Comparison

Ex Libris Lookup vs Ex

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

Head to head
About

Ex Libris Lookup

Features
Read full description

Ex Libris Lookup — Know your books. Own your library. Ex Libris Lookup is a fast, private reference tool for readers, students, and librarians. Find the identifiers and details behind any book, build a personal library, and track your reading — all without accounts, ads, or tracking. Find any book Search by title, author, keyword, or ISBN and instantly pull the details you need. Or scan a book's ISBN barcode with your camera to search without typing a single character. Library identifiers at your fingertips Look up Dewey Decimal (DDC), ISBN, LCCN, ISSN, and ASIN numbers for cataloging, citations, and reference. Tap to copy any identifier in a moment. Your own library, on your device Save books to a personal library that lives entirely on your device — no cloud, no sign-in. Organize titles onto shelves, add books in bulk, and keep everything at hand offline. Scan whole shelves with AI (Pro) Point your camera at a bookshelf and let AI read the spines — add dozens of books to your library in one shot, no typing required. Smart collections (Pro) Build collections that organize themselves. Set rules — reading status, rating, format, Dewey class, subject, author, or tag — and books file themselves in automatically as your library changes. Shelf reports (Pro) Get an AI-crafted portrait of your library: its personality, highlights, and tailored suggestions for what to add next. Track loans and locations Lend a book without losing it. Record who borrowed what, set return reminders, and map your library's physical locations, room by room and shelf by shelf. Smart entry Adding books by hand is effortless. As you type, Ex Libris Lookup suggests authors and series drawn from your own saved library, so your catalog stays consistent and quick to build. Track your reading Mark books as want-to-read, reading, read, or did-not-finish. Record your current page to watch your progress, rate finished titles, and save memorable quotes and notes. Smart tags & summaries On-device text analysis suggests relevant tags and concise summaries for your books — processed right on your phone, never sent anywhere. For You recommendations Discover what to read next with personalized suggestions based on the tastes reflected in your own library. Statistics dashboard See your reading come to life with reading streaks, per-month charts, and insights into your habits over time. Citations made easy Generate clean citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, or BibTeX for any book in your library — perfect for essays, papers, and bibliographies. Private by design Ex Libris Lookup collects no personal information and requires no account. Everything you save stays on your device. Book searches are sent only to open book catalogs (Open Library and Google Books) to fetch results, and Pro's AI features send only the shelf photo or book list needed to generate results — nothing is sold or shared. The app sends a small number of anonymous, device-level diagnostics (such as anonymized purchase-error reports) to help us fix problems — these contain no personal information and are never used for advertising or tracking. No ads, no third-party trackers, no accounts — ever. Book data is provided by Open Library (openlibrary.org) and Google Books. Ex Libris Lookup is not affiliated with either service. Ex Libris Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription ($4.99/month or $29.99/year). Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and the subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: available in the app under Settings → Privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Ex

Catalog your personal book collection, track where each book is, and manage loans to friends. Organize your library with custom shelves and discover what your community is reading.

Highlights
  • Scan and catalog books
  • Organize books on custom shelves
  • AI-powered shelf arrangement suggestions
  • Search personal and community libraries
  • Manage book lending and borrowing
  • Create custom book lists
  • Connect with friends and share collections
Features
Read full description

Your books, and the ones going around. Ex-libris is the app for your own library: what you own, where it sits, and whose hands it is in. Not a reading list — an inventory of the books actually on your shelves. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY, ONE SHELF AT A TIME Open the scanner and walk along your shelves: the camera stays up, each barcode brings the book onto the screen, one tap files it, and the next one is already waiting. A book you have scanned before says so, so a second pass never creates duplicates. You can also search for a title and add it by hand. SHELVE THEM THE WAY THEY SIT AT HOME Create shelves and drag your books onto them, on a screen built for it: your shelves on one side, the books still to file on the other, and nothing written until you confirm. If you do not know where to start, "Suggest an arrangement" uses the AI built into your iPhone to propose shelves sized to your collection. You keep the last word: the proposal touches nothing before you accept it, and never disturbs what you arranged by hand. ONE SEARCH One field, three answers: your books, your friends' books, and the inventaire.io catalogue. Your own results first, your recent searches at hand, and the option to search by title or by author. LISTS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE To read, to give away, summer crime novels, the pile by the bed: create as many lists as you like, from a book or from the Lists tab. LEND, GIVE, SELL Mark a book as available to lend, to give away or to sell, and follow each transaction with the person concerned, messages included. You finally know who has your copy — and since when. THE COMMUNITY Find your friends, browse their shelves, see what they are willing to lend, and ask them for a book instead of buying it. BUILT ON INVENTAIRE.IO Ex-libris runs on inventaire.io, the open, non-profit book database: your account and your books are hosted there, author, work and edition pages come from its open data, and what you add benefits everyone. No ads, no data resale. Happy reading — and happy lending.

Screenshots

Ex Libris Lookup4 screens
Ex3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ex at none against Ex Libris Lookup's 2. Ex also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days). Ex Libris Lookup's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, ads 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. Ex Libris Lookup sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Ex asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ex Libris Lookup ships an update every 9 days, Ex every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Ex Libris Lookup versus Ex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEx Libris LookupEx
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGarst PetersonLunabee Studio

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Ex Libris Lookup

Subscriptions2
  • Ex Libris Pro Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Ex Libris Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
None

Ex

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ex Libris Lookup free?
Ex Libris Lookup is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ex free?
Ex is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Ex Libris Lookup or Ex have ads?
Neither Ex Libris Lookup nor Ex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ex Libris Lookup or Ex?
Ex Libris Lookup ships an update every 9 days, and Ex every 4 days. Most recently, Ex Libris Lookup was updated on October 8, 2026 and Ex on October 11, 2026.

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