Commonplace vs Simplreads
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.
Simplreads
Organize your personal library with this minimal reading app. Track your reading progress, write reviews, save notes, and create playlists of books to read. Keep a clear record of your reading journey.
- Personal library building
- Reading progress tracking
- Write short reviews
- Save longer notes
- Group books into playlists
- Track reading status
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Simplreads is a minimal reading app for building your personal library and keeping your reading process organized. Add books, track progress, write short reviews, save longer notes, and group books into playlists for future reading and sharing with friends. Use Simplreads to keep a clear record of what you want to read, what you are reading now, and what you have finished.
Screenshots
Verdict
Commonplace and Simplreads are too close to call on the numbers: across 8 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and ads among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Commonplace against 5.0 for Simplreads. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | Commonplace | Simplreads |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tim Lockridge | Vasilii Andreev |
Customer experience
Commonplace
Simplreads
In-app purchases
Commonplace
No in-app purchases
Simplreads
No in-app purchases









