Comparison

Bookgeist vs Unshelved

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

Head to head
About

Bookgeist

Features
Read full description

Bookgeist is an app for organizing your books, tracking your reading, and preserving everything that happens along the way. But it’s much more than a library manager. You can organize books, collections, and series; track reading sessions and progress; save quotes; build your reading history; explore statistics, goals, and reading memories; and create a notebook that connects characters, places, theories, notes, and everything else you discover between the pages. Bookgeist tries to preserve something that usually gets lost: not just which books you’ve read, but what those books left with you. YOUR LIBRARY Organize all your books and create a space of your own for your collection. • A complete library with multiple views, filters, and search. • Manual and smart collections. • Series and sagas with their own dedicated space. • Favorites, TBRs, and personal lists. • Built to handle large libraries, too. YOUR READING Bookgeist stays with you while you read. • Track reading sessions and reading time. • Plan what you want to read next. • Follow your progress and reading streaks. • Explore your activity and reading calendar. • Keep a complete history for every book. • Discover statistics, goals, and your year in reading. • Track loans and purchases. THE NOTEBOOK This is where Bookgeist becomes a little less conventional. The Notebook isn’t just for writing notes. You can save quotes, characters, places, creatures, organizations, theories, images, audio, and other elements from your reading. And then you can connect them. Link characters to one another, connect places with events, build family trees, follow theories, or create a map of everything you’ve discovered inside a book. A book may end. Your notebook doesn’t have to. Bookgeist is free to download and use, with no limits on books or reading sessions. Bookgeist Studio unlocks advanced features through a subscription. BOOKGEIST STUDIO Studio expands Bookgeist for readers who want to take their library and reading much further. • Full series features, progress tracking, and notebooks shared across all books in a series. • Favorite quotes and books, rankings, Tier Lists, and Wrap-ups. • Upcoming releases and reminders. • Achievements, badges, and collectible items. • Your year in reading and special shelves: Hall of Fame, yearly reads, and your full library in alphabetical order. • More themes, fonts, and alternative views. • Detailed analysis of your library, reading habits, and spending. • AI-powered features: recognize books and entire shelves to import them into your library, generate images of characters from your own descriptions, and much more. PRIVATE. LOCAL. YOURS. Your books, notes, and reading history live on your phone. No account required, and the core features work offline. Your library isn’t a public profile, and your notes remain private unless you choose to share them with someone. It’s your library. It stays with you. AND GEISTY Geisty is the little spirit that lives inside Bookgeist. He’ll keep you company while you read and appear in different corners of the app. His name shares the same root as Bookgeist: Geist, the German word for “spirit.” Bookgeist also plays on the idea of Zeitgeist — the “spirit of an age” — to imagine something like the spirit of books. The one that lives within every book. The one that runs through our reading. And, above all, the one that stays with us long after we’ve finished. That’s the kind of place I’m trying to build in Bookgeist. A place for your books. For your reading. And for everything they leave with you. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Unshelved

This app transforms your reading journey into visually appealing Home Screen widgets and a charming book stack. Easily track your progress, curate your library using photos, and manage your reading queue. It's designed for readers who love to showcase their books.

Highlights
  • Home Screen widgets
  • Shabby-chic book stack display
  • Page tracking
  • Library building from photos/screenshots
  • Reading queue management
Features
Read full description

Turn the books you read into a stack that grows with you. Track your progress, plan your next reads, and revisit each season through beautiful Home Screen widgets. Add books from photos or screenshots and share your stacks. No account, ads, or subscription. Optional tips support development.

Screenshots

Bookgeist4 screens
Unshelved4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Unshelved at daily against Bookgeist's fortnightly. Bookgeist's advantage is iOS requirement (16.4 vs 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. Bookgeist sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $3.90 per month and Unshelved sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bookgeist ships an update fortnightly, Unshelved daily. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Bookgeist versus Unshelved: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookgeistUnshelved
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (7 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—7 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size202 MB38 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperLuis Gonzalez LopezAbhilash Kuduvalli

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Bookgeist

Subscriptions2
  • Bookgeist Studio Monthly$3.901 Month
  • Bookgeist Studio Yearly$22.901 Year
One-time7
  • Buy me a coffee$1.99
  • Stamps 20$2.90
  • Stamps 40$3.90
Show 4 more
  • Movie night$8.99
  • Stamps 100$9.90
  • Treat me to a book!$17.90
  • Bookgeist Lifetime$34.99
3 purchases

Unshelved

One-time3
  • eBook Patron$0.99
  • Paperback Patron$2.99
  • Hardcover Patron$4.99

Questions

Is Bookgeist free?
Bookgeist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Unshelved free?
Unshelved is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bookgeist or Unshelved have ads?
Neither Bookgeist nor Unshelved shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bookgeist or Unshelved?
Bookgeist ships an update fortnightly, and Unshelved daily. Most recently, Bookgeist was updated on October 24, 2026 and Unshelved on October 24, 2026.

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