Comparison

ShelfBuddy vs Bukon

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ShelfBuddy

Manage your physical book collection digitally with virtual shelves, wishlists, and reading timelines. Track borrowed books with return reminders and view reading statistics. Easily add books by scanning, searching, or manual entry.

Highlights
  • Virtual shelves and wishlists
  • ISBN barcode scanning
  • Reading progress tracking
  • Borrowed book management
  • Customizable notes and genres
  • Multilingual interface
Features
Read full description

ShelfBuddy is your digital bookshelf: beautiful, calm and built entirely around reading. Keep track of every book and audiobook you own, are reading, have lent out or still want. Your whole library, neatly organized, and your data always stays in your hands. Freshly redesigned in the new "Paper & Ink" look. YOUR LIBRARY, ORGANIZED Manage your books the way you want. Create as many shelves as you like, for example Fantasy, Thrillers or Classics, keep a wishlist of books you still want, and plan what to read next with a reading list. The "Continue reading" card puts your current book right on the home screen. Make the overview your own: drag its sections into your order and hide the ones you don't use. BOOK SERIES AT A GLANCE See for every series which volumes you own and which are still missing. Search for a book series or an author under "Series" and browse every volume in reading order, even before you own one. Add missing volumes to your wishlist or a shelf with one tap and get notified when a new volume is released. YOUR DATA, YOUR CHOICE Your library belongs to you, and you decide where it is stored. Keep everything 100% local on your device for full privacy, or turn on optional cloud sync to back up your books and use them on all your devices. On iPhone and iPad you can sync via iCloud or Google Drive, and nothing leaves your device unless you want it to. You can also export a complete backup of your library at any time, so your books are never tied to one platform. TRACK YOUR READING ShelfBuddy is a reading tracker and reading journal in one. Mark each book as unread, reading or read, add start and finish dates, rate your books and see detailed reading statistics by month and year. Share your personal reading recap as an image. READING SESSIONS WITH A READING TIMER Start a reading session and the built-in reading timer starts automatically. When you're done, simply enter your current page and ShelfBuddy updates your reading progress and reading pace. See how long you've read per book, log past reading time after the fact, and start your next session straight from the home screen, the app icon or a widget. INSIGHTS: GET TO KNOW YOUR READING HABITS ShelfBuddy turns your reading sessions into a picture of how you read. A reading calendar shows which days you read and how much. See the time of day and the weekdays you read most, which genres get most of your reading time, your personal records, and how you read each book, devoured in a weekend or savoured in small steps. A short written summary puts your reading year into words. Insights are part of ShelfBuddy Premium. YOUR READING JOURNAL AND BOOK COLLECTION Record every book you've read and make reading a habit. Manage your entire book collection, keep a reading journal, and stay on track with reading goals and a reading challenge. ADD BOOKS IN SECONDS Scan the ISBN barcode, search millions of books, or add books by hand. Imports from Goodreads, StoryGraph, Reado and other apps are supported. AUTHORS AND LENDING Follow your favorite authors and get notified about new titles. The lending feature remembers who has which book, with a reminder to get it back. ALL YOURS Dark mode, selectable accent colors and available in four languages.

About

Bukon

Easily manage your reading lists. Track books you've read and those you want to read. Search online, scan ISBNs, or add manually, then rate and organize your collection.

Highlights
  • Track read books
  • Track books to read
  • Search and add books online
  • Scan ISBN codes
  • Manually create books
  • Rate books
  • Export lists
Features
Read full description

Bukon lets you track and manage your books: • Track books you've read • Track books you want to read • Manage the two lists of books Bukon is an intentionally simple book tracker: No accounts. No social features. No statistics. No ads. Just the books you’ve read and the ones you want to read. What Bukon offers • Track books you’ve read • Track books you want to read • Search for books online and add them to your lists • Scan ISBN codes to add books even quicker to your lists (Pro-Feature) • Manually create books and add them to your lists • Rate books • Maintain a read date for the books you've read • Move books between lists • Search for books in your lists • Share books • Share lists and export lists to multiple formats • Store the lists on iCloud or locally • Have the two lists always with you on your Apple Watch What Bukon does not offer • No social features • No statistics or gamification • No ads or tracking To help you finding books, Bukon connects to Open Library and allows you to search its wide library of books. Book-information from Open Library like descriptions and cover-images can be used in Bukon.

Screenshots

ShelfBuddy4 screens
Bukon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Bukon at none against ShelfBuddy's shown. ShelfBuddy's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ShelfBuddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Bukon sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for ShelfBuddy against 5.0 for Bukon. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShelfBuddy ships an update every 3 days, Bukon every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ShelfBuddy versus Bukon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfBuddyBukon
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better18
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJAN-HENNING BUNSMarc Menges

Customer experience

ShelfBuddy

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bukon

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ShelfBuddy

One-time1
  • ShelfBuddy Freischaltung$5.99
1 purchases

Bukon

One-time1
  • Bukon Pro$2.99

Questions

Is ShelfBuddy free?
ShelfBuddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bukon free?
Bukon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ShelfBuddy or Bukon?
ShelfBuddy and Bukon are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do ShelfBuddy or Bukon have ads?
ShelfBuddy shows ads; Bukon does not.
Which is updated more often, ShelfBuddy or Bukon?
ShelfBuddy ships an update every 3 days, and Bukon every 2 weeks. Most recently, ShelfBuddy was updated on September 20, 2026 and Bukon on September 11, 2026.

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