Bookends.app vs Ex Libris
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bookends.app
This app helps you achieve your reading goals with custom bookshelves, insightful progress tracking, and social features to share with friends. It supports all reading formats, including audiobooks, physical books, and digital content, adapting to your personal style.
- Customizable bookshelves
- Progress tracking for all formats
- Daily and weekly reading insights
- Social feeds for reading buddies
- Track audiobooks, physical, and digital books
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Take advantage of beautiful insights, custom bookshelves, and social features to help you keep your reading goals on track. Designed by readers, for readers. Track Any Format: Whether you prefer audiobooks, physical books, or digital reading, Bookends adapts to your style. Switch seamlessly between formats without losing your progress—our flexible tracking settings ensure every page (or minute) counts toward your goals. Make It Yours: Create your perfect digital library with customizable bookshelves. Adjust the size and order to match your personal style, giving your collection the unique touch it deserves. Stay Motivated: Your home page delivers at-a-glance insights into your daily and weekly reading progress. See your recently completed books as satisfying reminders of your achievements, while keeping your upcoming reads front and center. Share With Friends: Keep yourself and yourhttps://bookends.app/terms/ reading buddies motivated with social feeds showing you and your friends recent reading sessions Terms and conditions: https://bookends.app/terms/ Privacy policy: https://bookends.app/privacy-policy/
Ex Libris
Organize your reading life with this app. Easily add books by scanning barcodes or covers, track your reading progress, and save memorable passages. Connect with friends to see what they're reading and share your own literary discoveries.
- Add books via barcode scan or cover photo
- Track reading progress and pace
- Save and share favorite passages
- Create custom bookplates
- Connect with friends to see their reading
- Discuss books with other readers
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Ex Libris is a quiet & cozy home for your reading life. Scan a book's barcode or snap its cover and it lands on your shelf with the details already filled in. Nudge your progress as you read, keep the passages worth keeping, and share the whole thing with your friends. ADD A BOOK IN SECONDS Point your camera at the barcode on the back, or photograph the cover and let your iPhone read the title. Search by title or author, or add rare finds and borrowed copies by hand. FOLLOW YOUR PROGRESS Ex Libris keeps the sessions quietly in the background, works out your pace, and tells you roughly how many days are left in the book. When you finish, rate it, write a line to remember it by, and pass it on. KEEP THE GOOD LINES Scan a page and pull the text straight off it. Highlight the passages that stopped you, add a personal note, and share it with friends. MARK IT AS YOURS Design your own bookplate — a frame, a typeface for your initials, a color. It follows you everywhere you turn up: your profile, your comments, your friends' pages. READ WITH FRIENDS Add friends by handle and see what they're reading. Browse their shelf, read the quotes they've kept, talk about a book with everyone else reading the same edition, and recommend the ones you think they'd enjoy reading too. No ads, or tracking, or a feed to scroll. Just your books, and the people you want to share them with. Ex Libris...from the library of you.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ex Libris at none against Bookends.app's 2. Ex Libris also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 months). Bookends.app's advantage is ratings volume (7 vs 1). On price, rating, ads 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
Both are free to download. Bookends.app sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Ex Libris asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bookends.app against 5.0 for Ex Libris. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookends.app has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Bookends.app ships an update every 6 months, Ex Libris every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bookends.app | Ex Libris |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bookends | Atreides LLC |
Customer experience
Bookends.app
Ex Libris
In-app purchases
Bookends.app
- Bookends Premium$3.991 Month
- Bookends Premium Annnual$29.991 Year
Ex Libris
No in-app purchases









