Comparison

ShelfBuddy vs Reading Habit

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

Reading Habit

This app helps you establish a consistent reading routine by tracking your progress. Log your reading sessions easily, set monthly book goals, and review your reading history. It also allows you to save book recommendations and who suggested them.

Highlights
  • Daily reading habit tracking
  • Flexible progress logging
  • Monthly book goal setting
  • Save book recommendations
  • Reading journal and history
Features
Read full description

Reading Habit helps you build a daily reading habit with tracking that’s easy to keep up. Mark the days you read, however much you read, and see your consistency grow. - Record today’s reading without counting pages, chapters, or minutes. Add detailed progress only if you want it. - Choose your own monthly book goal and see the books you finish add up. - Save book recommendations with the friends who suggested them, ready when you choose your next book. - Look back at the days you read and the books you’ve finished in your journal.

Screenshots

ShelfBuddy4 screens
Reading Habit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Reading Habit at none against ShelfBuddy's 1. Reading Habit also leads on ads (none vs shown). ShelfBuddy's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (5 vs 1). On price, rating 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ShelfBuddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Reading Habit asks for nothing beyond the download.

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 Reading Habit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ShelfBuddy has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShelfBuddy ships an update every 2 days, Reading Habit monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
ShelfBuddy versus Reading Habit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfBuddyReading Habit
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJAN-HENNING BUNSBrian Renshaw

Customer experience

ShelfBuddy

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

Reading Habit

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ShelfBuddy

One-time1
  • ShelfBuddy Freischaltung$19.99
None

Reading Habit

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ShelfBuddy free?
ShelfBuddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reading Habit free?
Reading Habit is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ShelfBuddy or Reading Habit?
ShelfBuddy and Reading Habit are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do ShelfBuddy or Reading Habit have ads?
ShelfBuddy shows ads; Reading Habit does not.
Which is updated more often, ShelfBuddy or Reading Habit?
ShelfBuddy ships an update every 2 days, and Reading Habit monthly. Most recently, ShelfBuddy was updated on October 30, 2026 and Reading Habit on October 31, 2026.

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