Panui vs The Shelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Panui
This app helps you cultivate consistent reading habits by tracking your reading time and progress. Log pages, visualize your achievements, and set goals to stay motivated on your reading journey.
- Add books to library
- Track reading time and pages
- View progress and completion stats
- Set reading goals
- Celebrate milestones
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Meet Panui – Your Smart Reading Tracker Panui helps you build better reading habits and stay motivated to finish your books. Track your reading time, log pages, and see your progress with beautiful visuals that turn motivation into momentum. Whether you’re reading for pleasure, study, or personal growth, Panui makes it easy to stay on track. With Panui you can: • Add books to your library • Track time and pages read • See progress and completion stats • Set goals and celebrate milestones Make reading a habit you’re proud of. Get Panui today and start tracking your reading journey! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
The Shelf
Organize your entire book collection, track reading progress, and capture notes and quotes. This app offers a private, customizable space to manage your reading life, from adding new books to reviewing past sessions.
- Build and organize your book library
- Track reading progress and focus sessions
- Save notes, quotes, and journal entries
- View detailed reading statistics
- Customize app appearance
- Sync and export library data
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The Shelf is a private reading tracker for books you study, stories you love, and everything in between. Build a library that feels like yours, then track only what feels useful. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY • Search by title, author, or ISBN and choose the edition that matches yours. • Scan book barcodes on supported iPhone and iPad devices, or add books manually on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. • Keep each edition or physical copy separate, with its own progress, sessions, and reading history. • Save books as Owned, Wishlist, or Track. Organize them with your own Lists, Subjects, and shelf locations. • Keep track of borrowing and lending without changing your reading history. • Import Goodreads or StoryGraph CSV files, or import and export a complete JSON backup. MAKE TIME FOR READING • Start a Reading, Listening, or Studying Focus session with no time limit or a planned duration. • Browse your covers, choose a book, and settle into a book-centered Focus view. • Pause and resume the count-in or the session itself. Keep notes without ending your session. • Update pages, percentage, audiobook position, chapters, or study problems. • Record starting and ending pages, revisit past sessions, and keep rereads separate. • Follow an active session through Live Activities on supported iPhone and iPad devices. Choose a System or Clear Lock Screen background. REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ • Keep a book note, dated notes, quotes, page references, and photographs together in Notebook. • Capture text with the camera on supported iPhone and iPad devices, or add writing and images yourself. • Search your library and return to the books and annotations that matter. SEE YOUR READING LIFE • Explore activity, finished books, session totals, streaks, and reading history. • Set optional yearly goals without turning reading into a deadline. • Revisit your reading calendar and compare progress across Subjects. AT HOME ON YOUR APPLE DEVICES • Browse, edit, annotate, review your Dashboard, and use Focus on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. • Enjoy Mac menus, keyboard commands, pointer support, and file import and export. • On a paired Apple Watch, see current and recent books and progress, start and control Focus, or log a short past session. The companion works with your iPhone app. • On iPhone Duo, keep your place as you open, close, rotate, or partially fold the display. The closed outer display stays in portrait; the open inner display supports landscape. • Turn on optional private iCloud sync to keep your library across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. MAKE IT FEEL LIKE YOURS • Choose an included Look or your own background and two accent colors. • Customize the app's cards and appearance, including the new Deep Sea & Gold Look. • Invite Dewey into supported book and Focus views, with your choice of outfit and colors. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, ads, tracking, analytics, subscriptions, or third-party SDKs. Optional book lookup sends a title, author, or ISBN only when you ask the app to search or fetch. Camera images, notes, and reading history stay on your device or in your own optional private iCloud library. Turn Online Lookup off for a fully offline library. Pay once, own it forever.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Panui at Free against The Shelf's $4.99. The Shelf's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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
Panui is free to download; The Shelf costs $4.99 up front. Panui sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. The Shelf asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Panui against 5.0 for The Shelf. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Panui ships an update every 2 weeks, The Shelf every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Panui | The Shelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.1 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mario Elorza | Antonio Gordillo Toledo |
Customer experience
Panui
The Shelf
In-app purchases
Panui
- Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
The Shelf
No in-app purchases









