Bookly - TBR Book Tracker Reviews

by Jearbear101

Just found out about Bookly and thought I'd try it. Love the idea of stat tracking for reading. UI I think is well made and everything that Bookly is specifically designed to do I think is awesome. What's not so awesome is the business model. I understand needing ads for revune when you offer a free product, but full page ads are ridiculous especially when I simply want to just add a book. Secondly the price with what's locked behind the price. For such minuscule feature that do nothing more than expand what's already offered I see no reason why someone couldn't copy everything and, with what's offered for the pro version, and make it free. Or at the very least charge a one time fee. $30 a year for an app is pretty steep when I haven't read anything about the developers planning to add more content through the life of Bookly . Bug fixes don't count that's should be a given.
There isn't anything Bookly offers that I couldn't do myself with a pen and paper, it's just math. Again I think the idea is great and I'd love to use it and would be willing to buy it once for a single rate fee. But with the ads that take over the entire screen, and simple, easily replicated features locked behind a paywall, it wasn't worth my continued use. If they decide to change their business model I would definitely give it another shot. Until then...I'll stick to doing everything Bookly offers myself but for free.

by L-M-S.A.C.K.

I realize that most people may not have this problem but as part of a military family, I move a lot and it can be from coast to coast. this app does not keep it so that a reading session on a specific day in a specific time zone remains that way. If you start a reading session overnight at 11pm but then move from the west coast to the east coast (3 hour time difference), this app will say that you missed a day of reading because you started that reading session at 2am the next day. As a paying this app Pro customer who has been tracking my stats for YEARS, doing daily reads, and who works night shift so my hours are wonky and I read a lot overnight, it is so irritating to see my progress get messed up. If it really mattered to you, you have to go back and manually change the dates yourself. This is ridiculous to do if you’ve been using this app since 2019 and reading daily, like I have. There should be some kind of timezone lock so that your stats don’t get messed up.

by BattyWinters

Ever since I started my current book, I check my 30-day stats everyday to laugh at how my reading time plummeted to a near flat line of 30 minutes per day because I’m not so into the book I’m reading but the daily goal and streaks of this app are what keep me going. Imagine my surprise when I open the stats and find two separate days that have been wiped to zero minutes and the following days about an hour (I KNOW I’ve never read that book for an hour, I’m constantly checking to see if my 30 minutes are done). I have no idea what could have triggered this when it was perfectly fine yesterday, and I’m annoyed that I’ve lost my streak over this out-of-nowhere glitch. Also, you can’t cancel a session. I one time accidentally started a session and had no way to stop it and say I hadn’t progressed a page, even by exiting and reopening Bookly . I either had to stop everything I was doing and read one page, or have the session paused until the following day to start my real session.

EDIT: 6 months later, a return of this bug and I’ve lost my streak again. It arbitrarily will just take a day, combine the session minutes to another day, and zero out. No idea what causes this.

by Bangabgn

Don’t get me wrong it’s a very good app and it’s definitely got me reading a lot more. Like the features to add my thoughts and quotes from book it’s amazing and the sounds that are provided for you to listen to are just spectacular even though I can only afford the free one. To be honest my main problem is the fact lot of the things is pay for access. Everything else I’m fine with is like the access to the assistant or the other things yeah OK I get that but the thing that bugs me the most is the fact that I can’t add more than 10 books and I can’t delete books. Because I don’t wanna a book that I just finished to just be taking space when I could add another book but I can’t delete it is only for pro. I respect the hustle but you at least let us non-pro people be able to delete books. There are other features that bug me like I can’t use diction to type out quotes, thoughts, and vocabulary words and I have to manually type it out. The fact that I can’t delete a book after I finish reading it most definitely bugs me the most so if you could just change that a little bit would be greatly appreciated. But don’t it let you stop from download Bookly because if you wanna become a reader I think it’s a really good app to helps you in a pretty fun except for that one annoying feature. But you know that’s my opinion and you have yours so yeah.

