Comparison

Bookshelf vs BookJournal

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

BookJournal

Features
Read full description

BookJournal is your personal reading journal – for every book you've read, are reading right now, or want to read next. Unlimited books, no paywall. Your library is stored safely with your account and stays up to date on all your devices. YOUR LIBRARY • Add books by search, ISBN scan, or manually – with cover • Custom shelves with color and icon • Book series with volume numbers • Wishlist for books you still want to read • Import from Goodreads and other apps via CSV READING • Reading sessions with a timer – log the pages you've read • Reading goals for the year, month, and week • Reading streak: keep it going every day • Daily reading reminder • Statistics on books, pages, and reading time CAPTURE YOUR THOUGHTS • A journal for every book – with notes and photos • Diary for your mood and personal thoughts • Quote collection and quote of the day • Star ratings with a comment HANDY EXTRAS • Home screen widget • Siri Shortcuts • Dark mode and a choice of app icons • Trends: discover bestsellers and popular books BookJournal is for everyone who wants to keep track of their reading life in a simple, clear way – a reading journal that grows with you.

Screenshots

Bookshelf4 screens
BookJournal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BookJournal at none against Bookshelf's 4. Bookshelf's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 18.5). On price, update cadence 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 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. BookJournal asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, BookJournal weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Bookshelf versus BookJournal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookshelfBookJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (39 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews87.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings39 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.5 — better18.5
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTiago AlmeidaGarip Koeyluece

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Bookshelf

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Features$2.991 Month
  • Premium Features$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime (promo)$99.99
  • Lifetime$199.99
None

BookJournal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bookshelf free?
Bookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BookJournal free?
BookJournal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Bookshelf or BookJournal have ads?
BookJournal shows ads; Bookshelf does not.
Which is updated more often, Bookshelf or BookJournal?
Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, and BookJournal weekly. Most recently, Bookshelf was updated on November 8, 2026 and BookJournal on November 9, 2026.

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