Glose vs Wordshelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Glose
This reading app enhances the experience with social features, allowing users to connect with others, share notes, and join online book clubs. Explore a vast ebookstore, read excerpts for free, and import your own EPUBs for offline access.
- Social reading and annotation sharing
- Access to 1 million ebooks
- Read up to 10% of any book for free
- Import your own EPUBs
- Offline reading capabilities
- Create and join online book clubs
- Generate and share quote cards
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The next-generation READING APP that makes reading AWESOME with features to keep you engaged and motivated. Pick a book in our choice of 1 million, start reading any book for free, connect with other readers and share notes, highlights, and conversation - and become a better reader. Build your bookshelf in seconds : Create a free reader profile, organize your books, create lists. Browse our ebookstore : 1 million ebooks in all categories. Best sellers, fiction, non fiction, young adult, business, education etc... with great discounts and free classics. Start any book for free! One touch and you’re into any book for free. Read up to 10% of the content before deciding to pursue and purchase the book. Also, upload an import your own epubs from Dropbox, your desktop of anywhere else! Read anywhere, anytime, online and offline. Glose stores your current reads so you can read them offline, in the bus, subway, in the depths of a mysterious forest or a far away galaxy. Join the Community : see what other people are reading, recommending, highlighting, and annotating. Read with your friends! Create reading groups to read with your friends and share highlights and annotations. Shared annotations in the margins of the text make reading more engaging and exciting. Post a note and see what other readers think. Start an online book club! Create a group, pick a name and image, invite people and choose books : you’ve got your online book club read to go - around the world! Make reading beautiful : create beautiful quote cards from the books you read. Choose a sentence that inspires you, choose a background photo, and share the quote card on social media. More about Glose : Reading for better learning : our unique features makes your reading more conducive to text analysis, memorization, and study. Glose is used in leading schools and universities to power distribution of reading material and discussion around text. Our bookstore features the works of Malcolm Gladwell, Walter Isaacson, Stephen King, John Green, Paulo Coelho, James Patterson, E.L. James, Suzanne Collins, Danielle Steel, David Baldacci, Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, George R.R Martin, and many more ! • Read popular FREE ebooks by classic authors : Moby Dick, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tales from Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice and more. On Glose, reading becomes social. You can highlight your favorite quotes with one touch, archive them, share them on social networks, and annotate them. So join our community of readers who read, share, and discuss the books they love! Glose provides the most powerful reading experience online. • Customise your reading settings to personalise your experience : fonts, spacing, page structure, background color (might mode and more). • Always pick up your reading at the right page thanks to automatic synchronisation of your Reading activity on all devices. • Make new friends through books So what are you waiting for ? Don’t miss the inspiring conversations happening every day in Glose, and Download our app ! Connect with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GloseApp) Follow Glose on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Glose)
Wordshelf
Effortlessly capture, understand, and remember new words encountered while reading or studying. Utilize AI-powered mnemonics and visual aids to enhance retention. Track your vocabulary growth and organize learned words by the book you're reading.
- Scan pages or type words to look up
- Definitions, pronunciation, examples, synonyms, etymology
- Personalized AI mnemonics and memory images
- Words organized by book
- Vocabulary progress tracking
- Supports 20+ languages
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Learn smarter while you read. Wordshelf makes it effortless to capture, understand, and remember every new word you come across — whether you're reading a book, studying, or exploring ideas. HOW IT WORKS Scan any page with your camera to instantly identify and look up words, or type them in. Get definitions, pronunciation, examples, synonyms, and etymology. Each word gets a personalized mnemonic and AI-generated memory image to make it stick. Every word is saved and organized by the book you're reading. BUILT FOR READERS Unlike generic dictionary apps, Wordshelf is designed around how you actually read. Set your current book, and every word you look up is automatically linked to it. When you finish, you'll have a beautiful collection of everything you learned. REMEMBER MORE WITH AI Each word gets a custom mnemonic using the keyword method — linking the word's sound to a vivid mental image. Plus an AI-generated illustration to reinforce it. No more forgetting words you've looked up before. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS Watch your vocabulary grow with a visual activity grid. See your streaks, total words learned, word difficulty stats, and books completed at a glance. 20+ LANGUAGES Supports English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, and more. Start building your vocabulary today. Every book you read becomes an opportunity to learn.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Wordshelf at 100% against Glose's 27%. Wordshelf also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Glose's advantage is ratings volume (8K vs 97) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Wordshelf holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Glose has 8K ratings behind it against 97, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 27% of Glose's written reviews are positive against 100% of Wordshelf's.
Glose ships an update every 3 weeks, Wordshelf every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Glose | Wordshelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (8K ratings) | 4.8 (97 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8K — better | 97 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Readwise, Inc | Sourse Labs LLC |
Customer experience
Glose
Wordshelf
Bugs and requests
Glose
Reported bugs
4 issues- Pages skipping or jumping unexpectedly
- Highlighting and note-taking features not working as expected
- Audiobook playback issues like skipping and glitching
- Login and account management problems
Requested features
4 requests- Bookmark and annotation management
- Customizable reading settings
- Seamless sync across devices
- Improved search and organization of library
Wordshelf
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Glose
No in-app purchases
Wordshelf
No in-app purchases








