Comparison

ReadingRate vs Nous

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

Head to head
About

ReadingRate

This app helps you understand your reading habits through detailed analytics and AI-powered insights. Track your reading speed, difficulty preferences, and genre patterns to discover books that truly match your taste. Capture thoughts and quotes to build a personal literary archive.

Highlights
  • Personal reading analytics
  • 9-dimension book difficulty scores
  • Reading journal with voice capture
  • AI-powered reading insights
  • Data-driven book recommendations
  • Reading time predictions
  • Barcode book scanner
Features
Read full description

How hard is this book, and how long will it take you? Every book in ReadingRate carries nine measured difficulty scores, each with a written reason, and a word count turned into hours at your reading speed. Look anything up before you commit a month of evenings to it. No account needed. FREE, FOREVER, NO CARD Import your reading history from Goodreads, StoryGraph, Readwise or Notion. Log every reading day, in the app, by Siri, or by telling ChatGPT or Claude. Keep your library, your journal and your quotes. Read difficulty scores and reading-time estimates on every book. Export all of it whenever you want. Nothing here runs out after a week. NINE MEASURED DIMENSIONS Four for how hard the prose is to parse: vocabulary complexity, syntactic complexity, abstraction level, information density. Five for how hard the meaning is to reach: narrative indirection, symbolic density, ironic distance, resolution withholding, structural complexity. Each one scored 0 to 100 for that specific book, each with a written reason. YOU READ THE BOOK WHEREVER YOU READ BOOKS Paper, Kindle, library copy, audiobook. ReadingRate is not where you read. It is where the reading is kept: what you finished, how long it took, and the lines you marked. LOGGING TAKES ONE TAP Tap the book and the page you reached. Or tell Siri. Or say it to ChatGPT or Claude and it lands here. No timer, and nothing to fill in while you are trying to read. YOUR READING JOURNAL Capture thoughts and connections as you read. Save a passage and it is anchored to its page for citation later. Build a record of your relationship with a book, for reviews, essays, or just remembering why it mattered. BARCODE AND SHELF SCANNING Add a book by scanning its barcode. Members can photograph a whole bookshelf and have it read the spines. APPLE WATCH AND WIDGETS Log pages and check progress from your wrist. Currently reading and reading pace on your home and lock screens. BROWSE AND DISCOVER Curated lists, prize winners, and thousands of books with full difficulty analysis. Free to explore without an account. WHAT A MEMBERSHIP ADDS Deep analysis of any book, the Insight Lab, the full Eras atlas and literary map, book clubs, thirty shelf scans a day, the WhatsApp bot, and asking Claude or ChatGPT about your own reading history. Putting your reading in is always free. A membership is for getting more back out.

About

Nous

This app helps you actively track your reading by taking notes, capturing highlights, and organizing your library. It offers features for reflection, goal setting, and seamless integration with other services to enhance your reading experience.

Highlights
  • Real-time reading notes and thoughts
  • Book library organization
  • Highlight capture via typing or OCR
  • Reading session reflection and summary
  • Goal setting and streak tracking
  • Sync with Obsidian and Kindle
  • Homescreen widgets
Features
Read full description

TRACK READING THOUGHTS IN REAL TIME • Read actively by taking notes and thoughts during a session • Type or dictate your session book notes, and capture mid-session thoughts without breaking flow • Add highlights and book quotes by typing or scanning the book with OCR • Struggle to remember what you read? Actively recall previous reading sessions to enhance memory YOUR LIBRARY • Organize your books: includes TBR, Next, Reading, Finished, Paused, and Did Not Finish (DNF) • Search by title or author, scan an ISBN, or library import from other apps • Track print by pages, ebooks by percentage location, audiobooks by listening time • Categorize books with personal tags • Sync your library on iCloud — access on all your devices • Connect to Kindle for seamless highlight capture DON'T JUST RECORD — REFLECT • Each book has a session history so you can see progress over time • Finishing a book opens a reflection: rate it, write a summary or book review, and see your reading pace charted over time • Half-star ratings supported • Weekly, monthly, and yearly views show what you've actually read • Search highlights and session notes to look back on your thinking ENHANCE MOTIVATION AND REACH YOUR READING GOALS • Keep your daily streak going — or don't — streaks are optional • Set daily or yearly reading goals: build a consistent habit and hit yearly book challenges • Track your focus and energy levels over time • Homescreen widgets: streaks, yearly reading, and reading goal INTEGRATE AND EXPORT YOUR NOTES • Sync with Obsidian to upload book notes, session summaries, and highlights to your vault • Export sessions immediately after they occur • Save all your sessions and export as a whole book, all your notes and reflections • Backup and restore: make sure your notes are always safe. Includes optional iCloud backup Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ReadingRate4 screens
Nous4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Nous at 5.0 against ReadingRate's 3.0. On price, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ReadingRate sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Nous sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Nous holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ReadingRate ships an update every 8 days, Nous weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
ReadingRate versus Nous: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadingRateNous
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB31 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperSimon StawskiCaelan Mitchell

Customer experience

ReadingRate

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Nous

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

In-app purchases

3 purchases

ReadingRate

Subscriptions2
  • Reader Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Reader Yearly7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Membership$249.99
2 purchases

Nous

Subscriptions2
  • Nous Plus — Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Nous Plus — Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is ReadingRate free?
ReadingRate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Nous free?
Nous is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ReadingRate or Nous?
Nous is rated higher. ReadingRate averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Nous averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do ReadingRate or Nous have ads?
Neither ReadingRate nor Nous shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ReadingRate or Nous?
ReadingRate ships an update every 8 days, and Nous weekly. Most recently, ReadingRate was updated on October 10, 2026 and Nous on October 2, 2026.

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