Bindery Books vs Cratelog
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bindery Books
Discover new books and connect with fellow readers through curated content and community features. Explore recommendations from trusted tastemakers and participate in the creation of new literary voices.
- Bookish content and commentary
- Personalized reading recommendations
- Thematic book collections
- Join book communities and clubs
- Participate in new author publishing
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Bookish content, reading recommendations, book clubs, and the publishing of entirely new voices from tastemakers you trust. • Access bookish content: Get in depth commentary about books you love and notifications on the latest content from your favorite tastemakers • Discover your next read: Receive recommendations from leading tastemakers or browse their favorites in dynamic bookshelves and thematic collections • Build community: Discover people who share your taste by joining book communities, members-only Discords, and book clubs • A look inside publishing: Participate in the publication of brand new voices through tastemaker-led publishing imprints
Cratelog
Manage multiple book box subscriptions and never miss a skip deadline. Track all your subscriptions, upcoming reveals, and your book collection in one place. Avoid duplicate purchases and understand your spending.
- Never miss a skip deadline
- All subscriptions in one place
- Spoiler-safe reveals
- Track your book collection
- Monitor spending and savings
- Manage preorders and sales
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You're subscribed to five book boxes. Each one skips differently: one wants a form by the 5th, another an email by the 12th, a third won't let you skip at all this quarter. Miss one deadline and you've paid for a special edition you already own. Cratelog keeps it all straight: every subscription, every skip deadline, and every book you own in one place, built for special edition collectors. Keep StoryGraph or Goodreads for your reading; Cratelog tracks what they don't. NEVER MISS A SKIP DEADLINE Every box has its own skip window, limit, and way to skip. Cratelog knows them all. Get reminders 7, 3, or 1 day before each deadline, see how many skips you have left under each box's policy, and get a warning before a skip that could cancel your subscription or cost you early access. When it's time to act, Cratelog takes you to the right portal, email, or form, then records what you did so your counters stay accurate. DECIDE THE MONTH BEFORE IT CHARGES Every box with an open decision window sits on one screen: skip it, keep it, or sell it on. Filter to what you still have to decide, close a month in one tap, and when a box never ships a cycle, record that without spending a skip on it. PHOTOGRAPH YOUR OWN COPY Take seven shots of a book, jacket on and off; the app frames each face and finds the book by its edges. Turn the finished copy in 3D and look at the sprayed edges from any angle. Then stand your books on a shelf, spine out or edges out, in the order you arrange them yourself. If you have never photographed an edition, you see another reader's reviewed shots of it, credited. EVERY SUBSCRIPTION IN ONE PLACE One dashboard for all your boxes: renewal dates, next charge, skip counters, and a calendar of every billing day and deadline. Track waitlists for invite-only boxes and see how long others waited. Works with FairyLoot, Illumicrate, OwlCrate, Goldsboro, The Broken Binding, The Bookish Box, LitJoy, and dozens more through a community-maintained catalog. SEE WHAT'S COMING, SPOILER SAFE Theme and book reveals for your upcoming boxes, leaks and confirmed announcements clearly labeled, down to the sprayed edges, endpapers, and the artists behind them. Spoilers stay hidden until you choose to peek. YOUR COLLECTION, ON ONE SHELF Import your whole library from Goodreads or StoryGraph in one go, then scan a barcode for anything new. Signed, numbered, and sprayed edges badges, custom shelves, and series that show how many books you own and how many you have read. Cratelog warns you when a box book is already on your shelf, so you never buy the same edition twice. KNOW WHAT YOU SPEND (AND SAVE) Monthly and yearly spending across subscriptions and preorders, in your currency, plus a running total of the money skipping has saved you. PREORDERS, DROPS, AND SALES Track special edition preorders from any store, keep a wishlist of the ones you have not ordered yet, and follow a calendar of drops and warehouse sales in your local time, with an alert before a watched sale starts. CRATELOG PLUS, IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT IT Everything above is free and stays free. Plus is an optional membership, monthly or annual, that helps cover what the app costs to run. It adds a Subscription Review of each box on the one to three measures you pick, from cost and skips to resale and edition design, and Compare, your boxes side by side on cost per month, cost per book, skips, ratings, and reading. Terms of Use: https://getcratelog.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://getcratelog.com/privacy THE HONEST PART Cratelog never skips, cancels, or buys anything for you; you act directly with the box company. Your collection is private, and deleting your account never touches your real subscriptions. Cratelog is an independent app made by one person, not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any book box company. Brand names only describe which services you can track. Free to download and free to use. Never pay for a box you didn't want again.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Cratelog at free against Bindery Books's free with in-app purchases. Cratelog also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). Bindery Books's advantage is ratings volume (34 vs 4). On price, rating, review sentiment 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bindery Books against 5.0 for Cratelog. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bindery Books has 34 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Bindery Books ships an update every 2 weeks, Cratelog every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on August 29, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bindery Books | Cratelog |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (34 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 34 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 79 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bindery Books, Inc. | Micha Przybya |
Customer experience
Bindery Books
Cratelog
In-app purchases
Bindery Books
No in-app purchases
Cratelog
No in-app purchases









