Comparison

Understory vs Litmark

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

Head to head
About

Understory

This app helps you track your reading progress, set goals, and build a consistent reading habit. It features a unique plant aesthetic, social interaction with friends, and the ability to grow real-world trees by meeting reading objectives. Organize your library, share recommendations, and gain insights into your reading habits.

Highlights
  • Track reading progress and log books
  • Set reading goals and streaks
  • Grow real-world trees by meeting objectives
  • Social features for book groups and friends
  • Organize library with custom lists
  • Share book recommendations
  • View reading statistics and insights
Features
Read full description

Understory is a reading tracker, book tracker, and social reading app designed to help you track books, log reading progress, set reading goals, and stay consistent. Whether you’re organizing your bookshelf, building a reading habit, or joining a book group, Understory brings together everything you need in one place with a fun plant aesthetic. Join the Understory bookish community to build a better reading habit and build a better world! GROW REAL-LIFE TREES: Watch your garden bloom in Understory and meet monthly objectives to grow real-world trees! Visit friends’ gardens daily to help their trees grow! INTERACT WITH FRIENDS: Join book groups where you and your friends can read different books! Like and comment on reviews in the social feed! TRACK YOUR READING: Review your books with half stars, audiobook tags and private reads! Manage your library with custom reading lists including a Did Not Finish (DNF) list! LEVEL UP YOUR READING: Improve your reading habit with leaderboards for books read, reading streaks, and XP level! Earn XP by logging reading and interacting with other users! SHARE BOOK RECS: See your friends’ favorite and highly rated books and share book recommendations directly with your friends! SEE YOUR STATS: Get insights on your reading history and social interactions through shareable stats and graphs and our signature Library Card graphic! Understory is perfect for readers who want to: - Track books and reading progress in one place - Build a daily reading habit and reading streak by growing a fun garden that doesn’t feel like a chore - Log books, reviews, and ratings (with half stars!) - Organize a TBR (to be read) list - Track audiobooks and ebooks - Join a social book community - Discover new book recommendations Terms of Use: https://www.understory-app.com/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.understory-app.com/privacy-policy Content and Copyright Policy: https://www.understory-app.com/content-copyright-policy

About

Litmark

Features
Read full description

A book tracker for your whole reading journey, kept like a library card. Litmark helps you track what you're reading, remember the lines that stuck with you, and build a habit you can see — no account, no sync required. Your library lives on your phone. BRING YOUR SHELF WITH YOU Already track your books somewhere else? Export your library from Goodreads or The StoryGraph, and Litmark reads that file straight in — so the books you've already read come with you instead of starting from an empty shelf. SCAN THE BARCODE, SKIP THE TYPING Hold your camera over the barcode on the back of a book and its details fill themselves in. Or type everything in yourself, if the barcode won't cooperate. TRACK YOUR SHELF Move books through Want to Read, Reading, and Read. Log reading sessions and pages as you go, and watch your progress build automatically. See your library as a list, a grid, or standing on real wooden shelves, and filter or search it by genre and status when it grows. SEE WHERE THE TIME WENT Every book keeps its own stats — pages read, time spent, when you added it — and a full reading history of every session behind it. CAPTURE QUOTES BY SCANNING THE PAGE Point your camera at a page and Litmark reads the text for you — no manual typing. Save the lines worth remembering, then turn any quote into a shareable card, with your own background color or photo. BUILD A READING STREAK A visible, day-by-day streak turns reading into a habit instead of a resolution you forget by February. Weekly, monthly, and yearly summary cards show how far you've actually come. A LAMP FOR PAPER BOOKS Turn the screen itself into a warm, dimmable reading light — candle-warm through to daylight-white — for finishing a chapter in bed without waking anyone. DECORATE YOUR SHELF Set plants, creatures, framed art, lamps, and small ornaments along the shelf, and arrange them wherever you like — a library corner that looks like yours rather than a database. EARN STAMPS AS YOU READ Reading milestones unlock collectible stamps — Glancer, Skimmer, Explorer, Devourer, Bookworm — like stamps in a passport for your library card. YOUR OWN MEMBER CARD A personal card design that reflects your reading identity, shareable like a stat card for your shelf. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no cloud sync, no ads. Your books and quotes stay on your device, and you can back up your whole shelf and restore it whenever you need. LITMARK PRO Unlock every appearance and sound, your full streak history, 10 additional premium stamps, and the full set of shelf decorations — as a monthly subscription, a yearly subscription, or a one-time purchase. Everything else works without it. Whether you're rebuilding a reading habit, collecting quotes from your favorite books, or just want a library card for your own shelf — Litmark keeps it. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://litmark.hidayata.dev/privacy

Screenshots

Understory4 screens
Litmark4 screens

Verdict

The call

Understory and Litmark are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Understory sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Litmark sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Understory ships an update every 9 days, Litmark weekly. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Understory versus Litmark: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnderstoryLitmark
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (60 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews95.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings60 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.1 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB107 MB
Age rating12++4
DeveloperUnderstory Studios LLCArif Hidayat

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Understory

Subscriptions4
  • Understory Premium1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Understory Premium - Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Understory Premium1 Year trial$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Understory Premium - Yearly$49.991 Year
One-time2
  • Streak Freeze$0.99
  • Streak Restore$0.99
4 purchases

Litmark

Subscriptions2
  • Litmark Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Litmark Pro Yearly$6.991 Year
One-time2
  • Litmark Pro (Early Bird)$4.99
  • Litmark Pro$19.99

Questions

Is Understory free?
Understory is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Litmark free?
Litmark is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Understory or Litmark have ads?
Neither Understory nor Litmark shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Understory or Litmark?
Understory ships an update every 9 days, and Litmark weekly. Most recently, Understory was updated on November 1, 2026 and Litmark on November 1, 2026.

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