Comparison

ShelfBuddy vs ReadMaze

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. YOUR LIBRARY, ORGANIZED Create as many shelves as you like, for example Fantasy, Thrillers or Classics, keep wishlists, and plan what to read next with a reading list. A book may sit on several shelves, and copies marked "collected only" count neither as read nor as unread. Manage genres and tags across all your books at once, and "Edit fields" sets author, genres and tags for several books in one step. Filter your TBR pile by shelf, format, genre, tag or language. BOOKS AND AUDIOBOOKS The overview keeps books and audiobooks apart: audiobooks get their own series, wishlists, loans and statistics. Count them as read if you like, and keep manga and comics separate. BOOK SERIES AT A GLANCE See for every series which volumes you own and which are still missing, and add them to your wishlist or a shelf with one tap. Discover suggests book series and audiobook series picked by your taste, search puts the series you look for first, and you get notified when a new volume is released. RATINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Rate your books in quarter stars and see ratings from Thalia and other ShelfBuddy readers alongside. "Popular on ShelfBuddy" shows what the community is reading a lot right now, next to recommendations picked by your taste and "Next in your series". TRACK YOUR READING Reading tracker and reading journal in one: status, start and finish dates, reading progress, notes and quotes, also for books you have read more than once. "Read as" remembers when you read a book as an eBook or a borrowed copy while the print edition stays on your shelf. READING SESSIONS WITH A READING TIMER Start a reading session and the timer runs along. When you're done, enter your page and ShelfBuddy updates your progress and reading pace. Log past reading time after the fact, and start your next session from the home screen, the app icon or a widget, with a Live Activity on the Lock Screen. INSIGHTS: GET TO KNOW YOUR READING HABITS 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 records, your spending per week, month and year, and a short written summary of your reading year. Insights are part of ShelfBuddy Premium. YOUR READING RECAP Share your reading year or month as an image: six templates, headline styles, reading time or pages, your covers and highlights. ADD BOOKS IN SECONDS Scan the ISBN barcode, search millions of books or add books by hand. Import your library from Goodreads, StoryGraph, Reado and other apps, genres and covers included. "Missing details" fills in page counts and publishers, and you can export your whole library as a .csv spreadsheet. AUTHORS AND LENDING Follow your favorite authors in several languages and get notified about new titles. Lending remembers who has which book, with a reminder to get it back, and borrowed books remember when you got them. YOUR DATA, YOUR CHOICE Keep everything 100% local on your device, or sync via iCloud or Google Drive. Export a complete backup at any time. With ShelfBuddy Premium you can also open your library in the browser on your computer at app.shelfbuddy.de, linked with a QR code, no account needed and encrypted on your device. ON IPHONE, IPAD AND IPHONE DUO On iPad you work with a sidebar and the book page side by side. Optimized for iPhone Duo: unfolded, ShelfBuddy uses the large screen like a tablet. ALL YOURS Dark mode, selectable accent colors and available in four languages.

About

ReadMaze

This app gamifies your reading habit by tracking sessions, rewarding progress, and building streaks. It offers AI-powered book analysis, note-taking, and a digital bookshelf to organize your entire library.

Highlights
  • Gamified reading habit tracker
  • AI chat for book analysis
  • Digital bookshelf organization
  • Reading streak building
  • XP, badges, and achievements
  • Built-in ebook reader
  • Quote and note capture
Features
Read full description

ReadMaze is a reading tracker you can actually read in. Most book apps ask you to log reading you did somewhere else. ReadMaze lets you open the book, read or listen to it, and keeps the record for you. READ AND LISTEN IN THE APP Import your own EPUB and PDF files and read them in a clean, distraction-free reader. Prefer to listen? Built-in read-aloud turns any book into an audiobook, and your listening time counts toward your streak, stats and goals automatically. TRACK EVERY BOOK Search millions of titles, scan a barcode, or add a book by hand. Import your existing library from Goodreads or StoryGraph in one step. Track by pages, chapters, percentage or time. BUILD THE HABIT Reading streaks, levels, daily goals and achievements make coming back easy. Streak freezes protect the days life gets in the way. REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ Save notes, highlight quotes and build a personal vocabulary list with a built-in dictionary. Coming back to a book after a break? ReadMaze writes you a spoiler-free recap from your own notes. SEE YOUR READING Detailed statistics, a reading calendar, weekly recaps and a yearly wrap-up show how your year has actually gone. Home screen widgets keep your current book one glance away. NO ADS. NO ACCOUNT. NO FEED. ReadMaze has no advertising anywhere. There is no sign-up, no social feed and no follower count. Your library, notes and reading history stay on your device, with optional private iCloud sync across your own devices. Export everything whenever you want. AVAILABLE IN SEVERAL LANGUAGES English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese. ReadMaze Premium unlocks unlimited AI assistance, extra themes and advanced statistics. The reading tracker itself is free. Terms of Use : https://readmaze.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://readmaze.app/privacy

Screenshots

ShelfBuddy4 screens
ReadMaze4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ShelfBuddy at every 2 days against ReadMaze's every 6 days. 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 ReadMaze sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. 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 ReadMaze. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShelfBuddy ships an update every 2 days, ReadMaze every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
ShelfBuddy versus ReadMaze: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfBuddyReadMaze
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 6 days
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.5.0
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJAN-HENNING BUNSHabibullah Abdulsalam

Customer experience

ShelfBuddy

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

ReadMaze

All ratings2 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$19.99
2 purchases

ReadMaze

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly7 Days trial$34.991 Year

Questions

Is ShelfBuddy free?
ShelfBuddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ReadMaze free?
ReadMaze is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ShelfBuddy or ReadMaze?
ShelfBuddy and ReadMaze are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do ShelfBuddy or ReadMaze have ads?
Both ShelfBuddy and ReadMaze show ads.
Which is updated more often, ShelfBuddy or ReadMaze?
ShelfBuddy ships an update every 2 days, and ReadMaze every 6 days. Most recently, ShelfBuddy was updated on October 30, 2026 and ReadMaze on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons