Comparison

Bookshelf vs Shelfable

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

Head to head
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/

About

Shelfable

Effortlessly manage your book collection with barcode scanning and smart organization. Track reading progress and access detailed book information to find your next read faster.

Highlights
  • Barcode scanning for instant cataloging
  • Custom organization by room and shelf
  • Reading progress tracking
  • Access book metadata
  • Handles large collections
Read full description

Say goodbye to the endless search for that one book and hello to a perfectly organised library. Shelfable makes it easy (and even fun) to keep track of your books. Especially when your collection is bigger than your bookshelf. WHY SHELFABLE Because “I know it’s here somewhere” isn’t a strategy. With barcode scanning and smart organisation, Shelfable helps you scan, sort, and find your books faster than you can say, “Where did I put that?” Whether you organize by room, bookshelf, or individual shelf, your books will always be exactly where you need them. FEATURES • Barcode scanning magic. Scan a book’s barcode, and Shelfable does the rest. It instantly catalogs the book with all the key details. • Custom organisation. Sort your books into rooms, bookshelves, and individual shelves. • Track your reading progress. Mark books as unread, to be read or completed. • Book metadata. Instantly access details like publication date, genre, and more, making it easier to find your next great read. • Built for big collections. Whether you have a couple of shelves or an entire home library, Shelfable handles collections of all sizes. DISCOVER, TRACK, ORGANISE Your library deserves to be as smart as you are. With Shelfable, you’ll spend less time searching and more time reading. Start organising today—and read happily ever after!

Screenshots

Bookshelf4 screens
Shelfable4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Bookshelf at 88% against Shelfable's 0%. Bookshelf also leads on rating (4.8 vs 1.0) and ratings volume (27 vs 1). Shelfable's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). On price 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. Bookshelf sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Shelfable asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bookshelf holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookshelf has 27 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Bookshelf's written reviews are positive against 0% of Shelfable's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, Shelfable every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Bookshelf versus Shelfable: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookshelfShelfable
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (27 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews87.5% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings27 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.5 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTiago AlmeidaFrederick Andersen

Customer experience

Bookshelf

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

Shelfable

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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
None

Shelfable

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bookshelf free?
Bookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Shelfable free?
Shelfable is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bookshelf or Shelfable?
Bookshelf is rated higher. Bookshelf averages 4.8 out of 5 from 27 ratings, while Shelfable averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Bookshelf or Shelfable have ads?
Neither Bookshelf nor Shelfable shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bookshelf or Shelfable?
Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, and Shelfable every 5 days. Most recently, Bookshelf was updated on October 5, 2026 and Shelfable on September 24, 2026.

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