Better Bookshelf vs Readerly
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Better Bookshelf
Consolidate all your books from physical shelves, Kindle, and Audible into a single, private digital library. Easily add books by scanning barcodes, taking photos, or importing existing libraries. Revisit your favorite highlighted passages and track your reading progress.
- Scan barcodes or covers to add books
- Import Kindle and Audible libraries
- Consolidate books across multiple formats
- Save and revisit highlighted passages
- Track reading status and personal ratings
- Mark books as lent
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Scan an entire bookshelf. Find the book you want. Remember the book, but not where you put it? Take one clear photo of your bookshelf. Better Bookshelf uses AI to identify the books and save their positions. Add matched titles to your library, then search for a book and see it highlighted on your shelf photo. YOUR WHOLE SHELF, ONE PHOTO Build your book inventory without scanning every barcode. Photograph a bookshelf, add identified books together, and help with any uncertain matches. Search by title, scan a barcode, or link a book already in your library. KNOW WHERE YOUR BOOKS ARE Search your saved shelves by title or author. Tap a result to see the book's location, with a close-up and nearby identified books to guide you. You can also choose Find on shelf from a book in your library. KEEP UP WITH YOUR COLLECTION Give each shelf a name. When books move, take a new photo to update that shelf. Better Bookshelf checks your existing library for matches, helping you connect books you already own to their locations. YOUR READING LIFE, TOGETHER • Catalog physical books, ebooks and audiobooks. • Add individual books by barcode or title. • Import supported Kindle, Audible and Goodreads CSV files. • Track unread, reading and read books. • Keep a reading list and record ratings and reviews. • Back up your library to Google Drive. START WITH 50 BOOKS FREE Use barcode scanning or title search to catalog your first 50 books. Whole-shelf AI scanning is included with the paid Unlimited upgrade. UNLIMITED BOOKS. SIX WHOLE-SHELF AI SCANS. The one-time Unlimited purchase removes your library-size limit and includes six AI shelf scans. Already purchased Unlimited? Restore your purchase to link your included scans. The six included scans are granted once, not every month. Need more? Buy additional packs of six scans. Your local price is shown before purchase. One successfully processed shelf photo uses one scan credit, including a new photo used to update a shelf. Fixing matches, adding identified books and searching saved shelves use no scan credits. ABOUT SHELF SCANNING AI scanning requires internet access. Your selected photo is sent to OpenAI through Better Bookshelf for identification. Clear, well-lit photos with readable spines work best. Some books may need correction or manual identification. Shelf locations reflect your saved photo; update it when books move. Your saved library and shelf photos stay on your device, with optional Google Drive backup. Google Drive sign-in is not required to scan a shelf.
Readerly
Track your reading habits with detailed statistics and insights. Log books, notes, and quotes, and visualize your reading life over time. Offers advanced analytics for a deeper understanding of your reading patterns.
- Detailed reading statistics
- Log books, notes, and quotes
- Visualize reading pace and trends
- Private data storage on device
- Barcode scanning for books
- Import reading data from files
- Shareable reading insights
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You know roughly how much you read. Readerly tells you exactly. Readerly turns your reading history into a clear picture of your reading life: how your pace changes through the year, what you reach for, which authors you return to, when you read most, and how this year compares with every year before it. Save Private Notes & Quotes, too, so the parts of a book you want to remember stay with your reading life. No account. No sign-in. Your library stays on your iPhone. WHY THE NUMBERS HOLD UP A chart is only useful if the number under it is right. Audiobooks are counted in hours. Insight cards show the evidence behind what they say: how many sessions contributed, what window was measured, and whether there is enough data to support the result. If there is not, Readerly says so instead of inventing an average. Your reading data also outranks the catalog. If you are on page 628 of a book a database says has 623 pages, Readerly accepts 628 and offers to correct the book length. Reopen any reading session and change the date, pages or minutes. Start and finish dates are yours to set. Correcting your own reading history is never behind Readerly Pro. WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION • Three free Library choices: Plain, The Book Dragon and A Distant Kingdom • Unlimited books and reading sessions, stored on your device • Private Notes & Quotes • Haptic quarter-star ratings, so a book can be 4¼ instead of being forced to 4 or 4½ • Searchable genres and custom cover images • Log the page you are actually on, not pages-read arithmetic • Live reading pace and projected finish date for every active book • Barcode scanning • Bookstore Mode: continuously scan shelves and instantly see whether a book is already yours or already read • Import from CSV, TSV, XLSX or ZIP • Preview every addition, update and conflict before anything is saved • Readerly reconstructs your reading history from dates in your file, marks estimated dates, and lets you undo the entire import with one tap • Optional AI Import Assistant for messy or unfamiliar exports • Cover and description lookup for books missing metadata • Books Finished, Day Streak, Pages Read and Minutes Read • Two charts on your real numbers: Books Finished by Month and print, digital and audio mix • Explore your reading by year • Share cards as square images or silent 9:16 videos READERLY PRO Readerly Pro turns your log into a deeper view of how you actually read. It also includes thirteen additional Library wallpapers. Unlock deeper charts and insights, including reading momentum, daily rhythm, the hours and weekdays you read, genre currents, per-book reading journeys, genre mix, rating shape, author affinity, completion patterns, length versus rating, a six-axis taste profile, and a deck of the strongest insights your history can support. Choose any month and tap pages or listening bars to see the books behind your totals. Tap a rating, author or genre to see the books behind the number. Share your reading highlights. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your books, sessions, ratings, notes, quotes, dates and progress live in a private database on your iPhone. Book lookup sends only what identifies the book, such as an ISBN or title and author. No ads. No third-party analytics. No tracking. AI IS OPTIONAL Readerly includes two optional AI tools on the import screen, and neither runs unless you ask. It can send titles and authors of uncategorized books to Anthropic's Claude to suggest a genre from Readerly's fixed list, or send your file's column names and limited samples to suggest how they map. Readerly asks first and tells you what will be sent. Readerly Pro is an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription at the price shown before purchase. Cancel any time in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: https://thereaderlyapp.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://thereaderlyapp.com/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Readerly at 5.0 against Better Bookshelf's 4.2. Better Bookshelf's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). 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
Both are free to download. Better Bookshelf sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Readerly sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Readerly holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Better Bookshelf has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Better Bookshelf ships an update every 3 days, Readerly weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Better Bookshelf | Readerly |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (6 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Matthew Smith | Jovanne Villarino |
Customer experience
Better Bookshelf
Readerly
In-app purchases
Better Bookshelf
- Premium — Unlimited Library$9.99
- 6 Whole Shelf AI Scans$10.00
- Premium — Unlimited Library$29.99
Readerly
- Readerly Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Readerly Pro Yearly$39.991 Year








