Comparison

Bookends vs Dossier

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

Head to head
About

Bookends

Manage your research references and PDFs on your mobile device. Search online databases, import metadata, annotate PDFs, and organize your library. Offers basic functionality for free with optional one-time purchase and yearly subscription for advanced features like cloud sync and unlimited imports.

Highlights
  • Search online reference databases
  • Import metadata and PDFs
  • PDF annotation and markup
  • Barcode scanning for references
  • Cloud sync across devices
  • Share online libraries
  • Create multiple libraries
Features
Read full description

Bookends is the reference management app you've been looking for. The basic version offers: • Search online sites directly (arXiv, Google Books, Google Scholar, JSTOR, the Library of Congress, PubMed, PubMed Central, and Semantic Scholar) or use the built-in browser (EZProxy-compliant) to download reference metadata and PDFs (access privileges required). Searches can return a maximum of 20 references, and only 50 references can be stored in your personal database. • Use unique identifiers such as DOI, PMID, ISBN, or arXiv id to autofill references. • View the text of PDF annotations in a note stream, and create your own with our powerful PDF markup engine. • Barcode scanning, one per day. • And many more features designed to help you discover, organize, and use reference information. Standard, one-time purchase ($14.99): • No limit on searches or importing. Premium, yearly subscription ($14.99). Requires a Standard purchase. • Cloud sync with all your iOS devices and Bookends for Mac (separate purchase). • Share online libraries with colleagues. • Scan documents with Mellel Mobile*. • Create multiple libraries. • Unlimited barcode scanning. • Extract PDF annotations with deep links to annotations and text. • Convenient UI to add PDF notes to the library. • Automate your actions with Shortcuts. * iPad-only. Requires a Mellel Mobile Premium subscription. Subscription is for one year and has an auto-renew option. The subscription can be managed in iOS -> Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions. A subscription will renew if it isn't canceled at least 24 hours before the renewal date. If the subscription is not renewed, Premium will be disabled but Standard will continue to work. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Dossier

Features
Read full description

You've bookmarked thousands of tweets. Can you find any of them? Dossier syncs your X/Twitter bookmarks, runs them through an AI categorisation engine, and stores everything locally on your device. Search instantly. Export anywhere. Own your data. WHAT DOSSIER DOES Every bookmark gets an AI-generated title, summary, categories, and tags - automatically. No manual sorting. No folder shuffling. Just open the app and your entire bookmark history is searchable, organised, and ready to export. SEARCH THAT ACTUALLY WORKS X gives you a single chronological feed. Dossier gives you full-text search across tweet text, authors, AI summaries, categories, and tags. Find anything in under a second. EXPORT TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM Dossier is the bridge between X and the tools you already use: - Obsidian - frontmatter, wikilinks, Dataview-compatible, with index and map of content files - CSV - open in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets - Markdown - clean, portable, universal - JSON - structured data for developers - PDF - dark-themed, print-ready archive BOOKMARKS THAT SURVIVE When tweets get deleted or accounts get suspended, your bookmarks vanish. Not with Dossier. Everything is stored locally on your device. Your archive is permanent. AI CATEGORISATION Powered by GPT-4o-mini, every bookmark is automatically analysed and tagged. Bring your own API key if you prefer your own provider - OpenAI, Anthropic, or any compatible endpoint. BYOK is included with Pro. BUILT FOR PRIVACY No user accounts. No server-side storage of your bookmarks. Your data lives on your device. The backend exists only to sync and categorise - it never stores your content. DOSSIER PRO Monthly or yearly subscription. Full archive backfill, ongoing sync, every export format, and BYOK included. 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime. Terms of Use: https://mashdev.co.za/terms

Screenshots

Bookends4 screens
Dossier4 screens

Verdict

The call

Bookends and Dossier are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Bookends sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year and Dossier sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Bookends versus Dossier: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookendsDossier
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (398 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings398 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.618.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size114 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSonny Software, LLCKamogelo Mashishi

Bugs and requests

Bookends

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Incompatibility with iCloud Optimized Storage
  • Unreliable sync between desktop and mobile versions
  • Occasional data loss or corruption

Requested features

4 requests
  • Nested folders and tags for better organization
  • Automatic PDF metadata extraction
  • Improved search and filtering capabilities
  • Seamless integration with third-party services

Dossier

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Bookends

Subscriptions1
  • Premium3 Months trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Standard$14.99
4 purchases

Dossier

Subscriptions4
  • Dossier Standard Monthly3 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Dossier Pro Monthly3 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Dossier Standard Yearly3 Days trial$79.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Dossier Pro Yearly7 Days trial$109.991 Year

Questions

Is Bookends free?
Bookends is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dossier free?
Dossier is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Bookends or Dossier have ads?
Neither Bookends nor Dossier shows ads.

Other comparisons