Comparison

Commonplace vs OpenBookshelf

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

Head to head
About

Commonplace

Log books, magazines, and short fiction, track your reading progress, and capture notes. Visualize your reading year with stats and a timeline. Your library is private and syncs via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Log books, magazines, and short fiction
  • Track reading progress (To Read, Started, Finished)
  • Record start/finish dates and ratings
  • Capture notes before, during, and after reading
  • Yearly reading statistics and timeline
  • Private iCloud sync, no account needed
Features
Read full description

Commonplace is a personal reading tracker for books, science fiction/fantasy magazines, and short fiction. Log what you're reading, keep notes as you go, and look back on your reading year. BOOKS • Add books instantly by search, or share a link from Safari, Libby, or any bookstore page. • Track your pile: To Read, Started, Finished, Did Not Finish. • Record start and finish dates, rate books, and tag them print, audio, or digital. • Track the books you re-read. Commonplace can count and log multiple readings. MAGAZINES & SHORT FICTION • Import issues from Clarkesworld, Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. • Track every story you read with its own rating and notes. • Add stories by hand or from an EPUB. NOTES • Capture thoughts during each phase of reading: before, during, and after. Commonplace will tag and sort them. • Search and filter notes across your whole library, and export them all as Markdown. YOUR READING YEAR • Yearly stats: books, stories, pages, ratings, and month-by-month charts. • A Reading Timeline that lays your whole year out visually. YOURS, PRIVATELY • No account. No ads. No tracking. Your library lives on your device and syncs privately through your own iCloud. • Import your history from Goodreads or Libby CSV exports; back up everything to JSON anytime. • Optionally connect micro.blog to share your bookshelves. Commonplace is for readers who want to remember what they read and how they felt about it.

About

OpenBookshelf

Organize your reading list with a clean, focused book tracker. Easily search millions of titles, import your history from other platforms, and sync across devices without ads or subscriptions. Focus solely on your books.

Highlights
  • Track reading progress
  • Search millions of books
  • Import from Goodreads
  • Sync across devices
  • No ads or subscriptions
  • Organize reading lists
Features
Read full description

Your books. Without the noise. OpenBookshelf is a clean, focused book tracker for readers who want to organize what they read — not be sold a subscription, shown ads, or pushed into a social network. Track your reading in three taps. Search for a book, add it to your shelf, mark it as read. No onboarding wizard, no account creation, no tutorial. Just your books. SEARCH MILLIONS OF BOOKS Find books instantly by title, author, or ISBN — powered by Open Library, the world's largest open book database. No proprietary database, no lock-in. IMPORT FROM GOODREADS Bring your entire reading history with you. Export your Goodreads data and import it into OpenBookshelf in seconds. Keep your shelves, ratings, and reading dates without starting over. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Your library stays up to date on every device automatically with iCloud. Add a book on your iPhone, see it on your iPad. No account required. WHAT YOU WON'T FIND HERE No algorithmic recommendations. No social feed. No reading challenges designed to make you feel guilty. No ads. No behavioral tracking. No subscription. OpenBookshelf does one thing well: it helps you keep track of what you've read, what you're reading, and what you want to read next. Nothing more. Nothing less. Completely free. No account. No tracking. No catch.

Screenshots

Commonplace4 screens
OpenBookshelf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Commonplace at none against OpenBookshelf's 1. Commonplace also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. OpenBookshelf sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Commonplace 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 Commonplace against 5.0 for OpenBookshelf. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Commonplace ships an update every 3 days, OpenBookshelf every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Commonplace versus OpenBookshelf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCommonplaceOpenBookshelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTim LockridgeJared Floersch

Customer experience

Commonplace

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

OpenBookshelf

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

In-app purchases

None

Commonplace

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

OpenBookshelf

One-time1
  • Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Commonplace free?
Commonplace is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is OpenBookshelf free?
OpenBookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Commonplace or OpenBookshelf?
Commonplace and OpenBookshelf are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Commonplace or OpenBookshelf have ads?
Neither Commonplace nor OpenBookshelf shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Commonplace or OpenBookshelf?
Commonplace ships an update every 3 days, and OpenBookshelf every 2 weeks. Most recently, Commonplace was updated on November 9, 2026 and OpenBookshelf on October 31, 2026.

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