Guide · Reading apps
The best reading tracker apps for iPhone in 2026
Five good apps, five different ideas of what tracking your reading means. Here's which one fits which reader, written by the person who makes one of them.
A fair warning first: I make BookWorm, one of the apps below. I've tried to describe each app by what it says it does in its own App Store listing (October 2026), and to say plainly where another app is the better pick.
The short answer
| App | Best for | Built around |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | Reviews, friends and a huge catalogue | Shelves and a social feed |
| StoryGraph | Stats lovers and mood-based picks | Charts, moods and community |
| Bookly | Timing every session | A reading timer and reports |
| Basmo | Timers plus a reading journal | Sessions, journal and syncs |
| BookWorm | A calm daily reading habit | Today's goal, a streak and a timer |
Goodreads
The biggest name, and the largest community. Its App Store listing centres on shelves (Read, Currently Reading, Want to Read and a newer Did Not Finish shelf), reviews with half and quarter stars, following friends, recommendations, and the yearly Reading Challenge.
Choose it if reviews, friends and discovering books are what you want from an app. It's on Android and the web too. Skip it if you want help reading every day: its listing doesn't describe a daily goal, a streak or a timer.
StoryGraph
The favourite of readers who love data. Its listing describes yearly goals for books, pages and listening, detailed charts, streaks, a reading journal, recommendations by mood and pace, buddy reads and book clubs, and a Goodreads import that brings your shelves across.
Choose it if you enjoy looking back at your reading in detail, or you're moving a big Goodreads library. An optional subscription adds more charts and filters.
Bookly
A tracker built around the reading timer. Its listing describes a real-time timer with current page and estimated finish time, goals and daily reminders, streaks, notes and quotes, ambient sounds, widgets, an Apple Watch app, audiobook support and reports per book, month or year. Some features sit behind a Pro subscription.
Choose it if you want to time every session and see detailed reports, or you'd like to start sessions from your Watch.
Basmo
Another timer-first app, with a journal. Its listing describes a reading timer, page logging, a prediction of how long a book will take at your pace, a daily goal, a reading journal, and syncing with Kindle and Notion. Premium plans are optional.
Choose it if you'd like timed sessions and a place to journal about what you read, and you use Kindle or Notion.
BookWorm
Mine, so judge for yourself. BookWorm is built around one idea: reading a little every day. You pick a daily goal in pages or minutes, log your page in a second from a row of covers, and a streak worm grows each day you reach it. Audiobooks are tracked in hours and minutes toward the same goal. There's a reading timer with a Live Activity on the Lock Screen, notes pinned to the page, Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, four themes, and one calm reminder a day. It needs no account and syncs through iCloud.
Choose it if you want to finish more of the books you start, without a feed or a pile of stats. Skip it if you want reviews, friends, recommendations or Android: it doesn't do those.
How to choose
- Want a community? Goodreads, or StoryGraph for a smaller, friendlier one.
- Love stats? StoryGraph.
- Want to time every session? Bookly or Basmo.
- Want to read every day? BookWorm.
Many readers combine two: a social app for the shelf and the reviews, and a habit app for the daily reading. If you're not sure how much to read each day, the reading goal calculator will tell you.
