Comparison

Shelfd vs Readerly

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

Head to head
About

Shelfd

Organize your reading life with a charming book tracker. Log what you're reading, discover your next book with a spin of a wheel, and visualize your reading habits with personalized stats and achievements. Enjoy a cozy, ad-free experience with optional premium features for advanced tracking.

Highlights
  • Track current, finished, and to-be-read books
  • Spin a wheel to pick your next read
  • Organize books by genre with custom colors
  • Set reading goals and view yearly stats
  • Earn achievements narrated by an Archivist
  • Import libraries from other apps (CSV)
  • Backup and restore your library
Features
Read full description

A warm, unhurried home for your reading life. Shelfd keeps a quiet record of everything you've read and everything still waiting — without turning your hobby into a job. No leaderboards. No guilt for the week you didn't finish anything. HOWEVER YOU READ IT Paper, ebook, or audiobook — track them side by side on the same shelf. Audiobooks count down in hours and minutes remaining, the way your listening app shows them, so there's no maths to do when you log your progress. YOUR SHELF, ACTUALLY SHELVED Finished books stand as real spines, coloured from their own covers. Browse them as a shelf or a list, and build your own collections for classics, comfort rereads, or whatever you're hoarding this month. SPIN THE WHEEL Too many books, not enough decisions. Load up your TBR, give it a spin, and let fate choose your next read. A GOAL WORTH HITTING Set a books-per-year target and watch the arrow move toward the bullseye. Miss it and nothing bad happens. Hit it and something rather nice does. THE SHAPE OF YOUR TASTE See which genres you actually gravitate to, how you read — paper, screen, or headphones — and the quiet trends across your year. ACHIEVEMENTS, STAMPED Every finished book earns a mark from the Archivist, who keeps your records in impeccable order and is quietly more invested than he lets on. BRING YOUR LIBRARY Coming from Goodreads or StoryGraph? Import your whole history from a single file and pick up where you left off. Back up your shelf whenever you like — your library is yours, and it stays on your device. SCAN AND GO Point the camera at a barcode and the book is on your shelf, page count and cover included. SHELFD PREMIUM Read up to three books at once, unlock the Ratings Card with half-stars and emoji vibes for how a book actually felt, get the deeper genre breakdown, and build unlimited shelves and lists. "Keep reading. That's all I ask." — The Archivist SHELFD PREMIUM — SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Shelfd Premium is available as a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription, or as a one-time Founders Group purchase. A 7-day free trial is included with the subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://joinshelfd.com/privacy.html

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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 • 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 • 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. 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. Explore your reading by year or month. 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. Built for people who want more from a reading tracker than a list of books. Subscribe to Readerly Pro to unlock deeper insights, support continued development, and get a growing lineup of thoughtful new features. Privacy Policy: https://thereaderlyapp.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://thereaderlyapp.com/terms/

Screenshots

Shelfd4 screens
Readerly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Readerly at 5.0 against Shelfd's 4.0. Readerly also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.2). Shelfd's advantage is update cadence (daily vs weekly) and ratings volume (4 vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model 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. Shelfd sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Readerly asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Readerly holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shelfd ships an update daily, Readerly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Shelfd versus Readerly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShelfdReaderly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyDaily — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS26.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB13 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperZachary SelburgJovanne Villarino

Customer experience

Shelfd

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Readerly

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Shelfd

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Shelfd Founders Group$59.99
None

Readerly

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shelfd free?
Shelfd is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Readerly free?
Readerly is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shelfd or Readerly?
Readerly is rated higher. Shelfd averages 4.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Readerly averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Shelfd or Readerly have ads?
Neither Shelfd nor Readerly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shelfd or Readerly?
Shelfd ships an update daily, and Readerly weekly. Most recently, Shelfd was updated on October 9, 2026 and Readerly on October 7, 2026.

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