through engagement, access, and data-driven insights.

About

Sora, by OverDrive Education

Access and borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your school's digital library. Enjoy a built-in reader and player, track your reading progress, and export notes. Discover assigned titles and personal favorites with ease.

Highlights
  • Borrow ebooks and audiobooks
  • Built-in eBook reader
  • Audiobook player
  • Track reading time and books read
  • Create and export notes/highlights
  • Define words and review vocabulary
Read full description

Borrow eBooks and audiobooks from your school's library with Sora. Setup is simple - just find your school and sign in. Then download or stream your assignments and favorite books to your device. Sora includes: • A ground-breaking built-in eBook reader • A beautiful audiobook player • Easy access to assigned titles • A running tally of time spent reading and numbers of books read With Sora you can: • Borrow a book and start reading with a single tap • Create and export notes and highlights • Define words - and review a list of all the words that you've looked up • Earn achievements for reading, and for completing certain tasks in Sora • Enjoy reading eBooks and audiobooks!

Screenshots

Beanstack Tracker4 screens
Sora, by OverDrive Education4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Beanstack Tracker at 4.8 against Sora, by OverDrive Education's 3.8. Beanstack Tracker also leads on ratings volume (101K vs 610) and review sentiment (66% vs 45%). Sora, by OverDrive Education's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Beanstack Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Beanstack Tracker has 101K ratings behind it against 610, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of Beanstack Tracker's written reviews are positive against 45% of Sora, by OverDrive Education's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Beanstack Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, Sora, by OverDrive Education monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Beanstack Tracker versus Sora, by OverDrive Education: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBeanstack TrackerSora, by OverDrive Education
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (101K ratings) — better3.8 (610 ratings)
Positive reviews66.5% of reviews — better45.4% of reviews
Number of ratings101K — better610
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#152 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size60 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZoobean, Inc.OverDrive, Inc.

Customer experience

Beanstack Tracker

All ratings100,827 ratings
Positive94.5%
Neutral3.1%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews665 reviews
Positive66.5%
Neutral13.1%
Negative20.5%

Sora, by OverDrive Education

All ratings610 ratings
Positive69.5%
Neutral7.4%
Negative23.1%
Written reviews403 reviews
Positive45.4%
Neutral15.6%
Negative39.0%

User reviews

Beanstack Tracker

From 101K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Convenient for tracking reading
  • 🚀 Barcode scanning feature
  • 👍 Ability to track multiple readers
  • 👍 Motivating with achievements and badges

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent logging and tracking issues
  • 🤔 Confusing user interface and navigation
  • 🤔 Limited customization and personalization options
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches, especially with timers and syncing
  • 🤔 Cumbersome process for logging books and reading

Sora, by OverDrive Education

From 610 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Many options
  • 👍 Free books
  • 🎧 Good for audiobooks
  • 💡 Tracks reading progress

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitches and crashes
  • ⏱️ Long wait times for popular books
  • 📚 Limited book selection
  • 🔍 Difficult to find specific books

Bugs and requests

Beanstack Tracker

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Incorrect logging of reading sessions and progress
  • Inability to edit or remove previously logged books
  • Compatibility issues on tablets and iPads
  • Timezone-related bugs causing lost reading streaks

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to backdate reading sessions
  • Calendar view to easily see monthly reading progress
  • Option to log quantity of books read instead of just time
  • Personalized book recommendations based on reading history
  • Improved syncing and data management across devices

Sora, by OverDrive Education

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Pages freeze or don't load properly
  • Reading progress not tracked accurately
  • Inability to renew books
  • Accounts randomly logged out

Requested features

4 requests
  • More manga and graphic novels
  • Ability to join more reading challenges
  • Increase loan/hold limits
  • Better notification system for available holds

In-app purchases

None

Beanstack Tracker

No in-app purchases

None

Sora, by OverDrive Education

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Beanstack Tracker free?
Beanstack Tracker is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sora, by OverDrive Education free?
Sora, by OverDrive Education is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Beanstack Tracker or Sora, by OverDrive Education?
Beanstack Tracker is rated higher. Beanstack Tracker averages 4.8 out of 5 from 101K ratings, while Sora, by OverDrive Education averages 3.8 from 610 ratings.
Do Beanstack Tracker or Sora, by OverDrive Education have ads?
Neither Beanstack Tracker nor Sora, by OverDrive Education shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Beanstack Tracker or Sora, by OverDrive Education?
Beanstack Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, and Sora, by OverDrive Education monthly. Most recently, Beanstack Tracker was updated on October 2, 2026 and Sora, by OverDrive Education on October 1, 2026.

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