Reading Journey vs Blackauthored
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Reading Journey
Log your reading sessions, track your emotions, and discover your reading style. Easily import books, share your reactions visually, and manage your TBR list without pressure. Offers a fun and stress-free way to engage with your literary journey.
- Log reading sessions and emotions
- Share reading reactions visually
- Quick book import via scanning
- DNF Graveyard for unfinished books
- Import library from Goodreads/Storygraph
- Goodreads automatic synchronization
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Book tracking should feel like fun, not like homework. It’s a chance to explore, escape, and connect with stories. With Reading Journey, you can log your sessions, track your reactions, and discover who you are as a reader. Why you’ll love it: Easy & Fun Reading Logs: Snap a pic of your reading sessions.Record your pages and emotions. Share the Feels: Track your reactions as you read — we’ll turn it into a graphic worth sharing. Quick import: Scan books to quickly upload them to your TBR. DNF Graveyard: Bury the books you didn’t finish—they still count for something! No Streaks, No Stress: Show up for your books however you want. Import your library from GoodReads or Storygraph. GoodReads Sync: Automatically fetch and synchronize new books from GoodReads Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://readingjourney.co/privacy
Blackauthored
Discover and organize books by Black authors with this app. Filter by genre, trope, and spice level, track your reading progress, and explore community-curated lists. Connect with other readers and manage your reading goals.
- Filter by genre, trope, spice level
- Track reading status (want to read, reading, read,DNF)
- Explore community-made lists
- Discover author's full catalogs
- Rate reads with decimal precision
- Track reading goals and streaks
- Connect with other readers
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Finding books by Black authors shouldn’t be a challenge. So we built Blackauthored—a space designed to help you discover, track, and obsess over your next read. Because finding one good Black-authored read often leads to needing ten more, Blackauthored helps you: - Filter by genres, tropes, spice level and more to find exactly the kind of mess you’re craving - Track books by Black authors that you want to read, are currently reading, have read, or did not finish. - Explore community-made lists with oddly-specific recommendations that hit the spot - Discover authors’ catalogs in their recommended reading order because accidentally starting with book 4 is stressful enough - Rate your reads with decimal precision because sometimes a book is a 4.5, not a 5 - Stay on top of your reading goals and streaks while pretending you’ve got your TBR under control. - Become mutuals with readers who put you onto hidden gems before the hype catches on.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Blackauthored at none against Reading Journey's 2. Blackauthored also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 days) and chart position (#202 vs unranked). Reading Journey's advantage is ratings volume (397 vs 15) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). On price, review sentiment, 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. Reading Journey sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Blackauthored asks for nothing beyond the download.
Reading Journey holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Reading Journey has 397 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 73% of Reading Journey's written reviews are positive against 80% of Blackauthored's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Reading Journey ships an update every 10 days, Blackauthored every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Reading Journey | Blackauthored |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (397 ratings) — better | 4.5 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 397 — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #202 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 69 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Vinh Dinh | Blackauthored |
Customer experience
Reading Journey
Blackauthored
Bugs and requests
Reading Journey
Reported bugs
1 issue- Occasional bugs and glitches reported
Requested features
3 requests- Option to edit book page counts
- Additional star rating options (0.25, 0.75)
- Ability to follow other users
Blackauthored
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Reading Journey
- Reading Journey Plus$4.991 Month
- Reading Journey Plus7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Blackauthored
No in-app purchases
