Comparison

Beanstack Tracker vs MEGA Lab AR

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

MEGA Lab AR

Explore interactive 3D models of marine life overlaid onto printed targets using augmented reality. This educational tool brings a coral reef environment to your device, with more models planned for future updates.

Highlights
  • View 3D marine life models
  • Augmented reality interaction
  • Printable AR targets
  • Coral reef environment
  • 7 pre-loaded models
Features
Read full description

This application allows users to view and interact with 3D models generated by the MEGA Lab. To use, first print out AR targets using the "TARGETS" button in the app. After you've printed out the targets, hit the "START" button and point your camera at the target. The digital model will be augmented on top of the target. Currently, this functions only as an AR app but I’m working on implementing functionality to make it easier to interact with for people without a printer - non-AR capability is coming soon! The current iteration of this application comes loaded with 7 models - more coming soon! This application utilizes the Vuforia AR engine.

Screenshots

Beanstack Tracker4 screens
MEGA Lab AR3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: MEGA Lab AR at 100% against Beanstack Tracker's 67%. MEGA Lab AR also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Beanstack Tracker's advantage is ratings volume (102K vs 8) and chart position (#186 vs unranked). 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

MEGA Lab AR 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 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Beanstack Tracker's written reviews are positive against 100% of MEGA Lab AR's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Beanstack Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, MEGA Lab AR monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Beanstack Tracker versus MEGA Lab AR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBeanstack TrackerMEGA Lab AR
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (102K ratings)5.0 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings102K — better8
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#186 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size60 MB1.3 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZoobean, Inc.Alexander Spengler

Customer experience

Beanstack Tracker

All ratings101,897 ratings
Positive94.5%
Neutral3.1%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews672 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral12.9%
Negative20.4%

MEGA Lab AR

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

MEGA Lab AR

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Beanstack Tracker

No in-app purchases

None

MEGA Lab AR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Beanstack Tracker free?
Beanstack Tracker is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MEGA Lab AR free?
MEGA Lab AR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Beanstack Tracker or MEGA Lab AR?
MEGA Lab AR is rated higher. Beanstack Tracker averages 4.8 out of 5 from 102K ratings, while MEGA Lab AR averages 5.0 from 8 ratings.
Do Beanstack Tracker or MEGA Lab AR have ads?
Neither Beanstack Tracker nor MEGA Lab AR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Beanstack Tracker or MEGA Lab AR?
Beanstack Tracker ships an update every 3 weeks, and MEGA Lab AR monthly. Most recently, Beanstack Tracker was updated on October 14, 2026 and MEGA Lab AR on October 6, 2026.

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