by Acagedrising

See below for my original review. I came back to Bookly because Shelbey of Shelbey and the Book Club/Store swears by it. I use it every day now so it’s worth the premium cost, but it was useless as a free app for someone who reads as much as I do. Current pet peeve is that the readathons don’t sync with Bookly so if you register using the Google forms they send out there is no update to Bookly that you are participating, and it should be integrated! I also wish you could read 1 book in multiple formats - sometimes I alternate a physical/ebook or try an audio version to get out of a funk and in those cases you’ll have to convert the page/percent completions yourself before entering in Bookly .
———————————-————————————— You can’t delete books without a premium account...what? I could barely even find the settings menu to delete my account. Within ten minutes of downloading I knew this was a bust. Disappointing!

by Detroit Kid @ Heart

I saw Bookly via IG and was immediately intrigued. I love reading but don’t make the time to like I should. Bookly has made me consistent and excited again about reading regularly. The stats are fun to share and I like how you can edit the details of the book as needed. My favorite features are being able to snap pics of quotes I read and highlight them, add my notes and comments and list the page number and the daily pop up reminder to read. Love it!

I purchased a year subscription pretty quickly but was surprised to see that it doesn’t sync across devices. Very odd. Sometimes I’m reading an actual book other times on my iPad or phone. Was very frustrated not to be able to pick up across devices. Oddly there is no log in, hence maybe why no syncing.? It’s tied to a device? I’d also suggest being able to put in Roman numerals when you stop Bookly and need to list your page number. Some book introductions are a bit lengthy and usually label those pages with Roman numbers. I spend time reading towards my goal on a new book but couldn’t enter my page number accurately. That bothers the data nerd in me!

Overall, I highly recommend Bookly if you want to level up your reading and be consistent.

by HiIAmJJ

Love Bookly and it’s even better that there are widgets. I have no complaints for Bookly itself, just download it, I have pro as well, and it’s so helpful having the assistant. Though, with the widget feature there is an issue for me. I know the brand is a blue color, but when my whole iPhone aesthetic is different colors and my this app widgets are a bright blue, it gets annoying. Also as reader that doesn’t base progress on time I read. Yes, I like to track it and see if I’m getting faster, but especially since each book has bigger/ smaller pages or more/less words, I don’t compare pages to time. Therefore, having the only widget options be the average TIME I read this week, the amount of TIME I read this week, and/or the amount of time it takes, is a little disappointing for me.

My main suggestion is to maybe add a few more color variety. But, MAINLY adding page progress to the widgets. Seeing my progress in pages is what motivates me and only being able to see that in my bullet journal is kinda sad. This is just a personal pet peeve and is definitely not something that makes me dislike Bookly more.

by UserForAYear

This is a great app for readers that want to track or understand how much/how fast they read. I’ve used it every day since I bought it and it has provided some interesting insights into my reading speed. Unfortunately I’ve noticed that the timer has errors at times, including losing the reading history for a book that I’ve tracked in Bookly previously. Also, the stats for reading streak are incorrect...at the top it says I’ve read for 17 days but the table at the bottom of the same page says the longest streak is 0 days. A few things that would be great additions: more info (like average pages per hour) for daily results. I tend to read more than one book at a time so being able to see average pages per hour for the whole day and other info (similar to what is shown for each book or for the year) would be nice. Also, being able to set goals for a custom date range - maybe for a day or for the weekend - rather than just the two options currently available. And it would be great to be able to pause and stop/start the timer without having to open Bookly and also to be able to access it from the lock screen.

by Rasii

Last year as I was struck with the virus in March and also facing the fact that because I travel for a living I knew things would change. I love to read but wanted a way to track what I read, collect shots of things I’ve highlighted, or quotes in the book and Bookly does it all. Nice reminders to yourself to read. Goals you can set for the year and monthly to help push yourself to read and complete what you start. What has been interesting is not only what I’ve read but what I stopped reading. So last year this app helped me to track that between March 1 and December 31 I read 55 books. It’s a great app and I’ve recommended it to friends and family members who love to read. If I have one complaint is that in the rating system you can’t award “half” stars because sometimes things are four and a half stars and other times they are just a half star, but Bookly gets a full five stars

by NaomiRedshoe

Update 3/6/22 - After nearly a year since signing up, I’m still loving this app; it’s definitely one of my top 5 “must do’s” every day. I’ve logged 222 days so far in my most recent streak and will be crushed now if I miss a day. I’ve realized that I have several classics I’ve never read for some reason. The motivation to reach goals helps me wade through some selections I might have been more tempted to abandon prior to using Bookly . Once it’s part of the stats, it needs to count toward the yearly goal, etc., so I’m loathe to quit one after starting. Keep doing the good stuff this app!

