Comparison

ShelfLife vs Orbil

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

Head to head
About

ShelfLife

Organize your reading life with a visually stunning digital bookshelf. Track books, create shareable collections, and discover recommendations from other readers. Personalize your shelves and connect with a community of book lovers.

Highlights
  • Customizable digital bookshelves
  • Shareable book collections
  • Book recommendations from readers
  • Track reading progress
  • Add custom books
  • Community feed of friends' reads
  • Homescreen widget
Features
Read full description

ShelfLife is a beautiful home for your books and your reading life. Track the books you read, organize them on stunning digital shelves, and share your taste with other readers. ShelfLife is a book tracker that provides a beautiful place to record your books and easily create shareable visual collections for social media. Arrange your library by mood or memory or whatever makes you happy. BEAUTIFUL BOOKSHELVES Arrange your books on fully customizable shelves you can arrange, style, decorate, and share. Build a bookshelf for any mood, genre, or moment, then export a gorgeous shelf card to Instagram, Messages, and more. Find books by name, author, barcode scanning, or ISBN. SHOW US YOUR SPINES! Finally you can see your books arranged sideways like you would in real life. Upload photos of your book spines to the community gallery and select your perfect spine image to display. Stack and turn books for variety and add decor objects to really personalize your shelves. YOUR TOP 12 Choose the twelve books that define your taste. Your Top 12 is your shareable statement of who you are as a reader. TBR AND READING LISTS, ORGANIZED AND VISUALIZED Mark books as To Be Read and have a shelf for the seasons or a stack for a single obsession or author tribute. BOOK SIGNAL — RECOMMENDATIONS FROM REAL READERS Ask for a book recommendation and hear back from readers whose taste overlaps with yours. Real people, real reads connected by the kinds of books they read. CAN'T FIND YOUR BOOK? ADD IT Missing a book or your exact edition? Add it yourself and it's there for every reader the moment you save. Spot a wrong title, author, cover, or page count? Fix it with Edit Book Details. For manuscripts, advance copies, and anything meant just for you, add a private Custom Book. BOX SEAT — AN OPTIONAL MEMBERSHIP ShelfLife is free. Box Seat supports the app and adds extras: a new Decor Drop of decor and backdrops every month, more color themes, a picture frame for your own photo, resizable decor, custom backdrops in any color, your own photo as your avatar, unlimited Custom Books, a book concierge who tracks down hard-to-find books for you, and a gold frame around your avatar. Box Seat is an auto-renewing subscription, monthly or yearly. Cancel anytime in your store account settings. A READING FEED OF YOUR PEOPLE Follow the readers you trust and see what they're reading, finishing, and reviewing, in a simple chronological feed. READING WITH FRIENDS AND BOOK CLUBS Follow your friends, your book club, and find readers whose taste overlaps yours. See what they're starting and finishing, trade recommendations, and celebrate every finished book together. HOMESCREEN WIDGET Display your bookshelves on your phone's homescreen with the app's shelf widget REVIEWS THAT MEAN SOMETHING Rate books, write reviews, and read honest opinions from real readers instead of bots and consensus noise. THE PEANUT GALLERY — WHERE THE SPOILERS LIVE Every book has a Gallery door, and finishing the book unlocks it. Inside: hot takes, unpopular opinions, and beautiful pulled quotes from readers who just turned the last page too. FEATS — READING CHALLENGES, YOUR WAY Join a community feat or set your own! Set a yearly challenge, read a classic a month, or dream up a feat that's entirely yours. Use custom feat types like the Read the World feat which lets you fill out a full map with your book picks' covers. Track your progress book by book, then share the finish line. ShelfLife is a reading tracker that give you customizable options for how you want to view your progress. COMING FROM GOODREADS OR STORYGRAPH? Import your reading history with a CSV file and organize your library the way you always wanted. No banner ads or popup ads. Independent, and built by a married couple of readers for readers. ShelfLife. Your taste in print. Our Privacy Policy: https://theshelflifeapp.com/privacy Our Terms of Service: https://theshelflifeapp.com/terms

About

Orbil

Features
Read full description

Orbil is a personal book library, reading tracker, and reading journal designed to keep your reading life organized. Catalog the books you own, follow your reading progress, record reading sessions, and remember more from every book. Whether you read physical books, eBooks, or audiobooks, Orbil gives you one private place for your collection and reading journey. With Orbil, you can: • Organize and search your personal book library • Track pages, progress, and reading sessions • Manage your reading queue and wishlist • Save thoughts, memorable quotes, and new vocabulary • Record book locations and track lent or borrowed books • Review reading habits, streaks, and statistics • Personalize your visual bookshelf, with optional premium styles and decors • Look back on your reading through monthly recaps Orbil focuses on your books—not social activity, public reviews, or popularity. It is a calm and practical reading companion for readers who want to track what they read, remember what they learned, and keep their collection organized. Build a library that feels truly yours with Orbil. Orbil is free to use for up to 50 books. Orbil Plus is an optional one-time in-app purchase that unlocks: unlimited books, cloud sync & backup across devices, advanced reading stats and Reading Personality insights, premium shelf styles and decors, and expanded custom tags. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ShelfLife4 screens
Orbil4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ShelfLife at every 3 days against Orbil's every 10 days. ShelfLife also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. ShelfLife sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Orbil sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShelfLife ships an update every 3 days, Orbil every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
ShelfLife versus Orbil: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfLifeOrbil
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (55 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews92.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings55 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size101 MB33 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperFisherbird LLCPrometeuz

In-app purchases

2 purchases

ShelfLife

Subscriptions2
  • Box Seat Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Box Seat Annual$44.991 Year
1 purchases

Orbil

One-time1
  • Orbil Plus$59.99

Questions

Is ShelfLife free?
ShelfLife is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Orbil free?
Orbil is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ShelfLife or Orbil have ads?
Neither ShelfLife nor Orbil shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ShelfLife or Orbil?
ShelfLife ships an update every 3 days, and Orbil every 10 days. Most recently, ShelfLife was updated on November 9, 2026 and Orbil on November 10, 2026.

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