Papyrus vs Marka
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Papyrus
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Papyrus turns everything you've read into a warm, real bookshelf ā right on your iPhone home screen. A cozy private library you actually want to look at. BRING YOUR LIBRARY HOME Every book you've read, standing on a beautiful shelf you can glance at without opening anything. As you finish books, the newest ones slide to the front ā so your home screen quietly tells the story of what you've been reading, all year long. Still fully customizable, move the books around how you want, make changes to the shelf and background. THE WIDGET One of our premium paid features is to add the Papyrus widget in small, medium, or large. Your shelf lives on your home screen, gorgeous and glanceable. If you aren't interested in seeing the books then you can see your reading statistics - how many books and pages you've read this year. IMPORT IN SECONDS Bring your reading history over from Goodreads, StoryGraph, or any CSV in a single tap. Your past library fills your shelf instantly. No problem if you don't have any accounts - you can add books individually from our massive library. THREE WAYS TO SEE YOUR SHELF - Spine view with procedurally illustrated, cover-matched spines - Cover view to show off your front covers - A 3/4 perspective "crate" mode that feels like a real shelf Press and scrub to browse, and drag to reorder your books exactly how you like them. STATS THAT FEEL LIKE A FOLIO, NOT A DASHBOARD See how you rate, your fiction vs. nonfiction split, the decades you read across, and your favorite authors and genres ā all rendered in big serif numerals with room to breathe. Look back on your year with Reading Wrapped. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Export your whole library any time ā as a spreadsheet (CSV/XLSX) or a self-contained offline webpage. Free or Pro, your library is always yours to take with you. FREE TO START Try everything with up to 10 books in your collection ā a real, full-fidelity trial, not a locked demo. Your wishlist is always unlimited and free. Upgrade to Pro to remove the collection cap and unlock your full library. Upgrade to Pro to unlock the full experience: - Unlimited collection ā shelve every book you've ever read, no cap - Your complete library on every widget size and display mode - Full reading stats and Reading Wrapped across your entire history - Export your whole library any time ā CSV, XLSX, or a self-contained offline webpage - No ads, no tracking, and your data is never sold ā free or Pro Built by one person who wanted their bookshelf on their home screen. No ads. Your data is not sold. Just a beautiful place to keep the books you love. Bring your library home. Terms of Use (EULA): https://papyrus-b03fd.web.app/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://papyrus-b03fd.web.app/privacy.html
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
Papyrus and Marka are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters ā price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them ā neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Papyrus sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Marka sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Papyrus | Marka |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | ā | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad ā better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 ā better | 18.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tyler Nam | Tedi Kurniadi |
In-app purchases
Papyrus
- Papyrus_monthly$1.991 Month
- papyrus yearly$14.991 Year
- papyrus lifetime$39.99
Marka
- Marka Supporter$39.99