I love Bookly. Have always been a “reader,” but since installing Bookly, I’ve “always got my nose in a book” according to my bestie. 🤓 I enjoy tracking my consecutive days read, and will avoid chores all day in order to not break my streak. 🤷‍♀️ By keeping a record of the books I’ve read, I no longer waste time rereading a book I read a couple of years ago that has slipped from memory, as I’ve done many times before I started using this app Pro. I can also revisit favorite passages by adding quotes to that title’s record, and my vocabulary has benefitted from the ability to note new/unfamiliar words and definitions as well. Very much worth the price annually, would definitely recommend.

by Puggyluver

Update: I now give Bookly 5 stars, why? Because the developers actually listen to their customers, even if it’s negative. I even ended up purchasing the pro version because I am one that believes in supporting developers/businesses that try their best to accommodate and listen. The one thing I wish was possible would be to have more control over reading sessions. For example, occasionally I accidentally end a reading session when I mean to hit pause and unfortunately there’s no way (that I know of) to combine or edit that reading session. I’m excited to see Bookly grow and look forward to future updates!

............

This was a fantastic app for tracking your reading, but unfortunately the developers have basically made it so you need to buy the $6.99 “pro-version” so that an ad does not automatically stop your timer. Such a bummer, I really loved Bookly. If they implement an update to take away this newly added ad issue I would be happy to give it a much higher rating, but unfortunately this new update will deter me from using Bookly at all.

Response to feedback: That was very kind of you to respond. I really do love your app. I am just disappointed I updated it. My timer completely stopped with the ad. I read for about 45 minutes and when I looked at the timer after closing the ad it was on one minute and some seconds.

by Alpha.tesorieri

I have downloaded a number of books apps, and really felt that Bookly was going places. There are some features like Goodreads, such as the book challenges and tracking how far you've read. But what I liked about Bookout was being able to keep track of how long I'd taken to read a book and the average number of pages per session. Those analytics were so helpful and fun.

Unfortunately, it seems like Bookly can't be trusted to actually log your progress. I finished a book a day ago and not only in input it as 100% read, I marked it as completed. Bookly even gave me the badge of completion for finishing the book. Imagine my surprise when I opened Bookly just now and discovered that my last reading session and progress with the book has been completed wiped! It's infuriating and irritating. Furthermore, as someone who paid to unlock features and support the developers, it's disheartening.

by Cem2020

I just want to say that this app is a great source for keeping track of all the books you’re reading. It’s wonderful because you can time yourself while reading and see your progress over time. If you pay for the service, you get to keep track of an unlimited amount of books. It’s perfect if you’re an avid reader and you want to see how much you’ve read and how much time you’ve spend reading each book. If you want to see all the stats, it’s great. It’s wonderful to be able to see your progress over time. this app helps you read consistently. And if you’re struggling with your reading (like, maybe you’re not comprehending the books you’re reading; or you become unmotivated to read sometime), there are blogs you can read on the this app website that can help you. All in all, this app is a great app to use. You won’t regret it! Happy Reading!!! ♥️📚😊

by Bookishly_Sassy

I’m a bookstagrammer and the ability to share a graphic with my stats per book (including a star rating) is great. I also love the option to add essentially digital annotations, as I hate writing in books but sometimes just need to put a note in. The feature of being able to group books is great for organising my tbr. Plus, knowing how long it’s going to take me to finish a book is a lifesaver some days. They have an option for audiobooks too. Honestly the only thing I was really missing with just the free version was some stats like a weekly report and the ability to delete books. Not sure what the ten book limit is (unstarted? Reading at once?) though so I can’t comment on that. They run offers fairly often for discounts on this app pro, which lead me to try it. It’s fairly cheap annually to start but at just over a dollar a month I tried it and definitely love the extra features.

