BookPine vs Understory
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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/
Understory
This app helps you track your reading progress, set goals, and build a consistent reading habit. It features a unique plant aesthetic, social interaction with friends, and the ability to grow real-world trees by meeting reading objectives. Organize your library, share recommendations, and gain insights into your reading habits.
- Track reading progress and log books
- Set reading goals and streaks
- Grow real-world trees by meeting objectives
- Social features for book groups and friends
- Organize library with custom lists
- Share book recommendations
- View reading statistics and insights
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Understory is a reading tracker, book tracker, and social reading app designed to help you track books, log reading progress, set reading goals, and stay consistent. Whether you’re organizing your bookshelf, building a reading habit, or joining a book group, Understory brings together everything you need in one place with a fun plant aesthetic. Join the Understory bookish community to build a better reading habit and build a better world! GROW REAL-LIFE TREES: Watch your garden bloom in Understory and meet monthly objectives to grow real-world trees! Visit friends’ gardens daily to help their trees grow! INTERACT WITH FRIENDS: Join book groups where you and your friends can read different books! Like and comment on reviews in the social feed! TRACK YOUR READING: Review your books with half stars, audiobook tags and private reads! Manage your library with custom reading lists including a Did Not Finish (DNF) list! LEVEL UP YOUR READING: Improve your reading habit with leaderboards for books read, reading streaks, and XP level! Earn XP by logging reading and interacting with other users! SHARE BOOK RECS: See your friends’ favorite and highly rated books and share book recommendations directly with your friends! SEE YOUR STATS: Get insights on your reading history and social interactions through shareable stats and graphs and our signature Library Card graphic! Understory is perfect for readers who want to: - Track books and reading progress in one place - Build a daily reading habit and reading streak by growing a fun garden that doesn’t feel like a chore - Log books, reviews, and ratings (with half stars!) - Organize a TBR (to be read) list - Track audiobooks and ebooks - Join a social book community - Discover new book recommendations Terms of Use: https://www.understory-app.com/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.understory-app.com/privacy-policy Content and Copyright Policy: https://www.understory-app.com/content-copyright-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
BookPine and Understory both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 96% of Understory's written reviews are positive against 29% of BookPine's. Understory also leads on chart position (#207 vs unranked). BookPine's advantage is monetization model (ad-supported vs freemium). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. BookPine sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Understory sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for BookPine against 4.9 for Understory. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 73 and 55 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 29% of BookPine's written reviews are positive against 96% of Understory's.
BookPine ships an update weekly, Understory every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BookPine | Understory |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (73 ratings) | 4.9 (55 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 28.6% of reviews | 95.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 73 — better | 55 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | — | #207 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 101 MB | 171 MB |
| Age rating | +12 | 12+ |
| Developer | Devpri SRL | Understory Studios LLC |
Customer experience
BookPine
Understory
In-app purchases
BookPine
- BookPine Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- BookPine Pro7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Understory
- Understory Premium1 Month trial$4.991 Month
- Understory Premium - Monthly$4.991 Month
- Understory Premium1 Year trial$49.991 Year
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- Understory Premium - Yearly$49.991 Year
- Streak Freeze$0.99
- Streak Restore$0.99








