Comparison

Biblio.ink vs Ex

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

Head to head
About

Biblio.ink

Organize your physical and digital book collections in a visually stunning 3D library. Browse your books on shelves, maps, or constellations, and enjoy a distraction-free reading experience. Share your curated shelves with others.

Highlights
  • Unified 3D library for physical and digital books
  • Multiple viewing modes: Shelf, Cascade, Map, Constellation, List
  • Integrated EPUB & PDF reader with markup support
  • Add books via barcode scan, photo, or manual entry
  • Shareable shelves via web link
  • Local-first data storage with iCloud sync option
Features
Read full description

Your unified library in 3D, your physical books and ebooks live together. Drop in an EPUB or PDF and watch it become a hardcover you can pick up, browse, and read. Biblio turns a folder of files into a library you actually want to visit. Every book stands on a real 3D shelf, spine, cover, and page edges you can reach in and pick up, turn over, and start reading. A pile of downloads becomes a collection you browse the way you browse a bookshelf at home. One library, every kind of book Your ebooks and your physical books live side by side. Scan a barcode, photograph a whole shelf at once, search by title or author, or add a book by hand. However it arrives, it stands on the same shelf. See your collection, your way • Shelf: your whole library on beautiful 3D shelves; pinch to see every book at once • Cascade: flip through your books like flipping through records • Map: Your library on a world map: books pin to the places they're about, and tapping a place fans out its covers. Pan, zoom, and switch between Map and Constellation in the Graph view. • Constellation: a quiet map of how your books connect to one another • List: search, sort, and organize in a tap A reader that gets out of the way Clean typography, smooth page turns, and a layout built for long reading. PDFs support markup with Apple Pencil. Your place is always saved. Share a shelf with anyone Publish a shelf to your own page at biblio.ink and send the link to a friend — no account required to view. Yours, and private Biblio is local-first: your library lives on your device. Turn on iCloud to keep it in sync across iPhone, iPad, and the web, privately. Biblio is for people who love books — not just reading them, but keeping them, arranging them, and coming back to them. Terms: https://biblio.ink/terms

About

Ex

Catalog your personal book collection, track where each book is, and manage loans to friends. Organize your physical library with smart shelving suggestions and a community feature to see what friends are lending.

Highlights
  • Scan and catalog books
  • Organize books by custom shelves
  • AI-powered shelf arrangement suggestions
  • Track book loans and returns
  • Community feature to see friends' shelves
  • Create custom book lists
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

Biblio.ink4 screens
Ex4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Ex at free against Biblio.ink's free with in-app purchases. Biblio.ink's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 days) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Biblio.ink sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Ex sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Biblio.ink against 5.0 for Ex. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Biblio.ink has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Biblio.ink ships an update every 2 days, Ex every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Biblio.ink versus Ex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBiblio.inkEx
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size83 MB23 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developergroov creator limitedLunabee Studio

Customer experience

Biblio.ink

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ex

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Biblio.ink

Subscriptions4
  • Biblio Member Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Premium Member Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Biblio Member1 Year trial$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Biblio Premium Member1 Year trial$99.991 Year
One-time2
  • Library$29.99
  • One-Time Purchase$149.00
3 purchases

Ex

One-time3
  • A coffee$2.99
  • A paperback$3.99
  • A hardcover$8.99

Questions

Is Biblio.ink free?
Biblio.ink is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ex free?
Ex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Biblio.ink or Ex?
Biblio.ink and Ex are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Biblio.ink or Ex have ads?
Neither Biblio.ink nor Ex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Biblio.ink or Ex?
Biblio.ink ships an update every 2 days, and Ex every 4 days. Most recently, Biblio.ink was updated on November 10, 2026 and Ex on November 10, 2026.

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