Book Nook vs Libib

Updated 3 November 2026

Both apps start from the books you own: scan the barcode and the book is in your library. Libib keeps books in collections for cataloguing. Book Nook stands them on a bookshelf and records your reading too.

Book Nook and Libib side by side

Libib checked on 3 November 2026: libib.com/pricing, App Store listing.

Of the nine apps in our bookshelf app comparison, Book Nook is the only one that shows your books on a bookshelf and the only one with all 16 features in the table. No other app has more than 12.

About Libib

Libib catalogues books, films, music, video games and board games. It is used at home and by schools and small libraries. The free Basic plan has no ads and holds 5,000 items in up to 100 collections, with ISBN and UPC scanning, notes, ratings and CSV import and export. Paid Pro and Ultimate plans add lending and tools for running a school or small library.

A bookshelf you can see and arrange

Libib shows a collection as a grid of covers or a list, in a light or dark app theme. Book Nook draws a bookcase, with your books standing on wooden shelves in the order you drag them into.

• Five themes: Simple, Dark Academia, Cottagecore, Coquette and Matcha Cafe. You can also design your own, choosing the colours of the wall, back, boards and frame, the frame style, the back pattern and the font of the shelf title.
• 65 decorations to place between the books, in sections such as Autumn, Winter holidays, Lighting, Tea Time, Celestial and Animals.
• Each book can show its cover or its spine, lie flat in a stack, or lean. On the phone a two-finger twist tilts a book.
• Turn on Real book sizes in the bookshelf menu and each book is drawn at its edition's height, so a mass market paperback stands lower than a hardcover.
• Shelf lights glow under the boards.
• As many bookshelves as you like, and List and Mosaic views of the same books with pills for All, TBR, Done, Reading and DNF.
• A Bookshelf widget on the iPhone and Android Home Screen draws one of your bookshelves as the app does.

More in a virtual bookshelf app, an aesthetic bookshelf app and the bookshelf widget.

Adding books by search, barcode or by hand

Libib scans ISBN and UPC barcodes and takes CSV files. Book Nook adds a book three ways on iPhone, Android and the web.

1. Search by title or author, or by ISBN in the iPhone and Android apps. Results come with the cover, author, page count and description from Book Nook's catalogue, which draws on ISBNdb, Google Books and Open Library.
2. Scan the EAN-13 barcode on the back cover, the one starting with 978 or 979. The web app scans with a computer or phone camera.
3. Add the book by hand and take a photo of the cover, which becomes its cover on your shelf.

Each book then has a status (to be read, reading, finished or did not finish), page progress, dates started and finished, and a rating in quarter stars. See how to catalogue your home library by scanning barcodes.

A reading timer on the Lock Screen

Libib has no reading timer. In Book Nook you pick the book, tap Start, and stop when you finish, entering the page you reached. The session is saved with its minutes and pages and moves the book's progress on.

• On iPhone the running timer is a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. On Android it is a notification with Pause and Stop, and on Android 16 and later a Live Update with the clock in the status bar.
• On iPhone with iOS 18 or later, the Start Reading control starts the timer from Control Center, the Lock Screen or the Action button. On Android, the Quick Settings tile and the reading widgets do the same.
• A daily reminder on iPhone and Android names the book you are reading. It is on at 6:00 PM by default and is skipped on a day you have already read.

See a reading timer that tracks how long you read.

Reading statistics and goals

Book Nook shows the minutes you read each day of a week or month, or each month of a year, against your average, with the pages you read. It also shows a reading calendar, your streak, your genres, a ratings chart and your fastest book in pages a day. It has a daily minutes goal and a yearly books goal, both on Home Screen widgets on iPhone and Android, and the goal, streak and current book on Lock Screen widgets on iPhone. Libib has statistics about your catalogue but no reading goals. More in a reading tracker app.

Reading Wrapped for each month and year

Book Nook makes a Reading Wrapped for every month and year: the books you finished with their covers, the hours you read, your biggest reading day, your top genres and authors, and your highest-rated books. Each page is a 1080 by 1920 image. In the iPhone and Android apps you can share it to Instagram Stories or TikTok or save it, and on the web you can share or save it. Libib does not list a year in review. See Reading Wrapped.

Friends, reviews, book clubs and challenges

Libib has personal ratings and reviews, and no friends, feed, book clubs or reading challenges. Book Nook has all four.

• A feed of what the readers you follow are reading, finishing and reviewing, with likes and comments.
• Reviews and a discussion thread on every book page. Mark part of a post with spoiler tags and other readers tap to show it.
• Book clubs that read one book at a time. Each comment carries the writer's page, and a comment from a member further ahead stays folded until you reach that page.
• Reading challenges with a goal and a deadline, the yearly challenge, and nooks: groups with a thread of posts.
• Points for reviews, posts, finished books and challenges (10 for a review with text, 5 for a finished book, 25 for a finished challenge) and stamps for milestones, shown on your public profile.

See a book club app and reading challenge ideas for 2027.

Platforms, sync and your data

Book Nook runs on iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later), Android 8.0 or later and trybooknook.com, and one account keeps your shelves, sessions and reviews in step across them. It imports Goodreads, StoryGraph and Fable exports with a review of every book first and undo for 7 days, and exports all your data as a JSON file at any time. Libib runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and imports and exports CSV.

Price

Book Nook is free, with no subscription, no paid tier, no ads and no limit on books or bookshelves. Libib Basic is free up to 5,000 items, and Pro is $9 a month or $99 a year.

Which readers Book Nook suits

Readers with a physical bookshelf at home

Make a bookshelf in Book Nook for each real shelf, scan the books on it one after another, and drag them into the order they stand at home. Show a book's spine where it stands spine out, and lay books flat where you keep a stack.

Readers who want an aesthetic digital shelf

Start from Dark Academia, Cottagecore, Coquette or Matcha Cafe, or build a theme with your own wall and frame colours. Add a few decorations from Tea Time or Celestial, turn on the shelf lights, and put the finished shelf on your Home Screen with the Bookshelf widget.

Readers who track their reading with statistics

Set a daily minutes goal and a yearly books goal, time each session, and check the reading calendar and streak each week.

Readers who keep a book journal

Record the dates you started and finished each book, rate it in quarter stars and write a review. Each month's Reading Wrapped then gives you a page of the books you finished to keep.

Which to pick

Pick Book Nook. It scans barcodes like Libib, shows your books on a bookshelf you arrange, and records your reading with a timer, statistics, goals and Reading Wrapped, at no cost. It is also the only one of the nine apps we compared with both a reading timer and book clubs. See how all nine compare in the best bookshelf apps and Goodreads alternatives.

How to switch from Libib to Book Nook

1. Join Book Nook free at trybooknook.com/signup or in the iPhone or Android app.
2. Make a bookshelf for each Libib collection or each real shelf.
3. Export your Libib library as a CSV file to use as a checklist.
4. Scan the books you have to hand with Book Nook's barcode scanner.
5. For the rest, open Scan a barcode and type each ISBN from your list. This works on iPhone, Android and the web. A book the catalogue does not have opens Add manually with the ISBN filled in. You can also search by title and author.
6. If you also track your reading on Goodreads, StoryGraph or Fable, import that export too. Books already on your shelves are skipped by default, or you can choose to update them. See moving from Goodreads.
7. Set each book's status, drag the books into place and pick a theme.