Comparison

Margins vs Readerly

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

Head to head
About

Margins

This app helps you discover, track, and share your reading journey. It offers detailed tracking options, customizable features, and powerful search capabilities. Stay focused on your reading goals with built-in tools to minimize distractions.

Highlights
  • Half-star ratings
  • Track recommendations
  • Customizable book covers
  • Fuzzy date tracking
  • Advanced book search
  • Reading goals
  • Reading timer
  • Distraction blocking
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Margins is a beautifully designed app for people who love books. - App of the Day in 20+ countries - 4.9 rating (40,000+ reviews) - Featured in USA Today, BookRiot, and more TRACK YOUR READING - Log books, series, authors, recommendations, and more - Track Strava-style goals, stats, and streaks - Curate lists of books you care about SEARCH BOOKS BY VIBES - Search books by mood, plot, setting, vibe, and more - Try things like “books like 1920s Paris,” “thriller with a love triangle,” or “indie romantasy” - You can even turn images from Pinterest or your camera roll into book recommendations BLOCK DISTRACTING APPS - Block social media, notifications, and other apps while you read - Use meditation reading timer for soothing rain sounds CHOOSE YOUR COVERS - Pick the cover that matches your version of the book - Curate covers to fit your aesthetic - Sort your library by color CUSTOMIZE YOUR PROFILE - Turn your picture into a sketched portrait you’d see in a book - Show off your favorite books SEE WHAT FRIENDS ARE READING - Find and follow other book lovers - See what they’re reading in Stories - Enjoy gorgeous, hand-illustrated monthly recaps INVITE YOUR BOOK CLUB - Schedule gatherings - Suggest and vote on books - Log your club’s history LEAVE GOODREADS FOR GOOD - Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Fable - Half-star ratings - Support a small, indie team WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING “LOVE this app! so easy to import data from goodreads. it excels where others fail. like letterboxd for books. Really glad there’s finally a good book app out there, i’ve been waiting for something like this!” — scruffythejanitor01 “I love the UI of this app, easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Also, I've been struggling getting back into reading and the screentime feature has helped me loads. I haven't been able to read this much since 4 years ago. Thank you Margins” — mitakaluvr “The search by vibes is so cool. I am a WWII buff, but this search popped up a two-book WWII saga I had never even heard of, much less read. It ended up being my top read of 2025.” —Michigancolt FREE TO USE Almost all features are free to use. An optional subscription unlocks premium features and priority support. FOLLOW US Instagram: @readwithmargins TikTok: @margins TERMS OF USE Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Margins Terms of Service: https://margins.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://margins.app/privacy “Without the margins, writing is just words on a page. But with them, each of us is invited to leave our mark in the endless conversation between books and the people that love them.” — Excerpt from the Margins manifesto

About

Readerly

Track your reading habits with detailed statistics and insights. Log books, notes, and quotes, and visualize your reading life over time. Offers advanced analytics for a deeper understanding of your reading patterns.

Highlights
  • Detailed reading statistics
  • Log books, notes, and quotes
  • Visualize reading pace and trends
  • Private data storage on device
  • Barcode scanning for books
  • Import reading data from files
  • Shareable reading insights
Features
Read full description

