BKLYN Library vs NeighborBook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BKLYN Library
Access and manage your library account from your mobile device. Browse physical and digital collections, manage checkouts and holds, and utilize mobile checkout features. The app also supports managing multiple library cards.
- Browse physical and digital collections
- Manage checkouts and holds
- Mobile checkout
- Manage multiple library cards
- Create booklists
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-Browse the library's physical and digital collection -Manage your checkouts, holds, and booklists. -Mobile checkout -Manage multiple library cards
NeighborBook
Connect with neighbors to share and borrow books. List your own books, discover what's nearby, and arrange in-person trades using a credit system. Find or create local book clubs and build community through reading.
- List personal book collections
- Discover books from nearby users
- In-person book trading
- Community credit system for exchanges
- Find and create local book clubs
- Identity verification for messaging
- Wanted list for specific books
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You like books. Your neighbors have good books. NeighborBook is how you connect. List the books you'd gift to a friend. Your neighbors do the same. When you find something you want, message the owner, meet at a cafe or park nearby, and trade it in person. Most Americans can't name five people on their block, and a book is a low-stakes reason to start fixing that. HOW IT WORKS 1. Add your books to the app: Scan a barcode, or photograph a whole shelf and let NeighborBook read the spines. 2. Look around: Swipe through books from readers nearby, or explore the map. 3. Ask for a book: Request it to chat with the owner. Credits keep things even: start with three, lend one to earn one, spend one to borrow. 4. Meet and hand it over: Pick a public spot you like. A QR scan confirms the handoff, and the return if the owner wants it back. Every swap puts two readers in the same place at the same time, which almost nothing else on your phone does. AN ECONOMY OF GENEROSITY Community Credits exist so books keep circulating instead of pooling on one shelf. No money moves through the app and nothing is for sale. You give a book to get a book. When an owner wants a book back, loans run about three months and you can extend or gift it. Returns run on goodwill, not penalties — how it works when you lend a book to a friend. FIND YOUR PEOPLE, AND YOUR BOOK CLUB Real clubs at real places, browsable as a list, on the map, or by the night they meet. The club reading translated fiction on Wednesdays and the one arguing about biographies over beers are not the same club, and you already know which is yours. When a club finishes a book, members can list their copies so the book moves on instead of gathering dust. BRING YOUR FRIENDS NeighborBook grows in clusters. One reader is a listing; a dozen on the same few streets is a neighborhood library, and everything improves together. More books in range, more clubs, more reasons to meet a new friend. So the most useful thing you can do is tell people: the building group chat, your club, the regulars at your coffee shop. For a limited time, if you're bringing NeighborBook to your community, we'll mail you a welcome packet: bookmarks, stickers, and while they last, a free book to pass along. Ask The Librarian in the app. We're also building partnerships with independent bookstores, coffee shops, and local clubs to keep privately-owned books in circulation and support local business at the same time. A FEW MORE THINGS • Keep a Wanted list — we tell you when a copy turns up in range, once a day at most, never a stream of alerts • Everyone passes an identity check (a quick selfie, run by our partner Persona) before they can message you or ask for a book. Browse first if you like; names and faces stay hidden both ways until you verify • Your address is never shared. Neighbors see an approximate distance, and you pick where you'll meet • Search by title, author, or genre; save books for later • Invite a neighbor, earn a credit when they join WHY WE BUILT IT Two friends in Los Angeles started NeighborBook in 2025 to share books with the people around them — friends down the block, and the stranger reading outside the coffee shop. Only about a quarter of Americans know most of their neighbors, and knowing six of them makes you far less likely to feel lonely. A shared book is a small argument that we have more in common than the feed suggests. It's for fast readers who need to find their next book, anyone thinning an overloaded shelf, families passing along kids' books and textbooks, people hunting a book club that fits them, and anyone who'd rather borrow than buy. Free, no slop, forever.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: NeighborBook at 5.0 against BKLYN Library's 4.2. NeighborBook also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 61%) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 5 months). BKLYN Library's advantage is ratings volume (104 vs 5) and chart position (#208 vs unranked). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
NeighborBook holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BKLYN Library has 104 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of BKLYN Library's written reviews are positive against 100% of NeighborBook's.
BKLYN Library ships an update every 5 months, NeighborBook every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BKLYN Library | NeighborBook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (104 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 61.4% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 104 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #208 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.5 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Brooklyn Public Library | Avery Gonzales |
Customer experience
BKLYN Library
NeighborBook
Bugs and requests
BKLYN Library
Reported bugs
13 issues- App broken, page blank, books overdue
- App stops working after a while, needs re-download
- Mobile checkout involves buffering
- Constantly signing out, need to re-enter details
- Added accounts disappear after re-login
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- App doesn't load, says not connected to internet
- App stuck on blank screen, no sign-in option
- Books disappear under Checkouts and Holds
- App is super slow and glitchy
- App doesn't load, gets stuck, can't change accounts
- App stops working after a few days, kicks user off
- Cannot get app to work on library WiFi
- Age restricted to 17+
Requested features
4 requests- Bring back location finder with hours
- Keep users logged in
- Improve branch hours/closures display
- Allow offline access to library card
NeighborBook
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BKLYN Library
No in-app purchases
NeighborBook
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is BKLYN Library free?
Is NeighborBook free?
Which has better reviews, BKLYN Library or NeighborBook?
Do BKLYN Library or NeighborBook have ads?
Which is updated more often, BKLYN Library or NeighborBook?
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