Comparison

Penny vs Booklore

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

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

About

Booklore

Track your reading privately and offline. Log books, update progress, rate finished titles, and add notes. Features include a reading timer with ambient sounds, habit-building tools like streaks and goals, and insightful year-end summaries.

Highlights
  • Offline reading log
  • Track reading progress
  • Rate and review books
  • Reading timer with ambient sounds
  • Reading streaks and goals
  • Import/export library data
  • Yearly reading summaries
Features
Read full description

Every book you read, one tap away. Booklore is a reading log for people who would rather be reading: add a book, log your page, close the app. No sign-up stands between you and your first book, and your library lives on your phone. On the shelf • Find books by title, author or ISBN, or scan the barcode on the back cover • Shelves for Reading, Want to Read, Read, Paused and Did Not Finish, plus your own shelves and tags • Rate in half-stars, from ½ to 5, and tag a book's mood and pace • Print books, e-books and audiobooks side by side, with rereads counted At the page • Log progress with one tap (¼, ½, ¾, Finished) or type the exact page • Reading an e-book or listening to an audiobook? Enter the percentage your reader or player shows • See how much reading time is left in a book, at your own measured pace • Time a session and add ambient sound: rain, ocean, forest, café, fireplace and more, generated on your device • A Live Activity keeps the running session on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island • Write notes and a review, and capture a quote straight off the page with your camera Over the year • A reading calendar that fills in every day you read • Streaks with a best-streak record, and a yearly goal that paces you from the day you set it • A daily reminder that skips the days you already read, scheduled on your device • Home Screen widget, Apple Watch app and Siri ("Start reading in Booklore") • Your Reading Year and monthly wrap-up cards to share, plus all-time stats Your library, your phone • Bring your library over from a CSV export and export everything whenever you like • Optional backup to your own iCloud • Book search and one-time cover downloads are the only network use, and cover downloads can be switched off • Your reading is never sold or used to build a profile of you Happy reading.

Screenshots

Penny4 screens
Booklore4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Booklore at none against Penny's 3. Booklore also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Penny sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Booklore asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Penny against 5.0 for Booklore. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penny ships an update every 8 days, Booklore fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Penny versus Booklore: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPennyBooklore
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperClaudiu Valentin SararuHazem Abdeltawab

Customer experience

Penny

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Booklore

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

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Penny

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$29.99
None

Booklore

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Penny free?
Penny is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Booklore free?
Booklore is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Penny or Booklore?
Penny and Booklore are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Penny or Booklore have ads?
Neither Penny nor Booklore shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Penny or Booklore?
Penny ships an update every 8 days, and Booklore fortnightly. Most recently, Penny was updated on October 28, 2026 and Booklore on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons