Comparison

BookPine vs Reading Journal

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 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. Note: BookPine is not an e-reader, so you can’t read books inside the app. 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

Reading Journal

This app helps you remember what you read by tracking your library, reading status, and favorite quotes. Set reading goals, join challenges, and keep your progress organized with personal notes and summaries.

Highlights
  • Track books (want to read, reading, finished)
  • Save quotes, reviews, and summaries
  • Set reading goals and track progress
  • Join reading challenges
  • Sync library with iCloud
  • Export/import data (JSON/CSV)
Features
Read full description

Reading Journal is a warm, quiet home for the books you read and everything they leave behind. Just say what page you're on. Reading Journal keeps the rest: pages read today, your week at a glance, how many sessions are left in the book, and a streak worth keeping. YOUR LIBRARY • Shelves for Reading, To Read, Finished and Did Not Finish • Add books by title, author or ISBN, or scan the barcode on the back • Real covers, and handsome cloth covers for books without one • Series kept in reading order A DIARY FOR EVERY BOOK • Every session with its pages and minutes • The lines you loved, with chapter and page • Stars, a one-line review, a summary and your favorite moment • Notebook pages on lined, dotted, grid or blank paper GOALS AND CHALLENGES • A yearly goal that fills a shelf with your covers • Monthly goals, a page target and a mood board • A–Z, Reading Bingo, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, genres, romance tropes and more • Finish a book and it lands in the right challenge slot Your library syncs through iCloud across iPhone and iPad, looks lovely in light and dark, and backs up to a JSON file or exports your books as CSV whenever you like.

Screenshots

BookPine4 screens
Reading Journal4 screens

Verdict

The call

BookPine and Reading Journal both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Reading Journal's written reviews are positive against 25% of BookPine's. Reading Journal also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported). BookPine's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. BookPine sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Reading Journal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for BookPine against 4.8 for Reading Journal. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 74 and 35 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 25% of BookPine's written reviews are positive against 100% of Reading Journal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BookPine ships an update weekly, Reading Journal every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
BookPine versus Reading Journal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookPineReading Journal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (74 ratings)4.8 (35 ratings) — better
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings74 — better35
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size101 MB7 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDevpri SRLSergii Nesterenko

Customer experience

BookPine

All ratings74 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral4.1%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative62.5%

Reading Journal

All ratings35 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral2.9%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

BookPine

Subscriptions2
  • BookPine Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • BookPine Pro7 Days trial$49.991 Year
3 purchases

Reading Journal

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Access$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Access$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access$12.99

Questions

Is BookPine free?
BookPine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reading Journal free?
Reading Journal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, BookPine or Reading Journal?
Reading Journal is rated higher. BookPine averages 4.8 out of 5 from 74 ratings, while Reading Journal averages 4.8 from 35 ratings.
Do BookPine or Reading Journal have ads?
Neither BookPine nor Reading Journal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BookPine or Reading Journal?
BookPine ships an update weekly, and Reading Journal every 3 weeks. Most recently, BookPine was updated on October 28, 2026 and Reading Journal on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons