Hi everyone!

I’m an indie developer from Italy and I’d like to share Bookito with you, a clean and privacy-friendly alternative for tracking your reading.

The project started because I was frustrated with apps becoming bloated with ads, paywalls and engagement tricks, so I wanted something simpler and more focused on the reading experience.

Some features currently available:

* Track books via ISBN scanner, title search or manual entry
* Reading stats and yearly/monthly graphs
* AI-powered book recommendations based on your ratings (no personal information is sent to the AI — only book title, author and your rating)
* Notes, highlights and reading progress
* Community explore section to discover what others are reading
* Completely ad-free, except for a short optional ad before AI-powered features to help cover API costs.

Privacy was also a big priority for me:

* All user data is encrypted
* You can use the app completely anonymously without creating an account
* Servers are hosted on Milan-based infrastructure inside the EU
* Data handling follows EU privacy regulations

The app is currently available in:

* English
* Italian
* German
* French
* Spanish
* Portuguese
* Swedish
* Turkish
* Japanese

I’m planning to gradually add more European languages whenever I have free time to work on it.

So far the app has reached around 23k downloads and 2.6k registered users, which honestly surprised me a lot considering it’s still a small independent project.

Right now there’s no real monetization except a few users occasionally supporting the project with a “virtual coffee”. I’m trying to figure out sustainable ways to keep it alive without ruining the user experience with aggressive ads.

I’d genuinely love feedback from the community, especially from people looking for European-made alternatives to big platforms.

Thanks!

I built Bookito, an ad-free book tracking app made in Europe 🇪🇺