Penny vs SCP docs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Penny
This app helps you build a consistent reading habit by tracking your books, timing your reading sessions, and allowing you to take notes. It offers ambient soundscapes to enhance your reading atmosphere and provides detailed progress statistics. The app prioritizes user privacy and works offline.
- Build and organize your book library
- Track reading sessions with a timer
- Ambient soundscapes for atmosphere
- Take notes and track characters
- View detailed reading progress stats
- Syncs with iCloud
- Offline functionality
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Penny is a reading tracker for people who want a simple, private place for their books. There is no account to create, no ads and no social feed. Your library, your reading time and your notes stay on your iPhone and sync through your own iCloud. Penny 2.0 is the biggest update since launch, and nearly everything in it started as an email or a review from a reader. PICK YOUR PENNY • Four looks: Classic, Paper, Pond (with a dusk mode for reading at night) and Bloom • Each look has its own app icon, and your widgets change with it • Penny now speaks English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Choose the language in Settings TIME YOUR READING • Start the timer, read, then note the page you stopped on • A short recap after every session with your minutes, pages, streak and week • Your timer on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island • A daily reminder at your reading time, free for everyone A BOOKSHELF ON YOUR HOME SCREEN • The new Bookshelf widget lines up the books you finished, spine by spine, in the colors of their covers • Currently Reading and Reading Summary widgets keep your progress in sight • Every widget is free and dresses up for your look STANDING IN A BOOKSTORE? • Scan the barcode and Penny tells you if the book is already yours, in any edition • Put the books you want to buy on your Wishlist • Open the scanner straight from Control Center with the Scan a book control PREVIOUSLY ON… • Back to a book after a break? Penny shows the page you stopped on, your last note and the characters and terms you saved BUILD YOUR LIBRARY • Search millions of books from Google Books, Apple Books and Open Library, or scan the barcode • Bring your library over from Goodreads or StoryGraph with a CSV import • Shelves for To Read, Reading, Finished and DNF, plus shelves of your own • Half-star ratings, for the books that deserve a 3.5 • Finish a book and Penny throws you a small party KEEP WHAT YOU READ • Notes and quotes, a glossary for places and terms, and a character list for every book • Everything stays with its book, easy to find when you need it SEE YOUR PROGRESS • Reading streaks and a calendar with the cover of every book you read each day • Stats for books, pages and time, monthly trends, genres and your Year in Review SET THE MOOD • 19 ambient sounds, from rain on the window to a medieval tavern, and you can mix them PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no email, no sign-up • No ads, no tracking, no analytics • Syncs between your iPhone and iPad through your private iCloud FREE AND PREMIUM Most of Penny is free: up to 40 books, the timer and session recaps, stats and streaks, the scanner and Bookstore mode, all four looks, every widget, the daily reminder, iCloud sync and 4 ambient sounds. Premium adds unlimited books, notes, terms and characters, Previously on…, the Wishlist, the Lock Screen timer after your first three sessions, all 19 sounds, custom shelves, CSV export and your full session history. Premium is a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. I made Penny because I wanted a simpler way to keep track of what I read, without accounts or social media. If there's something you'd love to see next, the Send Feedback button in Settings comes straight to me. Terms of Use: https://readwithpenny.online/terms Privacy Policy: https://readwithpenny.online/privacy
SCP docs
This app provides a streamlined reading experience for SCP Foundation articles, offering enhanced navigation, customizable text, and cross-branch browsing. Premium features include text-to-speech, advanced search, and reading statistics.
