OpenBookshelf vs BookWorm
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Track reading progress
- Search millions of books
- Import from Goodreads
- Sync across devices
- No ads or subscriptions
- Organize reading lists
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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.
BookWorm
This app helps you build a consistent reading habit by tracking books, ebooks, and audiobooks. Set daily goals, maintain reading streaks, and visualize your progress with a unique calendar. It offers effortless book addition, customizable themes, and cross-device synchronization.
- Track books, ebooks, and audiobooks
- Set and achieve daily reading goals
- Maintain reading streaks
- Visualize progress with a reading calendar
- Add books via search or barcode scan
- Customizable themes (Light, Dark, Retro)
- Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets
- iCloud sync across devices
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Turn reading into a daily habit you can see. BookWorm tracks every book, ebook and audiobook, counts pages and listening time toward one daily goal, and keeps your streak alive. Every feature is free. BookWorm is a warm, hand built reading tracker for people who love books and want to actually finish them. No feed, no noise, no ads. Just your library, your progress, and a friendly bookworm cheering you on. WHY READERS FINISH MORE BOOKS • Track any format. Physical books and ebooks by page, audiobooks by hours and minutes. • One daily goal for all of it. Pages and listening time count toward the same target. • Reading streaks, so there is a reason to open a book today. • A calendar that fills in as you read, until your year tells a story. • Real stats: books finished, pages read, hours listened, days read, and your best streak ever. • Your most read genres and a format breakdown, so you learn how you actually read. EFFORTLESS BY DESIGN • Add a book in seconds. Search by title, or scan its barcode with your camera. • Covers, page counts and audiobook length estimates are filled in for you. • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets show what you are reading at a glance. • iCloud sync keeps your library on every iPhone you own, in your own private iCloud. • Nine languages, switchable instantly with no restart. • Re-read a favourite and BookWorm keeps the earlier read in your history. • Finished a book months ago? Add it with its dates and your calendar fills in behind you. IT FEELS LIKE SOMETHING Saving your progress turns a page. Buttons click, switches flip, and finishing a book has a small celebration you can feel in your hand. And because so many readers here are listening rather than turning pages, BookWorm's sounds can never duck or interrupt your audiobook. Sound and haptics each have their own switch. MAKE IT YOURS Four looks, one tap apart. System follows your phone. Light is warm and creamy. Dark is easy on the eyes at night. And Retro dresses the whole app in a 70s sunset palette of teal, mustard and burnt orange, with chunky outlines and monospaced type. Add your own genres, set the goal that suits your week, and pick the look you like. YOURS, AND PRIVATE Your library lives on your device and in your own iCloud, where the developer cannot read it. There is no account, no sign up, no email address. BookWorm collects a small amount of pseudonymous usage data to fix problems and decide what to build next, never your book titles, your name, or what you type into search. FREE, WITH A TIP JAR IF YOU LIKE IT Every feature is free. No paywall, no locked screens, no subscription, no ads. If BookWorm earns its place on your Home Screen, an optional tip supports one independent developer. That is the whole business model. Start your next chapter today.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: OpenBookshelf at free against BookWorm's free with in-app purchases. OpenBookshelf also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). BookWorm's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. OpenBookshelf sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and BookWorm sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
OpenBookshelf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BookWorm has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
OpenBookshelf ships an update every 2 weeks, BookWorm weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | OpenBookshelf | BookWorm |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.8 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 17.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jared Floersch | Adam Markocki |
Customer experience
OpenBookshelf
BookWorm
In-app purchases
OpenBookshelf
- Unlock$2.99
BookWorm
- BookWorm Pro – Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- BookWorm Pro – Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- An espresso$2.99
- Coffee & croissant$4.99
- A week of coffee$9.99