by WyattAnderson

I’ve been using this app (formally known as Bookout) for years now, and I can’t say that I really use another app more. I’m a huge reader, and Goodreads is nice but this is honestly way better. It lets me keep track of all my books read in a super easy format and the in for graphics of my reading stats are amazing. I have a long streak that I’m trying to keep up, because Bookly makes me WANT to read more and more. The quotes feature and thoughts feature are both awesome and hilarious looking back after you finish a book.

The only suggestions for the developers I have would be to allow a book to be reread, and maybe even implementing a social feature like Goodreads where you can add other readers and see their books/stats! But beyond that, the developers are awesome and are constantly updating Bookly to make it better.

Some may see the paywall as annoying, but it’s paid for itself hundreds of times over in my opinion, and if you’re a reader Bookly is the best thing for us!

by Amber Loves Seth

I was looking for an app to simply count my pages per day read but this does so much more! FOR FREE! Ya there’s a pro version and I may eventually want to get it but the free version lets you track pages, time read, & pages to go. Also let’s you see the % of the book you’ve read so far AND if Bookly incorrectly has the number of total pages of the book, you can edit that as well. Also there is a little white noise feature with a few different options. You can jot down thoughts, quotes from the book, give yourself a countdown timer, and take note of a new word you learned & the definition. ALL FOR FREE!!!! You can earn gems (points) too by reading or watching ads and you can edit the icon of Bookly (yes I watched like 20 ads to change the icon to the one I liked best). Overall, I love it! You can also use the earned gems to add books to track in Bookly since the free version starts with only giving you 10 books you can track. 10/10 recommend

by Empress Noriko

I’ve been using this app for a week. Figuring out how to use it is easy. I think I am reading more now. I don’t care for it constantly asking you to post your reading progress to social media. I read for hours a day so it would be a nuisance to others. Plus it’s nobody’s business what I read. I wish you could turn it on and off. Maybe if you were in a reading group it would be useful keeping the others posted. But for everyday use it’s annoying.
Update:
I’m impressed, the developer replied telling me how to turn off the social media option. Perhaps I was a little unfair earlier. When Bookly asked me to review I had just finished my 3rd or 4th reading session that day and was exasperated with it constantly wanting me to post. It’s been a few days and I am truly enjoying Bookly . Too bad they can’t partner with Kindle to integrate into my Oasis. I’m definitely reading more and enjoying seeing my progress. I would definitely recommend Bookly to anyone wanting to keep track of their reading. I’ve updated my rating to 5 stars from 4.

by LittleCat7045

I adore Bookly and recommend it to everyone I know who likes reading. It helps me feel like I’m progressing through my long backlog of books I own but haven’t read yet. My two small complaints are that there’s no way to resort the order of collections, which would be very helpful as I have quite a few. Even if it was just alphabetical, at least that would make sense, rather than just in order of when you created it, as I’ve begun reading new genres since downloading Bookly over a year ago. Also, I wish that the quotes feature was reverse chronological, newest first, as I often like to use recent quotes in journals and have over 200 quotes. Besides those two things, which are small problems for me, I am obsessed with Bookly. I really like that it shows your speed of reading, and the weekly and monthly rundowns are very nice for remembering progress has been made. In over a year of using Bookly regularly, I’ve never had a bug or problem with it. Highly, highly recommend. P.S. This is not a venue in which to read ebooks, rather to track progress of books you own in other forms, as I’ve seen multiple rather rude reviews who seem to be misinformed on the subject.

by Piplupfire

This is a great app! Easy to use, clean displays, nice and simple. I've only used it for a couple of books but it really motivated me to make time for a hobby that I don't have as much time for anymore. I tend to have a slower reading pace than most, so the infographics were pretty interesting. And it's great being able to see the progress I'm making, especially when I'm reading a 700+ pg book.

