Comparison

My Book List vs Ex Libris Lookup

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

Head to head
About

My Book List

Effortlessly catalog your personal book collection with this library organizer. Easily add books by scanning barcodes or searching online, and view your library with customizable sorting and filters. Keep track of reading status, ratings, and notes for each title.

Highlights
  • ISBN barcode scanning
  • Online book search
  • Customizable library views
  • Read status and ratings
  • Multi-device syncing
  • Import/export library data
Features
Read full description

Catalog your entire home library in an afternoon. Snap a photo of any shelf and the AI adds every title. No typing, no spreadsheets, no scattered notes. Trusted by 600+ readers and rated 4.1 stars on the App Store since 2011. • Catalog a 200-book shelf in five minutes. Point your camera. AI reads the spines and adds the books. • Add a single book in seconds by scanning the barcode on the back cover. • Bring your Kindle library across in one tap. No CSV juggling. • Find anything in plain English. "That biography about the architect" works. • AI sorts your shelves by genre, mood, and theme so you stop tagging by hand. • Read on iPhone, edit on iPad, look something up offline at the bookstore. Sync handles the rest. How it works: 1. Point your camera at a shelf and let AI populate your library. 2. Sort, tag, and mark books as Read, Reading, or To Read. 3. Pick up on any device. Share with friends, join a club, ask for a recommendation when you want one. Coming from another app or a spreadsheet? Import CSV, TSV, JSON, XLSX, BibTeX, or RIS files. Field mapping is built in. Real review: "I had a bunch of books I needed to inventory and the barcode scanner made it incredibly easy. Great app." BuckeyeCityCates, App Store review, 2024 Free to start with twenty books and three barcode scans. Open the app and add your first shelf. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions in your Account Settings on the App Store after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when purchasing a subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://BigBalli.com/privacy

About

Ex Libris Lookup

Features
Read full description

Ex Libris Lookup — Know your books. Own your library. Ex Libris Lookup is a fast, private reference tool for readers, students, and librarians. Find the identifiers and details behind any book, build a personal library, and track your reading — all without accounts, ads, or tracking. Find any book Search by title, author, keyword, or ISBN and instantly pull the details you need. Or scan a book's ISBN barcode with your camera to search without typing a single character. Library identifiers at your fingertips Look up Dewey Decimal (DDC), ISBN, LCCN, ISSN, and ASIN numbers for cataloging, citations, and reference. Tap to copy any identifier in a moment. Your own library, on your device Save books to a personal library that lives entirely on your device — no cloud, no sign-in. Organize titles onto shelves, add books in bulk, and keep everything at hand offline. Scan whole shelves with AI (Pro) Point your camera at a bookshelf and let AI read the spines — add dozens of books to your library in one shot, no typing required. Smart collections (Pro) Build collections that organize themselves. Set rules — reading status, rating, format, Dewey class, subject, author, or tag — and books file themselves in automatically as your library changes. Shelf reports (Pro) Get an AI-crafted portrait of your library: its personality, highlights, and tailored suggestions for what to add next. Track loans and locations Lend a book without losing it. Record who borrowed what, set return reminders, and map your library's physical locations, room by room and shelf by shelf. Smart entry Adding books by hand is effortless. As you type, Ex Libris Lookup suggests authors and series drawn from your own saved library, so your catalog stays consistent and quick to build. Track your reading Mark books as want-to-read, reading, read, or did-not-finish. Record your current page to watch your progress, rate finished titles, and save memorable quotes and notes. Smart tags & summaries On-device text analysis suggests relevant tags and concise summaries for your books — processed right on your phone, never sent anywhere. For You recommendations Discover what to read next with personalized suggestions based on the tastes reflected in your own library. Statistics dashboard See your reading come to life with reading streaks, per-month charts, and insights into your habits over time. Citations made easy Generate clean citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, or BibTeX for any book in your library — perfect for essays, papers, and bibliographies. Private by design Ex Libris Lookup collects no personal information and requires no account. Everything you save stays on your device. Book searches are sent only to open book catalogs (Open Library and Google Books) to fetch results, and Pro's AI features send only the shelf photo or book list needed to generate results — nothing is sold or shared. The app sends a small number of anonymous, device-level diagnostics (such as anonymized purchase-error reports) to help us fix problems — these contain no personal information and are never used for advertising or tracking. No ads, no third-party trackers, no accounts — ever. Book data is provided by Open Library (openlibrary.org) and Google Books. Ex Libris Lookup is not affiliated with either service. Ex Libris Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription ($4.99/month or $29.99/year). Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and the subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: available in the app under Settings → Privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

My Book List4 screens
Ex Libris Lookup4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: My Book List at every 4 days against Ex Libris Lookup's every 9 days. Ex Libris Lookup's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. My Book List sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Ex Libris Lookup sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

My Book List ships an update every 4 days, Ex Libris Lookup every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
My Book List versus Ex Libris Lookup: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMy Book ListEx Libris Lookup
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (641 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews48.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings641 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBigBalli Consulting llcGarst Peterson

Bugs and requests

My Book List

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Books disappearing from user libraries
  • Scanning and importing issues
  • Crashes and freezes when using certain features
  • Inconsistent behavior across iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to sort books by series or genre
  • Option to manually add book details
  • Offline access to book lists
  • Improved search and filtering capabilities
  • Sync across multiple devices

Ex Libris Lookup

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

14 purchases

My Book List

Subscriptions3
  • Full unlock$4.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly Offer$14.991 Year
  • Full unlock$24.991 Year
One-time11
  • extra details for all books$0.99
  • Barcode scanner$0.99
  • remote database & device sync$1.99
Show 8 more
  • CSV Import$3.99
  • Amazon Kindle eBook import$3.99
  • BibTeX and Zotero export$4.99
  • 500 Tokens$4.99
  • 1000 Tokens$9.99
  • 10000 Tokens$49.99
  • Lifetime Full Unlock$49.99
  • 20000 Tokens$79.99
2 purchases

Ex Libris Lookup

Subscriptions2
  • Ex Libris Pro Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Ex Libris Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is My Book List free?
My Book List is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ex Libris Lookup free?
Ex Libris Lookup is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do My Book List or Ex Libris Lookup have ads?
Neither My Book List nor Ex Libris Lookup shows ads.
Which is updated more often, My Book List or Ex Libris Lookup?
My Book List ships an update every 4 days, and Ex Libris Lookup every 9 days. Most recently, My Book List was updated on October 23, 2026 and Ex Libris Lookup on October 8, 2026.

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