ReadMe vs The Shelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ReadMe
This app helps you meticulously track your reading progress, visualize your habits with a calendar heatmap, and build consistent reading streaks. Organize your library, discover reading patterns, and enjoy a beautiful, ad-free experience designed for iOS.
- Log reading sessions by pages and time
- Visual calendar heatmap for activity
- Build and track reading streaks
- Automatic reading speed calculation
- Detailed reading statistics and charts
- Organize books into custom shelves
- Search and add books from external libraries
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Your Reading Journey, Beautifully Tracked ReadMe is the elegant book tracking app designed exclusively for iOS readers who want more from their reading life. Whether you're a casual reader or racing through your TBR pile, ReadMe turns every page into progress you can see. TRACK EVERY PAGE - Log reading sessions with pages read and time spent - Visual calendar heatmap shows your reading activity at a glance - Build reading streaks and watch your consistency grow - Calculate your reading speed automatically BEAUTIFUL STATISTICS - Year-over-year comparisons to see your growth - Monthly breakdowns with cumulative progress charts - Discover your most productive reading days - Track top genres and reading patterns - See your ratings distribution across all books ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY - Manage books across Reading, To Read, and Completed shelves - Create a Wish List for future purchases - Search and add books from Google Books and Open Library - Rate and review finished books - Add any book, even without page counts DESIGNED FOR iOS - Liquid glass aesthetic matches iOS 26 design standards - Beautiful dark mode support - Smooth animations and haptic feedback - Comfortable one-handed use - Native performance with offline support YOUR DATA, YOUR PRIVACY - All your reading data synced across devices - No ads, no tracking, no distractions Whether you're tracking a single book or managing hundreds, ReadMe makes every reading session count. Join readers who've discovered the joy of seeing their progress visualized beautifully. Start your reading journey today.
The Shelf
Organize your entire book collection, track reading progress, and capture notes and quotes. This app offers a private, customizable space to manage your reading life, from adding new books to reviewing past sessions.
- Build and organize your book library
- Track reading progress and focus sessions
- Save notes, quotes, and journal entries
- View detailed reading statistics
- Customize app appearance
- Sync and export library data
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The Shelf is a private reading tracker for stories you love, books you study, and everything in between. Search or scan a book, choose the edition that matches yours, then track only what feels useful. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY • Search by title, author, or ISBN, explore author pages, or scan one book or a whole stack. • Keep each edition or physical copy as its own book with its own details, progress, sessions, and history. • Mark books as Owned, add to Wishlist, or Track borrowed books. • Organize books with reading status, your own Lists, shelf locations, and Subjects. • Import Goodreads or StoryGraph CSV files and export a complete backup whenever you want. TRACK READING WITHOUT FRICTION • Update pages, percentage, audiobook position, chapters, or study problems. • Start a focused Reading, Listening, or Study session from any book. • Record starting and ending pages, then see pace, pages read, records, session patterns, and estimated time to finish after your first session. • Keep every re-read separate, with its own dates, rating, mood, and notes. REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ • Save Book notes, dated notes, favorite quotes, page references, scanned text, and photographs. • Search across your Library and jump directly to a Book note or annotation, with the matching text brought into view. • Make chapters, study problems, and annotations easier to discover through gentle, dismissible suggestions on each Book. BORROW AND LEND WITH CLARITY • Keep editable borrowing and lending histories for each book. • Record people, dates, due dates, shelf locations, and optional notes. • Reuse recent people and locations while keeping every field free-form. SEE YOUR READING LIFE • Explore daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and recent activity. • See goals, streaks, totals, records, and finished books on a reading calendar. • Compare progress by Subject and view your library as a prerequisite map. • Revisit books, notes, and quotes from this day in earlier years. MAKE IT FEEL LIKE YOURS • Choose your own background and accent colors, or start with an included Look. • Pair a Solid or Gradient background with System, Glass, Soft Depth, Lined Paper, Dot Grid, or Dog-eared Page cards. • Invite Dewey into Book and Focus views, then choose his hat, accessory, prop, and colors. • Celebrate the moments you choose with Confetti, Sparkles, or Stars. MADE FOR IPHONE AND IPAD • Use widgets, Spotlight, Siri, Live Activities, Split View, and Stage Manager. • Sync with iCloud when you choose and keep a complete JSON backup. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No accounts, ads, tracking, analytics, or subscriptions. • Optional book lookup sends only a title, author, or ISBN after you ask the app to search or fetch. • Camera images and recognized text stay on your device or in your own optional private iCloud library. • Use the optional system privacy lock and outside-app redaction when you want them. • Turn Online Lookup off for a fully offline library. Pay once, own it forever.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ReadMe at Free against The Shelf's $4.99. The Shelf's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On rating, ads, in-app purchases 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
ReadMe is free to download; The Shelf costs $4.99 up front. 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 ReadMe against 5.0 for The Shelf. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.
ReadMe ships an update every 6 weeks, The Shelf every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ReadMe | The Shelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Josh Engels | Antonio Gordillo Toledo |
Customer experience
ReadMe
The Shelf
In-app purchases
ReadMe
No in-app purchases
The Shelf
No in-app purchases









