Willard Library App vs SlowRead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Willard Library App
Manage your library account on the go. Search the catalog, renew borrowed items, and place holds directly from your mobile device.
- Account management
- Catalog search
- Renew checkouts
- Place holds
- Mobile access
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Access Willard Library from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Manage your account, search the catalog, renew checkouts and place holds.
SlowRead
This app helps you track your reading, manage your TBR list, and journal your reading experience with a visually appealing digital bookshelf. It also facilitates book club discussions and provides insightful reading statistics. Enjoy a free trial to explore all features before subscribing.
- Customizable digital bookshelf
- TBR list and reading journal
- Book club creation and discussion
- Monthly and yearly reading wrap-ups
- Reading streak and challenge tracking
- Import from other reading apps
- Library loan tracking
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SlowRead is the book tracker with a bookshelf you will want to show off. Every book you read stands on your own shelf, with its real spine and cover. Keep your TBR, your reading journal and your reading log in one place, and share your bookshelf on BookTok and Instagram. YOUR BOOKSHELF • Every book stands on the shelf as a spine or as a cover. • Photograph your own copy to show its real spine, cover and sprayed edges, or use a photo another reader already shared. • Arrange your books by hand, lay them flat in piles and keep a series together. • Decorate with plants, candles, lights and more, and pick a theme for the wall and the wood. • Share a picture of your bookcase to your Stories on TikTok or Instagram. • Get a public profile at slowreadapp.com/@you with the bookcases you choose to show. BOOK CLUBS • Create a club or join one and read the same book together. • Talk in a channel for each part of the book, so nobody spoils what comes next. • Hide the parts of a message that are spoilers. • Vote on the club's next book. YOUR READING YEAR • Monthly and yearly wrap ups: cards to swipe through and share. • Your reader type, worked out from the books you finish. • A yearly reading challenge, and your year next to the last one. • Stats for pages, time and books, your reading speed and your top genres. • A reading streak, with past days you can fill in by hand. TRACKING WITHOUT EFFORT • Search millions of books or scan the barcode to add one in seconds. • Import your library from Goodreads, The StoryGraph, Bookmory, Fable or Libib. • Paperback, ebook and audiobook, even for the same book. • Track library loans with the due date and a reminder the day before. • Series grouped together, with your progress through each one. • Notes, quotes scanned from the page with your camera, and characters with a portrait and their relationships. • Half star ratings, rereads and did not finish. WIDGETS • Your bookshelf, what you are reading, your streak, your challenge and a daily quote on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. READING SESSIONS • Start a timed session from any book and log the page where you stop. • If you want, block the apps that distract you while you read, with Screen Time. All features described above require a subscription. A free trial is included, so you can try everything before paying. TERMS: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Willard Library App at 100% against SlowRead's 22%. Willard Library App also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and ads (none vs shown). SlowRead's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.2) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 5 months). On price and device support 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. SlowRead sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.39 per 7 days. Willard Library App asks for nothing beyond the download.
SlowRead holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SlowRead has 810 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Willard Library App's written reviews are positive against 22% of SlowRead's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Willard Library App ships an update every 5 months, SlowRead every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Willard Library App | SlowRead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (6 ratings) | 4.6 (810 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 21.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 810 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #37 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 133 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Willard Public Library | Adrian Martinez Moreno |
Customer experience
Willard Library App
SlowRead
In-app purchases
Willard Library App
No in-app purchases
SlowRead
- Premium Weekly$8.397 Days
- Premium Annual Offer$32.991 Year
- Premium Annual3 Days trial$44.991 Year
- Lifetime access to Slowread$149.99









