Page Turner vs The Shelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Page Turner
Discover your next favorite book through recommendations from your friends. This social reading app lets you track your reading progress, share updates in a familiar feed, and engage in conversations about books.
- Social feed for books
- Follow friends and see reading updates
- Tag books and comment on reviews
- Track reading progress and custom lists
- Join reading challenges and set goals
- Direct messaging for book recommendations
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Tired of random book recommendations that don’t fit you? Page Turner is a social reading app that helps you discover your next favorite book through your friends. It’s the fun way to track your reading and get spot-on suggestions from people you trust. • Social by Design: Enjoy a familiar, Instagram-style feed for books. Follow friends, share updates, and see what everyone’s reading. You can even @mention friends in posts and comment on their reviews – it’s like your favorite social app, but all about books! • Tag & Connect: Start real conversations about books. Tag books in your posts to show what you’re reading, and message your friends directly when you find something they’d love. Page Turner makes it easy to swap recommendations and keep the book chat going. • Track Your Reading: Easily organize every book you read (or want to read). Create custom lists for Currently Reading, Want to Read, Finished, or even Did Not Finish. Update your progress, add personal notes or tags, and reorder your TBR list anytime – you’re in control of your library. • Join Challenges: Stay motivated with reading goals and challenges. Set a yearly reading goal (52 books in a year? Go for it!) and celebrate milestones along the way. No algorithms here – just genuine book recommendations. Find your next great read, recommended by your favorite people. Page Turner turns your TBR into a shared adventure with friends. Download now and start a new chapter in your reading life!
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: Page Turner at Free against The Shelf's $4.99. Page Turner also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). The Shelf's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On review sentiment, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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
Page Turner is free to download; The Shelf costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
The Shelf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Page Turner ships an update fortnightly, The Shelf every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Page Turner | The Shelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 89 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Good Problem, LLC | Antonio Gordillo Toledo |
Customer experience
Page Turner
The Shelf
In-app purchases
Page Turner
No in-app purchases
The Shelf
No in-app purchases









