Comparison

bambü vs BookPine

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

Head to head
About

bambü

This app helps book lovers discover new titles, manage their reading lists, and track progress. It provides detailed book information, allows for easy organization, and ranks books based on ratings and reading time.

Highlights
  • Book discovery
  • Reading list tracking
  • Progress management
  • Book ranking algorithm
  • Detailed book information
  • Library organization
Features
Read full description

Welcome to bambü, the ultimate app for book lovers! bambü helps you discover, track, and manage your reading list effortlessly. With a sleek and intuitive design, bambü makes it easy to: Discover: Search for books and view detailed information, including ratings from Amazon and Goodreads. Track: Add books to your reading list and keep track of your progress. Rank: Use our unique algorithm to rank books based on ratings and estimated reading time. Manage: Organize your library with ease and never lose track of a book again. Whether you're an avid reader or just getting started, bambü is the perfect companion for your reading journey. Download now and start exploring the world of books like never before!

About

BookPine

Track your reading journey with detailed stats, custom lists, and reading goals. Easily import your library from other platforms and discover ambient sounds for focused reading. Share your progress and connect with a community of book lovers.

Highlights
  • Detailed reading stats and insights
  • Custom lists and shelves for organization
  • Personalized reading goals and challenges
  • Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
  • Ambient sounds for focused reading
  • Social features to follow friends and share reviews
  • Transaction log for borrowed, lent, or purchased books
Read full description

BookPine is a book tracker for readers who like to keep a record of what they read. Log your books, set goals that fit your life, and see real stats about your reading habits. Note: BookPine is not an e-reader, so you can’t read books inside the app. READING CIRCLES Read a book together with friends or other readers. Start a circle from any book, make it public or private, and choose how long it runs. Members write posts, comment, vote in polls and log their progress as they go. You can hide a post until readers reach a certain point in the book, or until they finish it, so nobody gets spoiled. SERIES TRACKING BookPine builds your series list from the books on your shelves. Each series shows its books in order, how many you've read, and which one comes next. Reading a series in another language? Set the language for that series and your progress only counts the books published in it. You can also mark a series as paused or abandoned. CUSTOM COVERS Don't like the cover on your edition? Change it. Pick one from another edition, upload your own image, or grab one from any web page. Only you see your custom cover, and it shows up everywhere you see that book in the app. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Keep your books on your home screen. Pick a grid of covers, a shelf of spines lined up like a real bookshelf, or the book you are reading now with your progress on it. Choose which shelf each widget shows, how it is sorted and which colors it uses. From the Currently Reading widget you can start the reading timer or update your progress. CUSTOM GENRES AND TAGS Sort your library with your own genres and tags: comfort read, slow burn, signed copy, book club, five-star prediction, whatever fits how you read. They are private to you, and you can filter your whole library by them, so any book is easy to find again. READING STATS AND INSIGHTS Track pages, finished books and reading time, with charts for your streak, monthly progress and yearly trends. It's an easy way to see how much you read and what you actually finish. BOOK TRACKER, LISTS AND SHELVES Shelve books as Currently Reading, Want to Read, Read or Did Not Finish. Rate with half stars, write reviews, and make your own shelves and lists. Add a book in seconds by scanning its barcode or searching by title, author or ISBN. READING GOALS AND CHALLENGES Set yearly, monthly or custom goals by books, pages, minutes or authors. Streaks and milestones help you keep the habit going. IMPORT FROM GOODREADS, STORYGRAPH AND LIBRARYTHING Import your books, ratings, reviews and shelves in one go, so your reading history comes with you. TRY IT AS A GUEST Open the app and start tracking without an email address. Create an account later if you want to keep going. AMBIENT SOUNDS Play rain, a crackling fireplace, cafe noise and more while you read. SOCIAL Follow friends, share reviews and see what other people are reading, along with their goals, shelves and wishlists. SHAREABLE BOOK CARDS Turn your current read, a favorite quote, a review or a reading milestone into an image you can post or send to friends. TRANSACTION LOG Keep track of the books you borrow, lend, buy or give away. PRIVATE BOOKS Some reads are just for you. Private books never appear on your public profile. ALSO INCLUDED • Dark mode, plus dark gray, high contrast, true black and sepia themes • Available in 16 languages • Half-star ratings and tags for more detailed reviews Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

bambü3 screens
BookPine4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: bambü at none against BookPine's 2. bambü also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). BookPine's advantage is ratings volume (83 vs 1). On price, 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. BookPine sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. bambü asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

bambü holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BookPine has 83 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

bambü ships an update every 2 days, BookPine weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
bambü versus BookPine: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterbambüBookPine
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.8 (83 ratings)
Positive reviews—25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings183 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.4 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB101 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperBryan MayDevpri SRL

Customer experience

bambü

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

BookPine

All ratings74 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative62.5%

In-app purchases

None

bambü

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

BookPine

Subscriptions2
  • BookPine Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • BookPine Pro7 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is bambü free?
bambü is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BookPine free?
BookPine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, bambü or BookPine?
bambü is rated higher. bambü averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while BookPine averages 4.8 from 83 ratings.
Do bambü or BookPine have ads?
Neither bambü nor BookPine shows ads.
Which is updated more often, bambü or BookPine?
bambü ships an update every 2 days, and BookPine weekly. Most recently, bambü was updated on November 4, 2026 and BookPine on November 8, 2026.

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