ChapterPals vs Marka
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChapterPals
This app helps you track your reading progress and manage your book club. Organize your reading lists, log progress, and discover new books. It also facilitates book club discussions, voting on the next read, and tracking member progress.
- Track reading progress by page or percent
- Organize books into custom shelves
- Set and track reading goals
- Create and manage book clubs
- Vote on next book selections
- Chapter-based discussion threads
- Daily 'Guess the Book' puzzle
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Track every book you read, and keep your book club actually running. ChapterPals does both in one calm, friendly place. Most reading apps track books alone. Most club tools are a group text that slowly goes quiet. ChapterPals puts the two together, so the book you are reading and the people you are reading it with live side by side. TRACK YOUR READING Shelves for what you are reading, what you finished, and what you want to read next, plus custom shelves for anything else you want to keep. Log your progress by page or percent, rate books when you finish, and write reviews you will actually want to reread later. Set a reading goal and watch it fill in over the year. Already have a list somewhere else? Import it and pick up where you left off. Point your camera at a real bookshelf and ChapterPals will read the spines and find the titles, or scan a barcode to add a single book fast. Browse by genre, follow an author, or see a whole series in order. RUN YOUR BOOK CLUB Start a club in under a minute, or join one with an invite code from a friend. You can also browse public clubs by city, filter for in person or virtual, and search by the vibes you are after. Pick the next book together with a vote, so nobody has to be the one who decides. Set the night and the place, let everyone RSVP going, maybe or cannot make it, and add it to your calendar in a tap. See how far along everyone is, so nobody arrives half a book behind. Discussion threads stay organized by chapter, so you can talk about what you have read without spoiling what you have not. Stuck for something to say? Starter questions are ready when you need them. Every book your club has read together is kept as a history you can look back on. READ WITH FRIENDS Add pals and see what they are reading right now. Share a shelf, recommend a book straight to someone, and get a nudge when a friend finishes something you have been eyeing. AND A LITTLE FUN Guess the Book is a new puzzle every day. A blurred cover, five tries, and a fresh clue with every guess. Build a streak and compare notes with your club. Tier boards let you rank everything you have read exactly how you want, then share the result. ChapterPals is free to use, works on your phone and in your browser, and never sells your reading history. Reading is better with friends.
Marka
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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. No account, no ads, no subscription. Paperbacks, hardcovers, eBooks and audiobooks all work: track by page, by percentage, or by listening time. 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. • Pick a cover from another edition, or photograph your own copy. 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 • 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, your monthly reading calendar, goal progress and your bookcase. • Post to Instagram Stories, save to phone, or share anywhere. WIDGETS • Continue Reading: your current book and progress, with a button that starts a session. • Currently Reading: every book in progress, one tap to each. • Goal: today's minutes or this year's books, on the Home Screen or the Lock Screen. • Bookcase: your shelves on the Home Screen, rearranged right from the widget. 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
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ChapterPals at none against Marka's 1. ChapterPals also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 10 days) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 18.0). 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
Both are free to download. Marka sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ChapterPals asks for nothing beyond the download.
ChapterPals ships an update every 2 days, Marka every 10 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | ChapterPals | Marka |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Edward Buchholz | Tedi Kurniadi |
In-app purchases
ChapterPals
No in-app purchases
Marka
- Marka Supporter$39.99









