Comparison

Book Memo vs Bookspine

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

Head to head
About

Book Memo

Features
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Book Memo is a Japanese-language app. Every screen is in Japanese, and automatic cover lookup is designed for books published in Japan. Keep the books you have read on a wooden shelf, cover out, together with what you thought while reading them. - Type a title and the cover, author and publisher are filled in for you - Four views: shelf, spines, list and cards - Three kinds of notes (thoughts, summaries and quotes), each with a page number - Full-text search across every note, title, author and publisher - To-read, reading and finished, with 5-star ratings - When you finish a book, see other books by the same author on Rakuten Books (ad links) - Reading stats: books finished this year and the authors you read most - Export to Markdown (one file per book, handy for Obsidian) or CSV (for Notion), and restore from a backup file - No account and no email address needed. Your notes stay on your device Please note - Covers and book data come from Rakuten Books (Supported by Rakuten Developers). Lookup may be temporarily unavailable when busy, and books published outside Japan are often not found. You can always set a cover from your own photo, and your books and notes are never lost

About

Bookspine

Features
Read full description

The book you're reading, on your Home Screen. Bookspine is a reading widget with no subscription and no ads: add a book, and your current read — with a progress ring — sits on the Home Screen. Tap the widget to add pages without opening the app. Most reading apps keep the widget behind a subscription. Here the widget is the point, so the Small one is free, and the number of books is never limited. ■ Free ・Small widget: the book you're reading, its cover or spine, and how far you are ・Add pages right on the widget (iOS 17 interactive widgets) ・Unlimited books — no five-book cap ・Finished books stay on your shelf, free, forever ・Search by title or author, or scan the ISBN barcode ・Works without a connection: you can always add a book by hand ・Set a reading goal for this year and see how close you are ■ Bookspine Pro (one-time purchase, not a subscription) ・Medium widget: cover, progress bar, pages left, books this year ・Large widget: this year's shelf — every book you've finished, lined up ・Lock Screen widgets: your progress without unlocking ・See your shelf by spines or by covers ・Reading goal widget: how far to this year's goal, on the Home and Lock Screens ・Year in review: books per month, pages read, your thickest book and the year's shelf — past years too ・iCloud sync: books, progress and your goal, the same on all your devices — even after a new iPhone ・To-read shelf widget: your to-read pile as spines, in Medium and Large ・Import from Goodreads: bring in what you've read, are reading and want to read from your export file, in one go ・Spine colors: pick the color of any book's spine ■ The shelf Books you finish line up on a shelf, oldest to newest. Books without a cover are drawn as a spine — a colour and the title — so the shelf never has grey holes in it. ■ Privacy Your books stay on your device. Only if you turn on iCloud sync (Pro), they sync through your own iCloud between devices signed in to your Apple Account — the developer never sees them. No account, no ads, no tracking. Only anonymous usage (which screens and widget sizes are used, whether Pro was purchased) is sent to improve the app — never your books, names or any Apple identifier. You can turn it off in Settings. Turn on “Also find covers on Apple Books” in Settings to fill in covers Open Library doesn't have (off by default). Book data comes from Open Library.

Screenshots

Book Memo4 screens
Bookspine3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Book Memo at none against Bookspine's 1. Bookspine's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Bookspine sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Book Memo asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Book Memo ships an update every 2 weeks, Bookspine every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Book Memo versus Bookspine: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBook MemoBookspine
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYuki TagamiMinari Taniguchi

In-app purchases

None

Book Memo

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Bookspine

One-time1
  • Bookspine Pro$7.99

Questions

Is Book Memo free?
Book Memo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bookspine free?
Bookspine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Book Memo or Bookspine have ads?
Neither Book Memo nor Bookspine shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Book Memo or Bookspine?
Book Memo ships an update every 2 weeks, and Bookspine every 3 days. Most recently, Book Memo was updated on October 31, 2026 and Bookspine on October 31, 2026.

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