There was a tiny bug I noticed when I had to delete an incorrectly recorded reading session (that was my fault), and the page numbers on the page for the book's overall info and the page for the book's reading sessions didn't sync up right. Nothing that's too much of a problem, but it just bothered me a bit. It'd be nice to get that fixed.

Also, I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and that's hard to keep track of on here. I figure I can just mark them as "read in the past," since Bookly wasn't designed for audiobook listening and etc, but it'd be great if for "read in the past book" there was an option to just quickly put in what day you finished the book, or perhaps which days you were reading it. But that's about it. Overall this is a great app! I definitely regret not getting it earlier tbh.

by Failsatpuzzles

I stumbled upon this app at the beginning of 2021 when I was looking for a way to help maintain and reach my reading goal for the year. I started using this app and fell in love with how I can keep track of the books I’ve read, put them into collections, set goals for the day and month and more! Being able to see how long a book can take me to finish is great once I start it since keeping time within Bookly helps determine my reading speed and estimates everything. I didn’t anticipate how useful this would be along with how satisfying seeing number of pages and hours read total. It’s soooo satisfying! I do wish there was a way to sign up for readathons within Bookly and track that time separately - like if you’re signed up those hours you read during the day are automatically tallied to the readathon. Having the ability to do readathons with friends would be fun too! Overall I LOVE Bookly!

by Cobblerpot Montgomery

I think the idea hear is spectacular. However, as a student and medical professional, I spend a good deal of time reading periodicals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, and textbooks these specific types of reads are not meant to be read linearly but I'd still like monitor my academic reading habits and reward myself for them. Might I recommend that you provide an option when creating a book like #of articles # of chapters read

Update:
I'm not sure what happened but for some reason when I finish a session it wants me record the percentage of the book I finished (so it can convert to pages) I think this is incredibly dumb idea all i do is (=number of pages read/total pages) which requires a calculator and it doesn't even allow me to give a decimal percentage so it usually is off by 2 or 3 pages. Lets also observe the obvious... I could just tell you how many pages I read. I shouldn't have to do math every time I read a book. This needs to be fixed.

by William Baggins

I like the ability to note quotes and my thoughts while reading. I don’t like that you have say you read all of the end of book material to reach FINISHED. it messes up real pages read. If you are reading non fiction, the end material, notes indexes ect can be many pages. Also it would be great if the info graphics created when you finish a book included the thoughts and quotes you captured.

One of the features I like about this app is the built in database that allows the user to save quote, thoughts and new words. One of the features I hate is there is no easy way to export those trouts, quote, and words to another application. I used to have a notebook for notes I took while reading. When I finished a book I would type them so I could keep track of the things I felt were important and refer back if I wanted to quote something later much easier than thumbing through the book. I still have to do that with this app.

by Kira.crystal

Everything works well, but in advertising for pro, it says unlimited books, so that implies you can only read a certain number of books for free, but if so, what would be the point of Bookly , since even if you find it useful, you could only use it for a while if you can’t pay (my parents are against paying any amount of money for apps). You shouldn’t limit how long we can use Bookly without paying, just features we can use. Also, you should let us re-order the collections.

It would also be helpful to have an account and an app so we could use this app on several devices, even on devices where we cannot download anything (my School gives us iPads we can take out in school, but we can’t download anything and I’m using Bookly now n my iPhone which we can’t have put in school)

by Mr. Runfola

I don’t usually leave reviews for apps, but Bookly has such a beautiful and pleasant user interface, that I just had to! The features are all nicely and intuitively laid out such that nobody should have any issues navigating Bookly . The fonts and colors are easy on the eyes, and some of the features are amazing (my favorite is the ability to add your favorite quotes from the book). Occasionally, Bookly does have difficulty finding a book or its cover art even when using the ISBN number.

My only major gripe about Bookly is the lock screen widget which displays books that you have added to your library. When you tap a book, it opens Bookly (you have to unlock your phone first) and takes you to the book you tapped. From there you can view stats and all the other features, including starting, pausing, or stopping the timer. I feel the widget would be much more useful if tapping a book let you start, pause, or stop the timer, rather than having to open Bookly for such a simple operation (or even start/pause/stop directly from the lock screen). This, and the ISBN lookup issue, are why I am giving Bookly three stars.

