Comparison

Spine vs Gleam

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

Head to head
About

Spine

This app offers a beautiful and intuitive audiobook listening experience. It streams from your personal cloud library, syncs with Hardcover, and gamifies listening habits with levels and streaks. Enjoy features like an inline player, automatic chapter support, and on-device intelligence for recaps and summaries.

Highlights
  • Inline audiobook player
  • Automatic chapter support
  • Hardcover sync
  • On-device intelligence for recaps
  • Listener levels and streaks
  • Shareable year-in-review recap
  • Lock screen and widget controls
Features
Read full description

Spine is the audiobook app you'll actually leave open. It streams from your own cloud library, syncs with Hardcover, and turns the habit of listening into something worth coming back to with listener levels, daily streaks, and a year-in-review Recap bright enough to share. Built native for iOS 26, with Liquid Glass, serif typography, and a player carved into the book's detail page. No subscription. No ads. No in-app purchases. No account to create with us. Bring your own library, keep your own data. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT • ONE PAGE FOR THE BOOK: No separate Now Playing screen. Cover, scrubber, transport, speed, sleep timer, chapters, and bookmarks all live inline on the detail page, on an ambient backdrop tinted by the cover. • CHAPTERS THAT JUST WORK: Single-file M4B audiobooks expose their chapters automatically. Cloud folders with multiple M4Bs split into separate library entries. No manual editing, no reprocessing. • HARDCOVER SYNC: Just listen. Spine logs progress and finished books to Hardcover, pulls cover art, genre, and structured series data, and keeps your shelves in sync. • ON-DEVICE INTELLIGENCE: Open the next book in a tracked series and Spine writes a two-sentence "previously on…" recap from what you've already finished. It also rewrites bloated marketing descriptions into a calm summary, captions your Recap, and cleans up filename-salad titles. All on Apple's on-device foundation model. Nothing about your library leaves the phone. • LEVELS, STREAKS, AND GOALS: Lifetime hours unlock six tiers, from Sapling to Oracle. A unified daily/yearly goal card, a streak chip, and a year-spanning heatmap show the shape of your habit at a glance. • A RECAP YOU'LL WANT TO SHARE: Five bright screens covering hours, finished books, top author and genre, monthly rhythm, and the books you marked Read on Hardcover. One tap stitches the whole thing into a postable image. • PLAYBACK THAT PAYS ATTENTION: Step away for a moment and Spine rewinds a few seconds when you press play. The sleep timer fades audio gently to zero. Finish a series entry and the next book surfaces automatically. • LIVE ON THE LOCK SCREEN: Live Activities follow the current book onto the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, with a tappable Play/Pause. The home-screen widget mirrors the same control on a cover-tinted backdrop, toggle playback in one tap, even when Spine isn't running. • BOOKMARKS WORTH KEEPING: Tap to mark any moment with a written note. Tap to jump back later. • SEARCH THAT POINTS SOMEWHERE: Open the search tab cold and you get a trending-genre card tuned to what you actually listen to, a Discover list of Audible new releases, and trending shortcuts. Most people aren't searching their own shelf, they're looking for the next thing. • EVERY BOOK IS A DOORWAY: Detail pages carry "More by author", "Top in genre", and a "Part of {Series}" rail that interleaves the books you own with the Hardcover siblings you don't, in reading order, right under your bookmarks. • CLOUD LIBRARY, REPAIRED IN ONE TAP: When a cloud title expires or goes stale, Spine flags it on the detail page and offers a one-tap re-download. No re-adding, no losing your progress. • SPOTLIGHT-INDEXED: Search your library from anywhere in iOS. PRIVACY BY DEFAULT Spine has no servers, no analytics, and no third-party SDKs. API keys live in the iOS Keychain. Your library, listening history, and bookmarks stay on your device (and sync via your own iCloud, if you enable it). The on-device AI features run on Apple Intelligence — your books never leave the phone. REQUIREMENTS • iPhone running iOS 26. • A cloud audiobook library. • A free Hardcover account is recommended for metadata, search, and read sync. • Apple Intelligence-eligible device is required for the optional AI features (everything else works without it).

About

Gleam

Features
Read full description

Gleam is a smart reading tracker and focus app designed to make your reading life shine. Beyond just logging books, it helps you build a perfect reading habit with a focus-maximizing Pomodoro timer and an organized library management system. Key Features • Focus Reading Timer: Supports both stopwatch and Pomodoro timers to help you stay focused on your book at your own pace. • Live Activity & Dynamic Island: Check your real-time reading progress right from your Lock Screen or Dynamic Island without opening the app. • Detailed Reading Records: Easily log your reading progress (pages) and save your personal thoughts and reviews. • Smart Library Management: Search for books and neatly organize the ones you want to read, are currently reading, and have finished. • Daily Reading Reminders: Receive gentle push notifications to help you build and maintain a consistent reading habit. Start your beautiful reading journey today with Gleam!

Screenshots

Spine4 screens
Gleam4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Gleam at 13.0 against Spine's 26.0. 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Spine versus Gleam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpineGleam
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (31 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings31 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS26.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB29 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAccelyze Inc.purecentic

In-app purchases

None

Spine

No in-app purchases

None

Gleam

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spine free?
Spine is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Gleam free?
Gleam is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Spine or Gleam have ads?
Neither Spine nor Gleam shows ads.

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