Comparison

Now Reading vs Bookshelf

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

Head to head
About

Now Reading

Log books you are currently reading, have finished, or want to read. Display original or custom book covers and share your reading progress with friends through widgets or by swiping through your logged books.

Highlights
  • Track current reads
  • Archive finished books
  • Manage wishlist
  • Display book covers
  • Share reading progress
  • Widget support
Features
Read full description

Introducing Now Reading - a simple yet crafted book journal app. You can add what you're reading, archive what you already have read, and books you'd like to read in the future. This app displays the original book cover (direct attachment needed) or with the custom designed beautiful original book covers. Share what you read with your friends by swiping through books you logged or through the widget.

About

Bookshelf

Organize your entire reading life, tracking physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Set reading goals, log sessions, save quotes, and visualize your progress with detailed statistics and a reading habits heat map. Discover new books and connect with friends.

Highlights
  • Smart book organization with custom shelves
  • Reading timer and session tracking
  • Save quotes and notes with OCR
  • Flexible reading goals and progress tracking
  • Detailed statistics and insights
  • Reading habits heat map
  • Monthly and yearly recaps
  • Purchase and borrowing logs
Features
Read full description

The best reading tracker for physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Whether you're managing your TBR pile, tracking a BookTok recommendation, or building a reading habit - Bookshelf is the book journal, reading log, and library organizer you've been looking for. Switching from Goodreads or StoryGraph? Import your entire library in minutes. SMART BOOK ORGANIZATION Organize your books into Reading, To Read, Wishlist, Finished, and Abandoned shelves - or create unlimited custom shelves with your own icons and colors. Drag and drop books between shelves. Tag books with custom color-coded labels for easy filtering. Sort by title, author, rating, date added, start date, finish date, last read, pages, publication date, and more. Track series, editions, and co-authors. Add books by searching or by scanning ISBN barcodes - even in bulk scan mode. MULTIPLE VIEWS, YOUR WAY See your library the way you love it: a cozy 3D bookcase view, a flexible grid with adjustable cover size and spacing, or a detailed list. Customize progress indicators, goal badges, and shelf appearance down to the smallest detail. READING TIMER & SESSION TRACKING Start the built-in reading timer whenever you pick up a book. Use the stopwatch for open-ended sessions or set a countdown alarm for timed reading. Log pages read, reading percentage, and session duration. Track audiobooks with chapter-level, minute-precise listening sessions. Re-reading a favorite? Track multiple readings per book. Quick-start a session right from your home screen widget. QUOTES, NOTES & REVIEWS Save your favorite quotes by typing or scanning straight from the page with OCR text recognition. Attach photos to your notes for a richer book journal. Write reviews and rate every book you finish. FLEXIBLE READING GOALS Set goals for pages, reading time, or number of books across any date range - daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or anything in between. Pin your most important goals, show visual badges on book covers, and celebrate completions with animated confetti. DEEP STATS & INSIGHTS Explore your reading like never before: reading pace and velocity, rating trends, abandoned-book rate, genre and author distribution charts, a reading-pattern clock showing when you read best, milestones, history, and year-over-year comparisons. Unlock tiered achievements as your library grows. MONTHLY & YEARLY RECAPS Beautiful monthly summaries and full yearly recaps - your longest and shortest books, five-star reads, first and last finishes, top quotes, genre breakdowns, streaks, and month-by-month highlights. Like Spotify Wrapped, but for your reading life. Export and share as an image or PDF. PURCHASE LOGS Track purchases, borrowed books, and lending history. Set return-date reminders so you never forget to return - or get back - a book. Log price, location, and personal notes. READING FEED Follow friends and explore their shelves, reviews, and stats. Stay inspired with a feed of reading activity from people you follow and the global community. Control exactly what's visible on your public profile. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Keep your reading front and center with customizable home screen widgets for your current reads and reading timer. 18 STUNNING THEMES Choose from themes like Nordic, Forest, Cyberpunk, Lavender, Pink, and more - each in light and dark. Decorate your shelves with 50+ adorable book nooks across 11 categories. Personalize shelf size, spacing, progress indicators, and your profile widget layout. EASY IMPORT Import from Goodreads or StoryGraph with a CSV file, or scan your physical books with the built-in barcode scanner. Sync your reading across devices, with Kobo e-reader sync supported. Build your shelves. Set your goals. Track your reading streak. Fall in love with reading again. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Now Reading4 screens
Bookshelf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Now Reading at none against Bookshelf's 6. Now Reading also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and review sentiment (100% vs 88%). Bookshelf's advantage is ratings volume (27 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.5). On price, update cadence, 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. Bookshelf sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Now Reading asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Now Reading holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookshelf has 27 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Now Reading's written reviews are positive against 88% of Bookshelf's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Now Reading ships an update weekly, Bookshelf every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Now Reading versus Bookshelf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNow ReadingBookshelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.8 (27 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings227 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.515.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB171 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMinsang choiTiago Almeida

Customer experience

Now Reading

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bookshelf

All ratings27 ratings
Positive96.3%
Neutral3.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Now Reading

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Bookshelf

Subscriptions4
  • Premium Features$2.491 Month
  • Premium Features$2.991 Month
  • Premium Features$22.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Premium Features$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime (promo)$99.99
  • Lifetime$199.99

Questions

Is Now Reading free?
Now Reading is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bookshelf free?
Bookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Now Reading or Bookshelf?
Now Reading is rated higher. Now Reading averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Bookshelf averages 4.8 from 27 ratings.
Do Now Reading or Bookshelf have ads?
Neither Now Reading nor Bookshelf shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Now Reading or Bookshelf?
Now Reading ships an update weekly, and Bookshelf every 2 weeks. Most recently, Now Reading was updated on October 8, 2026 and Bookshelf on October 5, 2026.

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