SlowRead vs Readerly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SlowRead
This app helps you build a visually appealing digital bookshelf and encourages focused reading sessions by blocking distracting apps. Track your reading progress, organize your library, and create a personalized reading ritual.
- Customizable 2.5D digital bookshelf
- Distraction-blocking focus sessions
- Reading streak tracking
- TBR and library organization
- Effortless book addition (scan, search, photo)
- Import from Goodreads (CSV)
- Private, local-first library
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SlowRead is the book tracker with a bookshelf you will want to show off. Every book you read stands on your own shelf, with its real spine and cover. Keep your TBR, your reading journal and your reading log in one place, and share your bookshelf on BookTok and Instagram. YOUR BOOKSHELF • Every book stands on the shelf as a spine or as a cover. • Photograph your own copy to show its real spine, cover and sprayed edges, or use a photo another reader already shared. • Arrange your books by hand, lay them flat in piles and keep a series together. • Decorate with plants, candles, lights and more, and pick a theme for the wall and the wood. • Share a picture of your bookcase to your Stories on TikTok or Instagram. • Get a public profile at slowreadapp.com/@you with the bookcases you choose to show. BOOK CLUBS • Create a club or join one and read the same book together. • Talk in a channel for each part of the book, so nobody spoils what comes next. • Hide the parts of a message that are spoilers. • Vote on the club's next book. YOUR READING YEAR • Monthly and yearly wrap ups: cards to swipe through and share. • Your reader type, worked out from the books you finish. • A yearly reading challenge, and your year next to the last one. • Stats for pages, time and books, your reading speed and your top genres. • A reading streak, with past days you can fill in by hand. TRACKING WITHOUT EFFORT • Search millions of books or scan the barcode to add one in seconds. • Import your library from Goodreads, The StoryGraph, Bookmory, Fable or Libib. • Paperback, ebook and audiobook, even for the same book. • Track library loans with the due date and a reminder the day before. • Series grouped together, with your progress through each one. • Notes, quotes scanned from the page with your camera, and characters with a portrait and their relationships. • Half star ratings, rereads and did not finish. WIDGETS • Your bookshelf, what you are reading, your streak, your challenge and a daily quote on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. READING SESSIONS • Start a timed session from any book and log the page where you stop. • If you want, block the apps that distract you while you read, with Screen Time. All features described above require a subscription. A free trial is included, so you can try everything before paying. TERMS: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Readerly
Track your reading habits with detailed statistics and insights. Log books, notes, and quotes, and visualize your reading life over time. Offers advanced analytics for a deeper understanding of your reading patterns.
- Detailed reading statistics
- Log books, notes, and quotes
- Visualize reading pace and trends
- Private data storage on device
- Barcode scanning for books
- Import reading data from files
- Shareable reading insights
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You know roughly how much you read. Readerly tells you exactly. Readerly turns your reading history into a clear picture of your reading life: how your pace changes through the year, what you reach for, which authors you return to, when you read most, and how this year compares with every year before it. Save Private Notes & Quotes, too, so the parts of a book you want to remember stay with your reading life. No account. No sign-in. Your library stays on your iPhone. WHY THE NUMBERS HOLD UP A chart is only useful if the number under it is right. Audiobooks are counted in hours. Insight cards show the evidence behind what they say: how many sessions contributed, what window was measured, and whether there is enough data to support the result. If there is not, Readerly says so instead of inventing an average. Your reading data also outranks the catalog. If you are on page 628 of a book a database says has 623 pages, Readerly accepts 628 and offers to correct the book length. Reopen any reading session and change the date, pages or minutes. Start and finish dates are yours to set. Correcting your own reading history is never behind Readerly Pro. WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION • Unlimited books and reading sessions, stored on your device • Private Notes & Quotes • Haptic quarter-star ratings, so a book can be 4¼ instead of being forced to 4 or 4½ • Searchable genres and custom cover images • Log the page you are actually on, not pages-read arithmetic • Live reading pace and projected finish date for every active book • Barcode scanning • Bookstore Mode: continuously scan shelves and instantly see whether a book is already yours or already read • Import from CSV, TSV, XLSX or ZIP • Preview every addition, update and conflict before anything is saved • Readerly reconstructs your reading history from dates in your file, marks estimated dates, and lets you undo the entire import with one tap • Optional AI Import Assistant for messy or unfamiliar exports • Cover and description lookup for books missing metadata • Books Finished, Day Streak, Pages Read and Minutes Read • Two charts on your real numbers: Books Finished by Month and print, digital and audio mix • Share cards as square images or silent 9:16 videos READERLY PRO Readerly Pro turns your log into a deeper view of how you actually read. Unlock deeper charts and insights, including reading momentum, daily rhythm, the hours and weekdays you read, genre currents, per-book reading journeys, genre mix, rating shape, author affinity, completion patterns, length versus rating, a six-axis taste profile, and a deck of the strongest insights your history can support. Explore your reading by year or month. Choose any month and tap pages or listening bars to see the books behind your totals. Tap a rating, author or genre to see the books behind the number. Share your reading highlights. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your books, sessions, ratings, notes, quotes, dates and progress live in a private database on your iPhone. Book lookup sends only what identifies the book, such as an ISBN or title and author. No ads. No third-party analytics. No tracking. AI IS OPTIONAL Readerly includes two optional AI tools on the import screen, and neither runs unless you ask. It can send titles and authors of uncategorized books to Anthropic's Claude to suggest a genre from Readerly's fixed list, or send your file's column names and limited samples to suggest how they map. Readerly asks first and tells you what will be sent. Readerly Pro is an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription at the price shown before purchase. Cancel any time in your Apple Account settings. Built for people who want more from a reading tracker than a list of books. Subscribe to Readerly Pro to unlock deeper insights, support continued development, and get a growing lineup of thoughtful new features. Privacy Policy: https://thereaderlyapp.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://thereaderlyapp.com/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Readerly at none against SlowRead's 4. Readerly also leads on ads (none vs shown) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). SlowRead's advantage is ratings volume (752 vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, monetization model and iOS requirement 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. SlowRead sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.39 per 7 days. Readerly asks for nothing beyond the download.
Readerly holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SlowRead has 752 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
SlowRead ships an update every 3 days, Readerly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SlowRead | Readerly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (752 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 22.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 752 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | #15 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 111 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Adrian Martinez Moreno | Jovanne Villarino |
Customer experience
SlowRead
Readerly
In-app purchases
SlowRead
- Premium Weekly$8.397 Days
- Premium Annual Offer$32.991 Year
- Premium Annual3 Days trial$44.991 Year
- Lifetime access to Slowread$149.99
Readerly
No in-app purchases








