Beanstack Tracker vs Project Des Moines
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Motivating reading challenges
- Easy reading progress tracking
- Barcode scanner for titles
- Reading timer and logging
- Streaks and badges
- Reading recommendations
- Friend leaderboards
- Reading fundraisers
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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.
Project Des Moines
Explore the rich history of Des Moines through an interactive, GPS-enabled map. Discover details about significant people, places, and events, enhanced with archival images and historical publications. This educational tool was created by the Des Moines Public Library.
- Interactive GPS-enabled map
- Historical information on people, places, events
- Archival images and publications
- Location-based historical discovery
- Developed by Des Moines Public Library
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Project DSM is a free app that explores the history of Des Moines. Discover information on people, places, and events in Des Moines history. Explore historical information about each site on the interactive GPS-enabled map along with images from archival collections and historical publications. This project was developed by Des Moines Public Library.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Beanstack Tracker at every 3 weeks against Project Des Moines's every 4 months. Beanstack Tracker also leads on ratings volume (102K vs 1) and chart position (#165 vs unranked). Project Des Moines's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Project Des Moines holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Beanstack Tracker has 102K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Beanstack Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, Project Des Moines every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Beanstack Tracker | Project Des Moines |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (102K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 102K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #165 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zoobean, Inc. | Cleveland State University Research Corporation |
Customer experience
Beanstack Tracker
Project Des Moines
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
Project Des Moines
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Beanstack Tracker
No in-app purchases
Project Des Moines
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Beanstack Tracker free?
Is Project Des Moines free?
Which has better reviews, Beanstack Tracker or Project Des Moines?
Do Beanstack Tracker or Project Des Moines have ads?
Which is updated more often, Beanstack Tracker or Project Des Moines?
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