Comparison

Monocle vs Dewey

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

Head to head
About

Monocle

Features
Read full description

Read Together, Think Deeper. Monocle brings curious readers into one vibrant space to highlight, discuss, and discover books in new ways. What You Can Do 1. Share Highlights & Notes • Mark any passage and add text, images, or GIFs. Make your note public for conversation or keep it private for later. 2. Create Snippets (Book Stories) • Capture a quote, layer on visuals or doodles, and publish a story-style post that sparks instant engagement. 3. Ask Beacon (AI Companion) • Unsure about a theme, reference, or character arc? Want to learn more about a particular topic? Beacon answers context-aware questions right inside the book. 4. Discover New Reads • Follow readers you admire, browse trending notes, and get smart recommendations based on the ideas you love. Reading is richer when it’s social. Download Monocle and bring your books to life—one highlight, question, and conversation at a time. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Dewey

Engage in deep conversations about any book with AI personas, digitize your notes and highlights from physical pages, and build lasting reading habits. Discover your reading identity and map your literary tastes.

Highlights
  • AI-powered book discussions
  • Digitize physical book notes
  • Memory retention lessons
  • Reading habit tracking
  • Reading taste mapping
  • Discover reading identity
Features
Read full description

Dewey is the reading companion for people who want more from every book: a real conversation, a home to document what mattered, and the tools to actually remember it. TALK THROUGH ANY BOOK Ever finish a book and wish you had someone to think it through with? Choose a persona: a Literary Critic, a Professor, a well-read Friend, or the Editor (The Writing Room) and discuss any book in your library. Ask about themes and characters, push back on an argument, or take a finished book apart to see how it was built. Every conversation is shaped by the exact book you're reading and designed to fo deep on whatever sticks out to you! Beware the virtual author might disagree with you! SNAP A PHOTO-CAPTURE EVERYTHING Photograph a page and Dewey pulls your highlights and handwritten notes into clean, editable text. Save quotes and add reflections chapter by chapter. Your best thinking for all of your books for the first ever lives in one Notebook. Dewey is built to be an additive tool, we still expect you to still highlight and write margin notes in your physical book, we just centralize your ideas so they're accessible at any time. REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ You're not alone- so many times we often find ourselves saying "I can't remember anything of what I read" with most books fading within days of finishing it. Dewey's daily memory lessons teach the science of retention (i.e. the forgetting curve, spaced repetition, active recall etc.) so what you read actually sticks. MAP YOUR TASTE Rate every finished book by craft and impact and watch your whole library arrange itself on your Reading Map. BUILD A READING HABIT Track a daily reading streak, log the days you read on a calendar, and watch your year add up and see how many books you finished, pages read, genres explored etc.. DISCOVER YOUR READING IDENTITY Your habits reveal more than you think. See your Reading DNA, the themes you return to, your reading personality etc. all drawn from the books you read and the notes you take. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Monocle4 screens
Dewey4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Monocle at 3 against Dewey's 1. Monocle also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Monocle sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Dewey sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Monocle against 5.0 for Dewey. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Monocle versus Dewey: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMonocleDewey
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size119 MB61 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperMonocle Group Inc.Glenn Harris

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Monocle

Subscriptions2
  • Monocle AI$3.991 Month
  • Monocle AI$35.991 Year
2 purchases

Dewey

Subscriptions2
  • Dewey Premium Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Dewey Premium Annual$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Monocle free?
Monocle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dewey free?
Dewey is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Monocle or Dewey?
Monocle and Dewey are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Monocle or Dewey have ads?
Neither Monocle nor Dewey shows ads.

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