Comparison

ShelfBuddy vs Niovela

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

Niovela

Features
Read full description

Niovela is a calm, private place for your reading life. Log the books you read, follow your progress, keep the lines worth keeping and watch your year in books take shape. Your life in books. It is free, with no ads and nothing to upgrade to. You don't need an account to start: your library lives on your device. YOUR LIBRARY • Reading, finished, want to read or abandoned: every book in its place • Page progress, start and finish dates, star ratings, emotions and private notes • Rereads count as new reads, without losing the first one • Search by title, author or ISBN, or scan the barcode with your camera • Book pages with synopsis, similar books, more by the same author and the rest of the series PROGRESS WITHOUT PRESSURE • A yearly reading goal that fills as you go • A daily reading streak and an activity heatmap • Statistics for all time, a year, a month or a week: books, pages, pace, genres, authors and ratings • A year-in-review card and achievements that show how close you are to the next one Niovela celebrates what you read. It never makes you feel behind. REVIEWS, QUOTES AND LISTS • Write a full review or a single line, with spoiler warnings • Save your favorite quotes and share them as an image • Create your own lists, or save Niovela's curated lists with one tap • Read together: invite friends to a shared list and see where each of you is • Follow authors and readers, and translate reviews written in other languages BRING YOUR BOOKS WITH YOU • Import the CSV you export from Goodreads, The StoryGraph, Bookstats or Babelio, or a list of ISBNs; shelves become private lists and reviews arrive private • Export everything as JSON or CSV whenever you want • Your library, stats and streak work offline PRIVACY YOU CONTROL Without an account, your library stays on your device. With one, you choose what your profile shows: reviews, quotes and who you follow each have their own switch, and any review can stay private. A free account is optional: create one with Apple, Google or email to sync between devices, publish reviews and read with friends. You can delete your account from the app at any time. 8 LANGUAGES English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Polish and Dutch. Dark, light or automatic theme.

Screenshots

ShelfBuddy4 screens
Niovela4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Niovela at none against ShelfBuddy's 1. Niovela also leads on ads (none vs shown). ShelfBuddy's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and update cadence 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. Niovela asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ShelfBuddy versus Niovela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfBuddyNiovela
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysEvery 2 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB27 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperJAN-HENNING BUNSFernando Fernandez-Velasco Climent

In-app purchases

1 purchases

ShelfBuddy

One-time1
  • ShelfBuddy Freischaltung$19.99
None

Niovela

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ShelfBuddy free?
ShelfBuddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Niovela free?
Niovela is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ShelfBuddy or Niovela have ads?
ShelfBuddy shows ads; Niovela does not.
Which is updated more often, ShelfBuddy or Niovela?
ShelfBuddy ships an update every 2 days, and Niovela every 2 days. Most recently, ShelfBuddy was updated on October 30, 2026 and Niovela on October 31, 2026.

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