Comparison

Bookshelf vs Books Tracker

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

Books Tracker

Organize your personal library across devices with automatic syncing. Add books manually, by search, or by scanning barcodes. Track reading progress, manage collections, and customize the app's appearance.

Highlights
  • Cross-device syncing via Google Drive
  • Add books by manual entry, search, or barcode scan
  • Track reading status and time spent
  • Organize books into collections and series
  • Customizable themes and display modes
  • Import and export library data
Features
Read full description

Books Tracker keeps your personal library organized, beautiful, and always in sync across your devices. No account required. No subscription. Just your books. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Connect via Google Drive and your entire library stays up to date on every phone or tablet you own. Changes sync automatically in the background — add a book on one device, find it on the other. Your data is stored in a private app-only folder: no one else can see it, not even in your Drive. YOUR WHOLE LIBRARY Add books manually, search online by title, author or ISBN, or scan a barcode with your camera. Every book can carry a cover, rating, reading status, notes, genre, publisher, page count, series info, and more. TRACK YOUR READING Three reading states: To Read, Reading, and Read. Reading start and end dates are recorded automatically. See how long it took you to finish a book — hours, days, weeks, or months. COLLECTIONS & SERIES Organize your books into as many collections as you like. Number them, detect missing entries, manage your wishlist. Group books into series and browse all volumes in one place. READING STACK Your personal "to read next" list. Reorder by drag and drop, move books up or down, and always know what's coming next. FIND ANYTHING FAST Real-time search by title or author. Filter by rating or reading status. Switch between list, compact, and grid view. Everything persists across restarts. MAKE IT YOURS 12 color themes, two header styles (Bold or Subtle), and full light/dark/system mode support. The entire app adapts instantly — colors, gradients, cards, everything. IMPORT & EXPORT Back up your library or move it to another app with CSV export. Import from a file with a full preview before committing — choose how to handle conflicts book by book. No ads. No tracking. No subscription. Books Tracker is built and maintained by a solo developer who loves books.

Screenshots

Bookshelf4 screens
Books Tracker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Bookshelf at none against Books Tracker's shown. Books Tracker's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 88%). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 and Books Tracker sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, Books Tracker every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Bookshelf versus Books Tracker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookshelfBooks Tracker
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (27 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews87.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings27 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.5 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTiago AlmeidaJonathan ANTOINE

Customer experience

Bookshelf

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

Books Tracker

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
2 purchases

Books Tracker

One-time2
  • Thank you$2.99
  • Bigger thank you$8.99

Questions

Is Bookshelf free?
Bookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Books Tracker free?
Books Tracker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bookshelf or Books Tracker have ads?
Books Tracker shows ads; Bookshelf does not.
Which is updated more often, Bookshelf or Books Tracker?
Bookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, and Books Tracker every 10 days. Most recently, Bookshelf was updated on October 5, 2026 and Books Tracker on October 13, 2026.

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