Comparison

BookPine vs BookJournal

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

Head to head
About

BookPine

Track your reading journey with detailed stats, custom lists, and reading goals. Easily import your library from other platforms and discover ambient sounds for focused reading. Share your progress and connect with a community of book lovers.

Highlights
  • Detailed reading stats and insights
  • Custom lists and shelves for organization
  • Personalized reading goals and challenges
  • Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
  • Ambient sounds for focused reading
  • Social features to follow friends and share reviews
  • Transaction log for borrowed, lent, or purchased books
Read full description

BookPine is a free book tracker for readers who like to keep a record of what they read. Log your books, set goals that fit your life, and see real stats about your reading habits. If you're coming from Goodreads, you can bring your whole library with you and pick up right where you left off. There's no subscription and nothing is locked behind a paywall. READING CIRCLES Read a book together with friends or other readers. Start a circle from any book, make it public or private, and choose how long it runs. Members write posts, comment, vote in polls and log their progress as they go. You can hide a post until readers reach a certain point in the book, or until they finish it, so nobody gets spoiled. SERIES TRACKING BookPine builds your series list from the books on your shelves. Each series shows its books in order, how many you've read, and which one comes next. Reading a series in another language? Set the language for that series and your progress only counts the books published in it. You can also mark a series as paused or abandoned. CUSTOM COVERS Don't like the cover on your edition? Change it. Pick one from another edition, upload your own image, or grab one from any web page. Only you see your custom cover, and it shows up everywhere you see that book in the app. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Keep your books on your home screen. Pick a grid of covers, a shelf of spines lined up like a real bookshelf, or the book you are reading now with your progress on it. Choose which shelf each widget shows, how it is sorted and which colors it uses. From the Currently Reading widget you can start the reading timer or update your progress. CUSTOM GENRES AND TAGS Sort your library with your own genres and tags: comfort read, slow burn, signed copy, book club, five-star prediction, whatever fits how you read. They are private to you, and you can filter your whole library by them, so any book is easy to find again. READING STATS AND INSIGHTS Track pages, finished books and reading time, with charts for your streak, monthly progress and yearly trends. It's an easy way to see how much you read and what you actually finish. BOOK TRACKER, LISTS AND SHELVES Shelve books as Currently Reading, Want to Read, Read or Did Not Finish. Rate with half stars, write reviews, and make your own shelves and lists. Add a book in seconds by scanning its barcode or searching by title, author or ISBN. READING GOALS AND CHALLENGES Set yearly, monthly or custom goals by books, pages, minutes or authors. Streaks and milestones help you keep the habit going. IMPORT FROM GOODREADS, STORYGRAPH AND LIBRARYTHING Import your books, ratings, reviews and shelves in one go, so your reading history comes with you. TRY IT AS A GUEST Open the app and start tracking without an email address. Create an account later if you want to keep going. AMBIENT SOUNDS Play rain, a crackling fireplace, cafe noise and more while you read. SOCIAL Follow friends, share reviews and see what other people are reading, along with their goals, shelves and wishlists. SHAREABLE BOOK CARDS Turn your current read, a favorite quote, a review or a reading milestone into an image you can post or send to friends. TRANSACTION LOG Keep track of the books you borrow, lend, buy or give away. PRIVATE BOOKS Some reads are just for you. Private books never appear on your public profile. ALSO INCLUDED • Dark mode, plus dark gray, high contrast, true black and sepia themes • Available in 16 languages • Half-star ratings and tags for more detailed reviews Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

BookJournal

Features
Read full description

BookJournal is your personal reading journal – for all the books you've read, are currently reading, or want to read next. Save your books with covers, keep your notes, and track your reading progress – simple, private, and clutter-free. And thanks to iCloud sync, your library is always up to date on all your devices. Features: • Add books via search, ISBN scan, or manually – with cover image • Wishlist for books you still want to read • Custom shelves: organize your library into your own collections with color and icon • Start reading sessions with a timer and log the pages you've read • Journal: capture thoughts, moods, and favorite quotes about your books • Statistics for your reading goal, reading hours, and streak • iCloud sync: your data stays private in your iCloud – automatically on all your devices • Clear reading list, sorted by status BookJournal is for everyone who wants to document their reading life privately and without the fuss – a reading journal that grows with you.

Screenshots

BookPine4 screens
BookJournal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: BookPine at none against BookJournal's shown. BookPine also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.5). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
BookPine versus BookJournal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookPineBookJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (60 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings60 — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supported—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.5
Further details — not scored
Size100 MB23 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDevpri SRLGarip Koeyluece

In-app purchases

None

BookPine

No in-app purchases

None

BookJournal

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BookPine free?
BookPine is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BookJournal free?
BookJournal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do BookPine or BookJournal have ads?
BookJournal shows ads; BookPine does not.
Which is updated more often, BookPine or BookJournal?
BookPine ships an update weekly, and BookJournal weekly. Most recently, BookPine was updated on October 12, 2026 and BookJournal on October 16, 2026.

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