UPDATE:
Based on the developer’s response of having considered the widget timer feature I suggested, but being unable to due to limitations beyond their control, I have changed my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

by Hohjefc

I love Bookly. I had it for less than a day before I upgraded to the pro version which was so worth it. It's now been over a year and I still use Bookly every day to track how much I read. It keeps me accountable for my reading and on track with my goals. It's easy to use and I love that I can rate the books I read as well as add my thoughts and my favorite quotes. Bookly is so great for anyone who likes to read, especially for someone like me who loves it but doesn't have a lot of time to do so and also has trouble staying focused even when in the middle of an amazing book. Bookly has helped me reach so many goals and finish books I never thought possible and is making me an even better reader as well. Thank you!

by Harley Bear Book Blog

I’m a big fan of BookTube, Bookstagram, Book Twitter, you name it! But those things can be very distracting when I’m trying to read. I tell myself I’ll just scroll for a minute and 2 hours later I’m lost in the black hole that is social media. Since using the this app app, I’ve been able to stop that behavior. Since Bookly tracks my time spent reading, I feel like when that stopwatch is going I have to be truly reading. Which means I’m halfway through the year and I’ve read more than I did last year already.

As a Ravenclaw who loves recording random personal stats, I really enjoy the infographics feature. I use the quotes feature to nerd out and track words I come across that I don’t know and want to look up later. The thoughts section helps me organize notes for my Book Club discussions as well. And since I don’t like annotating in my actual books, I don’t need to carry around an extra notebook because I always have my phone and Bookly with me.

And my final reason for rating Bookly 5 stars is that I am a fan of the company. I always see them interacting with the bookish community on bookstagram and have only had positive experiences.

So if you’re looking for an app to help you focus on reading, organize your thoughts, and track some cool stats, I highly recommend Bookly!

by Blū

I recently began using Bookout to track some rather dense material I needed to get through and so wanted motivation to do it. I like the layout, concept, and color scheme and look forward to using it as it develops over time. The quotes and thoughts sections could be refined a little to be less clunky (I’ve had crashes after adding multi-line quotes) and the timer buttons while the timer is active would look a lot prettier with just a little bit of brushing up but these are things that will likely improve over time and development. It would be nice to see an iPad version though, as I do most of my reading on my iPad and right now I’m using the 2x zoom version of the iPhone app on it and it’s just not pretty. All in all, a cool, reading stats designated app to get a lifetime unlock for six dollars and I really look forward to seeing it evolve.

by Dairi19

(Updated Review)

Many changes have taken place since my last review and I really think they have put effort into making adjustments that have certainly improved Bookly .

Although i believe there's always room for improvements, I really haven't faced any issues with Bookly and all the features I could have considered nice-to-have/ useful have been implemented

Thank you very much for listening to your users.
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I really needed something besides Goodreads to keep my books organized while at the same time being able to bookmark where I left at. The addition of "quotes" and "thoughts" is perfect since it allows me to add any extra notes as i read. Bookly just launched and generally is great. (Love the design btw)

However, it is still kind of limited and rigid. I see that the books have a set amount of pages when you add them, but it should be taken into account that the total amount of "pages" change depending on the format and device that the book is read on. Also, why is there no option to edit the pages you have read?

Pretty much..

*Add an option to change the amount of "total pages" in the book
*Allow us to edit the pages that have been "read"
*Implement a timer - not a stopwatch (like the current one) - that allows to set a certain amount of time we want to read for.

by Agoodepithet

I love Bookly and use it daily to track my reading as a graduate student. I especially appreciate the designers taking time to give feedback and make changes that suit users’ needs. I love everything about Bookly , but my one request would be to include the option to choose an earlier “clock out” time when you hit stop. I often run to class and forget to hit “stop” when I finish reading. To make sure my data is accurate, I have to choose “don’t save session” and either pretend to clock in again or enter the session manually.

I also echo other reviewers who suggested making an app for Macs that would sync across devices.

Thank you so much for creating Bookly; it has been a game-changer for my productivity!