Comparison

MindShelf vs Dear Reader

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

Head to head
About

MindShelf

Features
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MindShelf helps you remember what you read. Build your personal shelf of books, save meaningful notes, capture quotes, and return to ideas that matter. Instead of losing highlights in screenshots, notebooks, or scattered notes apps, MindShelf gives every book its own clean space for your thoughts. Features • Build your personal digital bookshelf • Search and add books instantly • Save notes, quotes, lessons, and reflections • Organize thoughts by book • View reading insights and patterns • Beautiful minimal design built for focus • Secure sync across devices Why MindShelf? Reading creates ideas. MindShelf helps you keep them. Whether you read self-development, business, fiction, or philosophy, MindShelf becomes your private library of knowledge and memories. Download MindShelf and start building a shelf worth revisiting.

About

Dear Reader

Read full description

Dear Reader is a quiet reading reflection journal for people who want to remember books by what they made them think, not by how many pages they finished. You do not need to complete a book to keep something meaningful from it. One sentence that stopped you, and one thought in your own words, can be enough. Dear Reader helps you save that moment as a discovery and revisit it later. ā–  One sentence, one thought Save a sentence from a book and add the thought it sparked. The original sentence and your reflection stay together on one discovery card. ā–  Reading without completion pressure Dear Reader is not built around finished books, page counts, timers, or productivity goals. It is built around the small moments when a book makes you pause. ā–  Prompts when the blank page feels hard Gentle prompts and quick reaction chips help you begin your reflection. You can write a sentence, a paragraph, or just enough to remember why the moment mattered. ā–  Revisit what you saved A saved sentence can meet you again later. Return to past discoveries and notice how the same words feel different with time. ā–  A bookshelf shaped by discoveries Your bookshelf is not only a list of books. It quietly shows the thoughts and discoveries each book left behind. ā–  Connect reflections across books Use tags to find discoveries that share a theme, even when they came from different books. Over time, scattered sentences begin to show the shape of your thinking. ā–  A private, local-first space Dear Reader starts without an app account. Your sentences, thoughts, books, and settings are stored primarily on your device. There is no public feed, follower count, or reading competition. Dear Reader is for readers who: - save good sentences but rarely return to them - want a reading journal without writing long entries every day - care more about reflection than finishing more books - want to keep book sentences and personal thoughts together - prefer a calm private space over a social reading feed Keep what books made you think. One sentence and one thought can become a reading habit that lasts.

Screenshots

MindShelf4 screens
Dear Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: MindShelf at none against Dear Reader's shown. MindShelf also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
MindShelf versus Dear Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMindShelfDear Reader
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 9 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB51 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperFawaz AlkhodierMoonsun Yang

In-app purchases

None

MindShelf

No in-app purchases

None

Dear Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MindShelf free?
MindShelf is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dear Reader free?
Dear Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do MindShelf or Dear Reader have ads?
Dear Reader shows ads; MindShelf does not.

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