Shelflog vs Marka
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Shelflog
Read full descriptionHide full description
Shelflog is a private, local-first reading tracker for people who want a beautiful personal library without a social network. Save books to Reading, TBR, and Finished shelves. Track ratings, pages, reading dates, private notes, quotes, and yearly goals. Search a bundled book catalog, scan an ISBN barcode, or add a title manually. Shelflog turns your reading year into clear, visual stats: - Yearly book and page progress - Monthly reading bars - Genre mix - Average rating - Reading streak - A shareable Year in Books recap Your library stays on your device in version 1.0. Shelflog has no account system, no ads, no analytics SDK, no tracking SDK, and no developer backend. Free plan: - Save up to 25 books - Use the minimal theme - Track your library and basic stats - Preview Year in Books with a Shelflog watermark Shelflog Premium is a one-time lifetime unlock: - Unlimited saved books - All visual themes - Full Year in Books export without watermark Book metadata and cover links may be provided by Open Library, an Internet Archive project. Shelflog is not affiliated with Open Library, Internet Archive, publishers, authors, or booksellers.
Marka
Read full descriptionHide full description
Marka is a reading tracker for people who want to know what they read, how fast they read it, and which lines stayed with them. Now with a cozy pixel farm that grows while you read. No account, no ads, no subscription. Paperbacks, hardcovers, eBooks and audiobooks all work: track by page, by percentage, or by listening time. GROW A READING FARM ⢠Every 5 minutes on the reading timer puts a drop of water in your well. Water your plots and watch tomatoes and carrots grow. ⢠Read more and the farm opens up, clear the wild, till new plots, and welcome hens, ducks, a goat and a cow, an orchard, a barn and a greenhouse. ⢠Free up to nine plots, with the hens and carrot seeds. The one-time unlock opens every reward after that, and Away Mode. BUILD YOUR LIBRARY IN MINUTES ⢠Scan a whole stack of books, one barcode after another. Books already in your library are flagged, and "Add all" files the rest in one tap. ⢠Search by title, author or ISBN. Cover, description, publisher, page count and genre are filled in for you. ⢠Import a Goodreads or StoryGraph export with your shelves, ratings, and start and finish dates. TIME YOUR READING ⢠A one-tap timer that keeps counting while you leave the app, with pause and resume. ⢠Live Activity and Dynamic Island controls: check the time or finish a session without unlocking your phone. ⢠Forgot to start it? Log a past session by date and time. ⢠Marka works out your pages per hour, and how long is left in the book you are reading. NOTES WHILE YOU READ ⢠Save a quote, thought, question or summary in the middle of a session. The timer pauses while you write. ⢠Scan text straight from the page: photograph it, tap the first and last word, and the passage drops into your note. Recognition runs entirely on your device. ⢠Search every note across every book, filter by kind, and keep your favourites together. ⢠Turn any quote into a card and post it to your Instagram Story or save it to Photos. GOALS AND PACE ⢠A daily reading-time goal, with a calendar that checks off every day you hit it. ⢠A yearly book goal that fills with the covers of the books you finish. ⢠See the days left in the year, whether you are ahead or behind, and the pace it would take to finish. STATISTICS ⢠Total reading time, pages read, average speed, longest session, current and longest streak. ⢠A chart of your reading speed over the last 7 days, 30 days or the whole year. ⢠The genres you return to, and a calendar of covers showing what you read each day. YOUR BOOKCASE ⢠Stand your books on a wooden bookcase, move the decorations around the shelves, and switch the string lights on. ⢠Put the bookcase on your Home Screen as a widget and rearrange it from there. WHAT TO READ NEXT ⢠Can't decide? Shake your phone and one book jumps out of your To Be Read pile. Toss the covers around, or shake again for another. ⢠Recommendations drawn from the books you rated highly, each one showing why it was suggested. ⢠Keep a wishlist of the books you want, apart from the library you own. SHARE YOUR READING ⢠Cards for a finished book, a favorite quote, a month's reads, your year, your reading calendar, goal progress, your bookcase and your farm. ⢠Post to Instagram Stories, save to Photos, or share anywhere. WIDGETS ⢠Farm, Continue Reading, Currently Reading, Goal and Bookcase, on the Home Screen. The Goal widget also fits the Lock Screen. PRIVATE BY DESIGN ⢠No sign-up, no email, no password, no ads, no analytics. ⢠Your library, sessions, notes and goals stay on your device and sync only through your own iCloud account. ⢠Tracking, notes, goals and statistics work offline. A connection is only needed to look books up. Terms of Service: https://quitehillstudio.com/marka/terms Privacy Policy: https://quitehillstudio.com/marka/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
Shelflog and Marka are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters ā price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them ā neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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
Both are free to download. Shelflog sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Marka sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Shelflog | Marka |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | ā | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad ā better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 ā better | 18.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PByte Tech | Tedi Kurniadi |
In-app purchases
Shelflog
- Shelflog Premium$2.99
Marka
- Marka Supporter$39.99