You know roughly how much you read. Readerly tells you exactly. Readerly turns your reading history into a clear picture of your reading life: how your pace changes through the year, what you reach for, which authors you return to, when you read most, and how this year compares with every year before it. Save Private Notes & Quotes, too, so the parts of a book you want to remember stay with your reading life. No account. No sign-in. Your library stays on your iPhone. WHY THE NUMBERS HOLD UP A chart is only useful if the number under it is right. Audiobooks are counted in hours. Insight cards show the evidence behind what they say: how many sessions contributed, what window was measured, and whether there is enough data to support the result. If there is not, Readerly says so instead of inventing an average. Your reading data also outranks the catalog. If you are on page 628 of a book a database says has 623 pages, Readerly accepts 628 and offers to correct the book length. Reopen any reading session and change the date, pages or minutes. Start and finish dates are yours to set. Correcting your own reading history is never behind Readerly Pro. WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION • Unlimited books and reading sessions, stored on your device • Private Notes & Quotes • Haptic quarter-star ratings, so a book can be 4¼ instead of being forced to 4 or 4½ • Searchable genres and custom cover images • Log the page you are actually on, not pages-read arithmetic • Live reading pace and projected finish date for every active book • Barcode scanning • Bookstore Mode: continuously scan shelves and instantly see whether a book is already yours or already read • Import from CSV, TSV, XLSX or ZIP • Preview every addition, update and conflict before anything is saved • Readerly reconstructs your reading history from dates in your file, marks estimated dates, and lets you undo the entire import with one tap • Optional AI Import Assistant for messy or unfamiliar exports • Cover and description lookup for books missing metadata • Books Finished, Day Streak, Pages Read and Minutes Read • Two charts on your real numbers: Books Finished by Month and print, digital and audio mix • Share cards as square images or silent 9:16 videos READERLY PRO Readerly Pro turns your log into a deeper view of how you actually read. Unlock deeper charts and insights, including reading momentum, daily rhythm, the hours and weekdays you read, genre currents, per-book reading journeys, genre mix, rating shape, author affinity, completion patterns, length versus rating, a six-axis taste profile, and a deck of the strongest insights your history can support. Explore your reading by year or month. Choose any month and tap pages or listening bars to see the books behind your totals. Tap a rating, author or genre to see the books behind the number. Share your reading highlights. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your books, sessions, ratings, notes, quotes, dates and progress live in a private database on your iPhone. Book lookup sends only what identifies the book, such as an ISBN or title and author. No ads. No third-party analytics. No tracking. AI IS OPTIONAL Readerly includes two optional AI tools on the import screen, and neither runs unless you ask. It can send titles and authors of uncategorized books to Anthropic's Claude to suggest a genre from Readerly's fixed list, or send your file's column names and limited samples to suggest how they map. Readerly asks first and tells you what will be sent. Readerly Pro is an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription at the price shown before purchase. Cancel any time in your Apple Account settings. Built for people who want more from a reading tracker than a list of books. Subscribe to Readerly Pro to unlock deeper insights, support continued development, and get a growing lineup of thoughtful new features. Privacy Policy: https://thereaderlyapp.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://thereaderlyapp.com/terms/

Screenshots

Margins4 screens
Readerly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Readerly at none against Margins's 3. Margins's advantage is ratings volume (20K vs 1) and chart position (#106 vs unranked). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Margins sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Readerly asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Margins against 5.0 for Readerly. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Margins has 20K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Margins ships an update every 4 days, Readerly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Margins versus Readerly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarginsReaderly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (20K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews95.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings20K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#106 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size115 MB13 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperParatext Inc.Jovanne Villarino

Customer experience

Margins

All ratings19,672 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.8%
Negative0.6%
Written reviews3,724 reviews
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.4%
Negative2.3%

Readerly

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Margins

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Reading time not saving correctly
  • Inability to delete or edit books from lists
  • Inconsistent behavior when importing data from Goodreads

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to track page progress and percentage read
  • Implement a profile system with custom avatars and bios
  • Introduce a social feed to share reading activity with friends
  • Add more advanced statistics and reading analytics

Readerly

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Margins

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Annual$59.991 Year
None

Readerly

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Margins free?
Margins is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Readerly free?
Readerly is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Margins or Readerly?
Readerly is rated higher. Margins averages 4.9 out of 5 from 20K ratings, while Readerly averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Margins or Readerly have ads?
Neither Margins nor Readerly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Margins or Readerly?
Margins ships an update every 4 days, and Readerly weekly. Most recently, Margins was updated on October 23, 2026 and Readerly on October 7, 2026.

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