Commonplace vs Seekquel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Seekquel
This app allows users to meticulously track their reading habits, manage their book library, and discover new titles. It offers extensive customization for your home screen and profile, with options to control privacy and sync with e-readers. Build reading habits and analyze your progress with detailed statistics.
- Customizable home screen with over 30 cards
- Detailed book library management
- Progress logging by page or time
- E-reader sync (Kindle, Kobo, etc.)
- Personalized book recommendations
- Reading habit building tools
- Privacy controls for profile visibility
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Seekquel is a book tracker you set up yourself. There is a lot in it and none of it is compulsory: build your home screen from the parts you use, switch off the rest, and keep the community on its own tab. Plenty of readers run it as a plain reading log and never touch anything else. SET UP THE HOME SCREEN • More than thirty cards: currently reading, daily goals, your streak, recommendations, your reading calendar and more • Drag them into the order you want and switch off the ones you never use • Arrange your stats page and public profile the same way • 21 themes, from Dark Academia to Cottagecore, and more than twenty app icons • Home screen widgets, adjustable text size, reduced motion and reduced transparency DECIDE WHO SEES WHAT • Public, followers only, or private, then set each part of your profile on its own • Show your reviews but hide your stats, or turn a whole profile tab off • Choose who can message you and approve followers before they see anything • No ads, no data selling, and analytics you can decline • Export everything you have added, whenever you want TRACK YOUR LIBRARY • Add books by title, author, ISBN, or barcode scan • Want to Read, Reading, Paused, Read, and Did Not Finish • Log progress by page, percent, or time listened, in the edition you actually own • Custom shelves, shelves that fill themselves from rules you set, tags, and notes • Track what you own, what you borrowed, and what you lent out • Coming from elsewhere? Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, or Hardcover, with your shelves, ratings and reviews SYNC YOUR E-READER • KOReader on Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook or Android sends your place, reading time, highlights and finished books • Readest and Xteink pocket readers connect too • Calibre keeps shelves, ratings, reviews and reading dates in step in both directions DISCOVER YOUR NEXT READ • A taste profile built from your genres, moods, themes and pacing • Browse by mood, trope and pace, not just broad genres • Pick For Me: a few quick questions, one considered recommendation • Shelve a book before it is published and hear the day it comes out • See the films and series a book was turned into • Mood, pace and content notes gathered from real reader reviews BUILD A READING HABIT • A reading timer, with ambient sounds like rain or a fireplace • Daily page or minute targets, and a streak with freeze days built in • Yearly goals and custom challenges, on your own or shared with friends • A monthly reading bingo card, and badges from Bronze to Platinum SEE YOUR READING • Books, pages, hours, streaks and genres at a glance • A Monthly Wrapped recap of the month just gone • Share cards for a finished book, a month or your whole year • With Pro: build your own charts, compare one period against another, and see reading heatmaps, pacing and mood trends THE COMMUNITY, ON ITS OWN TAB • Nothing social reaches your home screen unless you put it there • Rate books with stars, plus writing, plot, characters, atmosphere and impact • Follow readers, build shareable lists, and recommend books directly • Buddy reads with milestones and chat, and book clubs • Ask the community for a book and shelve their suggestions in one tap • Fix catalog mistakes yourself and build your reputation as a contributor Free on iPhone, Android and the web. Pro adds more themes, custom charts, deeper stats and higher limits. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://seekquel.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Commonplace at none against Seekquel's 3. Commonplace also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 89%). Seekquel's advantage is ratings volume (14 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Seekquel sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Commonplace asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Commonplace against 4.9 for Seekquel. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Seekquel has 14 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Commonplace's written reviews are positive against 89% of Seekquel's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Commonplace | Seekquel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.9 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 88.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 14 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 3 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tim Lockridge | Mohamed Sabri Ben Chaabane |
Customer experience
Commonplace
Seekquel
In-app purchases
Commonplace
No in-app purchases
Seekquel
- Seekquel Pro (Monthly)14 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Seekquel Pro Yearly14 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Seekquel Pro Lifetime$119.99









