Spine vs Absorb
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Spine
Log your reading progress, create custom tier lists of your favorite books, and discover new titles. Connect with friends to see their reading habits and share recommendations.
- Track reading progress
- Create book tier lists
- Follow friends' reading
- Personalized recommendations
- Import Goodreads library
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Track what you've read, what you're reading, and what you want to read next. Build tier lists of your favorites. Reach your reading goals. Follow your friends and see what they're reading, create a blend, share books that mattered, recommend books. [ READING LOG ] Mark books read, currently reading, or queued. Note when you started, when you finished, and what you thought. [ TIER LISTS ] S, A, B, C, D. Easily drag-and-drop your favorites into a tier list. [ FRIENDS ] See what your people have read. Let them know what you've read and what you think about it. [ DISCOVER ] Personalized recommendations based on what you’ve read, rated, and exactly what you're specifically looking for. [ IMPORT ] Easily bring your Goodreads library over. Mr. Bezos won't miss you.
Absorb
This app provides a streamlined mobile experience for listening to audiobooks and podcasts from your self-hosted media server. Enjoy features like offline playback, chapter navigation, and listening statistics. It's a free, open-source solution with no ads or data collection.
- Offline listening
- Chapter navigation
- Sleep timer
- Playback speed control
- Home screen widgets
- Listening statistics
- CarPlay support
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Absorb is a free, open source audiobook and podcast player built for Audiobookshelf, a self-hosted media server for your personal book library. Connect to your own Audiobookshelf server and enjoy your audiobook collection with a clean, polished mobile experience built specifically for iOS. Features: Stream or download books for offline listening Full playback controls with chapter navigation, sleep timer, and playback speed Home screen widgets for quick playback controls Listening stats and streaks to track your progress Bookmarks with notes Series tracking and discovery Light and dark mode CarPlay support And much more!!! Absorb is built by a solo developer and is completely free with no ads, no subscriptions, and no data collection. Your library stays between you and your server. Requires a self-hosted Audiobookshelf server. Visit audiobookshelf.org to learn more.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Spine at weekly against Absorb's every 5 weeks. Absorb's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. 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 Spine against 4.9 for Absorb. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 82 and 164 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Spine's written reviews are positive against 97% of Absorb's.
Spine ships an update weekly, Absorb every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.
| Parameter | Spine | Absorb |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (82 ratings) — better | 4.9 (164 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 97.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 82 | 164 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tanner Flake | Nathan Poulson |
Customer experience
Spine
Absorb
In-app purchases
Spine
No in-app purchases
Absorb
No in-app purchases









