Comparison

Hardcover.app vs Ex

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

Head to head
About

Hardcover.app

This app helps you organize and discover books. Track what you've read, create custom lists, and see what friends are reading. Set reading goals and share your thoughts on books.

Highlights
  • Track read and to-read books
  • Organize with lists and tags
  • See friends' reading activity
  • Discover trending books
  • Rate and review books
  • Set reading goals
  • Track reading statistics
Features
Read full description

Hardcover is a book tracking app with a social side, built for readers, not algorithms. Add books you’ve read or want to read. Keep your library tidy with lists and tags. See what your friends are reading, explore trending picks, and discover hidden gems through curated lists. Rate, review, and share your thoughts. Make your profile public, private, or friends-only—your reading, your rules. Set goals, track your stats, and find your reading rhythm. We use Apple's standard Terms of Service (EULA). https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Ex

Catalog your personal book collection, track where each book is, and manage loans to friends. Organize your library with custom shelves and discover what your community is reading.

Highlights
  • Scan and catalog books
  • Organize books on custom shelves
  • AI-powered shelf arrangement suggestions
  • Search personal and community libraries
  • Manage book lending and borrowing
  • Create custom book lists
  • Connect with friends and share collections
Features
Read full description

Your books, and the ones going around. Ex-libris is the app for your own library: what you own, where it sits, and whose hands it is in. Not a reading list — an inventory of the books actually on your shelves. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY, ONE SHELF AT A TIME Open the scanner and walk along your shelves: the camera stays up, each barcode brings the book onto the screen, one tap files it, and the next one is already waiting. A book you have scanned before says so, so a second pass never creates duplicates. You can also search for a title and add it by hand. SHELVE THEM THE WAY THEY SIT AT HOME Create shelves and drag your books onto them, on a screen built for it: your shelves on one side, the books still to file on the other, and nothing written until you confirm. If you do not know where to start, "Suggest an arrangement" uses the AI built into your iPhone to propose shelves sized to your collection. You keep the last word: the proposal touches nothing before you accept it, and never disturbs what you arranged by hand. ONE SEARCH One field, three answers: your books, your friends' books, and the inventaire.io catalogue. Your own results first, your recent searches at hand, and the option to search by title or by author. LISTS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE To read, to give away, summer crime novels, the pile by the bed: create as many lists as you like, from a book or from the Lists tab. LEND, GIVE, SELL Mark a book as available to lend, to give away or to sell, and follow each transaction with the person concerned, messages included. You finally know who has your copy — and since when. THE COMMUNITY Find your friends, browse their shelves, see what they are willing to lend, and ask them for a book instead of buying it. BUILT ON INVENTAIRE.IO Ex-libris runs on inventaire.io, the open, non-profit book database: your account and your books are hosted there, author, work and edition pages come from its open data, and what you add benefits everyone. No ads, no data resale. Happy reading — and happy lending.

Screenshots

Hardcover.app4 screens
Ex3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Ex at 100% against Hardcover.app's 52%. Ex also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Hardcover.app's advantage is ratings volume (66 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ex holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hardcover.app has 66 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Hardcover.app's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ex's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hardcover.app ships an update every 6 months, Ex every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Hardcover.app versus Ex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHardcover.appEx
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (66 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews52.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings66 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB17 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperHardcover LLCLunabee Studio

Customer experience

Hardcover.app

All ratings66 ratings
Positive72.7%
Neutral15.2%
Negative12.1%
Written reviews46 reviews
Positive52.2%
Neutral21.7%
Negative26.1%

Ex

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Hardcover.app

Subscriptions2
  • Supporter - Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Supporter - Yearly$49.991 Year
None

Ex

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hardcover.app free?
Hardcover.app is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ex free?
Ex is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hardcover.app or Ex?
Ex is rated higher. Hardcover.app averages 4.2 out of 5 from 66 ratings, while Ex averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Hardcover.app or Ex have ads?
Neither Hardcover.app nor Ex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hardcover.app or Ex?
Hardcover.app ships an update every 6 months, and Ex every 4 days. Most recently, Hardcover.app was updated on October 19, 2026 and Ex on October 11, 2026.

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