- Optimized article reading experience
- Cross-branch browsing (EN, JP, FR, RU, KR)
- Powerful search functionality
- Random article generator
- Article sharing as styled cards
- Bookmark and reading progress tracking
- Text-to-speech for articles (Premium)
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SCP docs is a reader app for finding and reading SCP articles. SCP reports are grouped by series, while Tales, Canons, GoI formats, and more are grouped by type. You can reach what you want to read without clicking through wiki pages. ■ FIND WHAT TO READ • SCP reports are listed in series order • Tales, Canons, GoI formats, and more each have their own list • Search by number, title, or tag • See top-rated and recent articles at a glance ■ CHOOSE YOUR NEXT READ • See Similar articles that share tags • See an article's Canons or Series, and keep reading • Can't decide? Open a random article • Articles you've read are marked, so unread ones are easy to spot • Get a notification with one recommended article at a set time ■ READ COMFORTABLY • Adjust text size and line spacing without leaving the article • Choose a typeface, plus dark or sepia colors • Unfinished articles reopen where you left off • See roughly how long an article takes • Long collaboration articles fit your screen ■ READ IN TRANSLATION • Translate other branches' articles in place; images and layout stay • Original is one tap away; set your Languages to auto-translate • Uses Apple's translation feature, free ■ BROWSE ARTWORK • Browse fan-made illustrations, videos, and more in one list • Search by title, creator, tag, or related SCP • Each work shows its creator and license • Open related SCP articles right from the work ■ KEEP A RECORD OF YOUR READING • Articles you read are added to your History automatically • Save articles for later in Favorites or Read later • Rate how much you liked each article • Highlight passages and add notes • Everything is gathered in your Records, so you can find it again later ■ LOOK BACK ON YOUR READING Reading Stats shows how many articles you've read and how long you've spent reading. You can also see your progress through each series, the kinds of articles you tend to enjoy, and a monthly summary. ■ EXPORT AND SHARE • Export highlights and notes to Obsidian, Notion, and more • Share articles or your own lists as image cards ■ MORE • Save articles to your device and read them without a connection • Listen to articles with Read Aloud • Open an unfinished or random article right from your Home Screen widgets ■ SUPPORTED ARTICLES Along with the English SCP Wiki, you can read articles from SCP branches around the world. Articles are shown in each branch's language, and can also be read in translation. ■ FREE AND PREMIUM Finding and reading articles, search by number, title, and tag, History, ratings, the reading reminder, widgets, and Reading Stats (Summary, Activity log, Backlog & saved) are free, with no account needed. On the free plan, Favorites holds up to 20 articles and Read later up to 100. Premium removes ads and adds: • Creating highlights and notes • Read Aloud • Offline saving • Creating and organizing folders • Memo search, filtering by your own records, saved searches, and new-match notifications • Detailed Reading Stats (Coverage map, Taste profile, Monthly report) • Unlimited Favorites and Read later Premium is available monthly or yearly. Saved highlights and notes stay readable after Premium ends. Requires iOS 18 or later. Rights to the text and media featured in the app belong to their respective creators. Source credits and license information remain available with the articles, which are displayed under the terms of their sources. Home image credits: SCP-682 — OccultistMave, CC BY-SA 3.0 (using a photo by Paxson Woelber, CC BY 2.0); SCP-2000-JP — created by the author, CC BY-SA 3.0; SCP-2521 — LurkD, CC BY-SA 3.0 (photo by Philip Ob Rey used with permission); SCP-049 — no separate author or license stated. Unless otherwise noted, SCP text belongs to its respective authors and is provided under CC BY-SA 3.0. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://scpdocs.link/privacy.html Support: https://scpdocs.link/support.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Penny at 5.0 against SCP docs's 4.4. Penny also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (100% vs 67%). SCP docs's advantage is ratings volume (8 vs 2). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Penny sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and SCP docs sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Penny holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Penny's written reviews are positive against 67% of SCP docs's.
Penny ships an update every 9 days, SCP docs weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Penny | SCP docs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.4 (8 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 8 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 79 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Claudiu Valentin Sararu | Kazukiyo Omura |
Customer experience
Penny
SCP docs
In-app purchases
Penny
- Monthly$2.991 Month
- Yearly$19.991 Year
- Lifetime$29.99
SCP docs
- Monthly Premium$1.991 Month









