Reading Memory vs Pause
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Reading Memory
This app helps you record and deepen your reading experience through chat-based notes and AI interactions. It allows you to track reading goals, analyze habits, and revisit your thoughts on books.
- AI-powered chat memos
- Mood tagging for emotional depth
- Card-swipe review format
- Smart book search and barcode scanning
- Reading goal setting and habit tracking
- AI summaries of chat memos
- Reading statistics and analysis
- Achievements and reading milestones
Read full descriptionHide full description
For re-readers, not just readers. You read 30 books a year, but can barely remember 5 of them. The note app you tried felt too noisy. Goodreads felt like Instagram for books. You just wanted a quiet place to read, write, and remember. Reading Memory is a slow, private reading journal built around one belief: reading is not about finishing books. It's about what you carry with you afterwards. PER-BOOK "READ TODAY" CHECK One tap on each book you're reading. Your streak grows. Your reading becomes a daily habit, not a guilty pile of unfinished tomes. Per-book checks mean you always know what you read today, not just "did I read." CHAT-STYLE NOTES Capture fleeting thoughts as you read, in a conversation flow. No character limits. No public feed. No reactions. Just you and the book, in writing. REFLECTION CARDS Reading Memory's quiet superpower. Past notes resurface as cards you swipe through. "I remember this," "This still hits," "I had forgotten." Your reading lives on, instead of fading. Forgetting is the default. Reflection is the antidote. MOOD TAGS Eight emotional textures — moved, excited, thought-provoking, comforting, fun, enlightening, melancholic, confusing — to revisit "the books that moved me" when the right moment comes. BEAUTIFUL BOOKSHELF Cover-first grid and list views. Want-to-read, reading, finished, on-hold — your bookshelf becomes a quiet record of who you've been as a reader. SMART BOOK SEARCH & BARCODE Add books in seconds. Search by title or scan barcodes. Powered by Google Books and OpenBD for accurate metadata. READING GOALS & STREAKS Set a monthly or yearly goal. Watch your streak grow. Quiet celebration, no leaderboards. ACHIEVEMENTS Nine subtle badges that mark milestones in your reading life. Earned, not displayed. DESIGNED FOR iOS 26 Built fluently in SwiftUI with Liquid Glass throughout. A reading app that feels like part of your phone, not a website inside it. — MEMORY PLUS — Premium plan Reading Memory's core experience is fully free, including unlimited chat-style notes, reflection cards, mood tags, the bookshelf, and reading streaks. You can register up to 10 books on the free plan. Premium unlocks: ◆ Unlimited book registrations ◆ AI Chat Notes (premium only) A book-aware AI you can have a conversation with about each individual book, with the context of your past notes. ◆ AI Summary (premium only) AI summarizes your chat notes for any book, surfacing the key threads without re-reading everything. ◆ Detailed Statistics (premium only) Genre distribution, mood patterns, calendar heatmap, and pace analytics. Pricing: Monthly: $2.99 / month Yearly: $24.99 / year (save 30%) AI features and detailed statistics are available only with Memory Plus. — WHO THIS IS FOR · People who re-read more than they read · Quiet readers who left Goodreads after the social fatigue · Knowledge workers who want to remember what they've learned · Note-taking minimalists who tried Notion and Obsidian and just wanted something simpler · iOS aesthetes who care about Liquid Glass and craft Indie developer made. No ads. No tracking. No social feed. No Amazon. Read it. Write it. Re-discover it. — Feedback and bug reports: please use the in-app "Feedback" button.
Pause
This app helps you reclaim time spent on social media and videos by setting usage limits before you open them. It converts your social media time into an estimate of how many book pages you could have read, encouraging a shift towards reading.
- Set time limits for apps before opening
- Automatically block apps when time expires
- Convert social media time to book pages
- Track reading progress with a virtual companion
- Home screen widgets and live activities
- Shareable progress cards
Read full descriptionHide full description
What if the time that melts away on social media went into a book instead? A quick break? Catching up on news? Just checking one notification… You meant to look for a minute, and two hours are gone. The break left you tired, not rested. And every day, a faint sense of "what am I doing" quietly eats at your confidence along with your time. You're not alone. That's why Pause exists. Pause asks you to decide how long BEFORE you open social or video apps. Then it shows what that time was worth in pages: how much of a book you could have read. When your time is up, the apps are blocked again automatically. No blame. Just a gentle place to stop, so a little of your scrolling turns into reading, day by day. That book you've been meaning to read, a few pages at a time. A reading habit builds on its own. And a small companion, Pause-kun, grows with every page. [ Free ] • Sessions: pick "just N minutes" before you open. When time's up, the apps are blocked again • Reading timer: paper or app. Time in Kindle, Audible, or Apple Books counts as reading too • Pages instead of minutes: your social time shown as "about N pages of a book" • Honest records: based on Screen Time measurements. No inflated numbers to scare you • A companion that grows: books pile up behind Pause-kun as you pause and read • Home Screen widget and a Lock Screen view while you read (Live Activity) • Share card: the time you turned into reading, and your companion, in one image • Today and this week at a glance * The free version covers up to 3 apps. [ Pause Plus ] The free version is enough for most days. Pause Plus is for people who want to cut back more seriously. It's available as a subscription or a one-time purchase. • Push Mode: a block you can't lift for the period you choose • Unlimited apps • Reward Mode: after you finish, 24 hours with no limits on your blocked apps • Monthly and yearly views, with a full year of history • Name your companion Pause Plus yearly and monthly plans each come with a 1-month free trial. Pause Plus one-time purchase: pay once, no auto-renewal. [ Your privacy ] • Your Screen Time details and the books you read never leave your device. No account, no sign-in • Pause doesn't ban social media. It only asks you to pause. The choice is always yours After the free trial, the subscription converts to a paid plan. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase, and the subscription renews automatically at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the period. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in Settings → Apple ID after purchase. Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy https://pause-lp.vercel.app/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pause at none against Reading Memory's 2. Pause also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and monetization model 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 Memory sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Pause asks for nothing beyond the download.
Reading Memory ships an update every 3 months, Pause every 5 days. Both last shipped on September 22, 2026.
| Parameter | Reading Memory | Pause |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kyoichi Taniguchi | Iku Yagome |
Customer experience
Reading Memory
Pause
In-app purchases
Reading Memory
- メモリープラス月額プラン$3.991 Month
- メモリープラス年額プラン$39.991 Year
Pause
No in-app purchases








