Comparison

OpenBookshelf vs Dwellum

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

Head to head
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.

About

Dwellum

Organize your reading lists, track your books, and discover new titles with a focus on beautiful cover art and a private, guilt-free experience. This app offers custom lists, author catalogs, and import/export options, all synced via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Customizable reading lists
  • Drag and drop reordering
  • Bulk book editing
  • High-resolution cover art display
  • Search powered by Apple Books
  • Import/export library data
  • iCloud sync
Read full description

A calm, private home to track your books, navigate your reading lists, and get back to what you love: reading. No streaks, no goals, no ratings, no guilt. Not a habit tracker, not a stats dashboard, not a social network. Just your books, their beautiful covers, and the order you intend to read them. Organize - Five reading lists: Reading, Reading Next, Someday, Read, and Set Aside - Drag and drop to reorder books in the exact order you intend to read them - Bulk edit to move, favorite, or remove a stack of books at once - Edit the cover and details of any book in your library - Mark books as owned to keep track of what's on your shelf Covers, front and center - Book covers are treated like the art they are - Tap the cover on its detail page to open it in full screen - Zoom in to discover details you've never noticed before - Displayed in high resolution throughout the app Find your next book - Search powered by Apple Books - Book detail pages with cover art, description, genres, and more from the author - Tap any author to view their full catalog - Follow any author to keep their catalog a couple taps away - Add books that aren't in Apple Books, with your own covers and details - A Coming Soon list that tracks upcoming releases automatically Reflect - Add notes on any book in your library - Review all the notes taken across your entire library in the Notes List - A reading timeline showing what you finished, and when - Start a re-read from any finished book, keeping your first reading intact - Favorite the books you loved, then drag and drop to rank them Browse your library - Masonry grid and list views - Filter and sort by genre, author, date, favorites, ownership, and availability - Search directly within your library and individual reading lists Bring your books with you - Import from Goodreads, StoryGraph, or CSV - Export your full library as CSV - iCloud sync across all your devices Designed for iOS - Built natively for iOS26+27 from the ground up with Liquid Glass and system styling - Feels like a cohesive, first-party Apple app - Light, Dark, and System themes Private by design, and no data collection - No accounts. No sign-up. No profile. - No analytics, no tracking, no data collection - Your library lives on your device and syncs through iCloud Atlas was built to highlight your covers, your lists, and the order you decide to read your books in. Reading doesn't need to be gamified, optimized, or made public. It just needs a quiet space to keep your books, plan what's next, and remember where you've been. Reading is one of the few things left that's slow, quiet, and entirely yours. Atlas is built to keep it that way.

Screenshots

OpenBookshelf4 screens
Dwellum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Dwellum at 6 against OpenBookshelf's 1. OpenBookshelf's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. OpenBookshelf sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Dwellum sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

OpenBookshelf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Dwellum has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

OpenBookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, Dwellum every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
OpenBookshelf versus Dwellum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpenBookshelfDwellum
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.8 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB9 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperJared FloerschAustin Thompson-Truchan

Customer experience

OpenBookshelf

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

Dwellum

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

OpenBookshelf

One-time1
  • Unlock$2.99
3 purchases

Dwellum

One-time3
  • Sticker Tip$1.99
  • Coffee Tip$4.99
  • Book Tip$9.99

Questions

Is OpenBookshelf free?
OpenBookshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dwellum free?
Dwellum is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, OpenBookshelf or Dwellum?
OpenBookshelf is rated higher. OpenBookshelf averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Dwellum averages 4.8 from 6 ratings.
Do OpenBookshelf or Dwellum have ads?
Neither OpenBookshelf nor Dwellum shows ads.
Which is updated more often, OpenBookshelf or Dwellum?
OpenBookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, and Dwellum every 3 weeks. Most recently, OpenBookshelf was updated on October 31, 2026 and Dwellum on November 5, 2026.

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