Comparison

Bookworm Reads vs Italic Type

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

Head to head
About

Bookworm Reads

Track your reading, connect with friends, and join a vibrant community of book lovers. Organize your library, discover new titles, and participate in reading challenges. Customize your unique worm avatar and share your literary journey.

Highlights
  • Track and categorize books
  • Create custom bookshelves
  • See friends' reading activity
  • Rate, review, and discuss books
  • Create and join book clubs
  • Participate in reading challenges
  • Customize worm avatar
Features
Read full description

Bookworm Reads is a book tracker & joyful community app. On Bookworm, you can track your books, see what your friends are reading, rate, review, and discuss books, create and join book clubs, and be a part of a vibrant digital community of readers. We're like Goodreads but for the girls, gays, and theys. Plus, you get to be a worm. Discover new books to save to your library, create your own customizable bookshelves, send and receive book recommendations from friends, and join community reading challenges. The best part of all: dress up your wormy avatar from a variety of outfits, hats, accessories, and more! Import your Goodreads data: Say goodbye to Amazon-owned Goodreads, and keep your bookshelves just as you left them. Import from Goodreads and start using Bookworm. Simple, beautiful, book tracking. Track & categorize your books into bookshelves: books you want to read, have read, are currently reading. Plus, create your own custom bookshelves. Your 5-star club, books you DNF (did not finish), abandoned, repeat reads; whatever your heart desires. Add as many shelves as you want--no power-tools required. Join community reading challenges. Set a reading goal for yourself and let your friends cheer you on. The number of books you set as your goal is only visible to you. Upon joining, you get the option to give your wormy a badge to show you're participating in the community challenge. And, you can edit your goal number as the challenge continues. Share book recommendations. Send recommendations to friends and get them in return. Get notified whenever someone starts reading the book you recommended, and check out their review when they finish. All books recommended to you get saved to a bookshelf so you'll never lose them. Create, organize, and join book clubs. Find like-minded readers and host discussions in the app. You can create collaborative shelves, where everyone in the club can add to your shared to-read shelf, or you can do the choosing and let readers to follow along. Get started by joining Thee Bookworm Book Club--the Bookworm-wide club. Dress up your wormy avatar. Hands down the best feature on Bookworm Reads: dress up your wormy avatar! Choose from outfits, wigs, accessories, and more to keep your wormy as fresh as you are. Get creative, and change your outfit as much as you want! You can also buy a real life bookworm bookmark + sticker pack to keep your books adorned with Bookworm swag. Social sharing included. Share books to your instagram story with pre-made, gorgeous backgrounds. You can tweet, text, email, or whatever kind of sharing you'd like with everything on Bookworm. From books, to posts, to your wormy's outfit, share on whatever platform is your favorite. Features: • track & categorize your books into bookshelves: books you want to read, have read, are currently reading • plus, create your own custom book categories. for example, create a bookshelf for books you couldn't finish, or your favorite books you want everyone to read • join reading challenges: set a goal for yourself and get that lil dopamine hit every time you finish a book • recommend books to friends and get notified when they read your suggestion • organize your book club: set your books, your next meeting info, and host discussion in your club • discover new clubs: join one of the many public book clubs to find new reading buddies • design your wormy's outfit • share all of this to social media • import from Goodreads, Storygraph, Libib, or wherever you track your books. No need to start over! Bring your Goodreads/Storygraph data right into Bookworm. Download Bookworm Reads, create your wormy, and join the community!

About

Italic Type

Organize your reading life with this book tracker. Import data, manage your reading queue, and take private notes on books, quotes, and new words. Share recommendations and create virtual book clubs.

Highlights
  • Import Goodreads data
  • Manage reading queue
  • Add context labels
  • Private book board for notes
  • Track quotes and new words
  • Recommend books to friends
  • Create virtual book clubs
Features
Read full description

Italic Type is the simple, beautifully-designed book tracker loved by avid readers and authors. Easily import your Goodreads data. Email us to help with a custom spread sheet. Add books you want to read to your queue. Add a context label to remember why you want to read it or who recommended it. Keep track of your reading and take notes in your own private book board. Keep track of quotes you love, new words you find, or add links for the things you look up. Recommend books to friends and start pop up virtual book clubs. Review books with keywords and expressions to capture what you thought. https://www.italictype.com/privacy/ https://www.italictype.com/terms/

Screenshots

Bookworm Reads4 screens
Italic Type4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Italic Type at none against Bookworm Reads's 2. Italic Type also leads on review sentiment (86% vs 77%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). Bookworm Reads's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (1.1K vs 30). On price, rating, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Bookworm Reads sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Italic Type asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Bookworm Reads against 4.8 for Italic Type. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookworm Reads has 1.1K ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of Bookworm Reads's written reviews are positive against 86% of Italic Type's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookworm Reads ships an update every 3 weeks, Italic Type every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Bookworm Reads versus Italic Type: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookworm ReadsItalic Type
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1.1K ratings) — better4.8 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews77.3% of reviews86.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.1K — better30
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.113.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB12 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperBookworm Reads CLUBItalic Type LLC

Customer experience

Bookworm Reads

All ratings1,061 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.6%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews88 reviews
Positive77.3%
Neutral9.1%
Negative13.6%

Italic Type

All ratings30 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive86.4%
Neutral13.6%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Bookworm Reads

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Inability to permanently delete user profiles
  • Signup process issues with 'Accept' button not working
  • Inconsistent display of book covers and information
  • Frequent crashes and app freezes
  • Syncing issues with imported book data

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to track reading progress
  • Improve accessibility for visually impaired users
  • Introduce more customization options for user profiles
  • Expand search capabilities to include more book details
  • Integrate with other popular book platforms

Italic Type

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bookworm Reads

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly subscription14 Days trial$49.991 Year
None

Italic Type

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bookworm Reads free?
Bookworm Reads is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Italic Type free?
Italic Type is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bookworm Reads or Italic Type?
Bookworm Reads is rated higher. Bookworm Reads averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Italic Type averages 4.8 from 30 ratings.
Do Bookworm Reads or Italic Type have ads?
Neither Bookworm Reads nor Italic Type shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bookworm Reads or Italic Type?
Bookworm Reads ships an update every 3 weeks, and Italic Type every 3 months. Most recently, Bookworm Reads was updated on October 16, 2026 and Italic Type on October 15, 2026.

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