Key Takeaways
- Goodreads alternatives like The StoryGraph offer better book reviews and tailored recommendations.
- Bookly tracks reading progress, hosts readathons, and offers a premium plan for unlimited books.
- Fable and BookTrib offer unique features like book clubs and news for book lovers, surpassing Goodreads.
Goodreads boasts millions of users and a database full of even more books. People flock to the site to discover new titles to consume, catalog what they’ve already read, and see what friends are reading.
But although Goodreads offers countless useful features, many are beginning to look elsewhere to fill their book cataloging needs.
Here are some of the best Goodreads alternatives that offer even more features.
What Is Goodreads?
Goodreads is a social platform that caters to avid readers and book creators. It lets you create bookshelves and fill them with books you have read, are currently reading, or plan to read. Goodreads helps you keep a neat record of every title, and once you’ve read it, it allows you to share your thoughts on it. You can leave a review, give the book a star rating, and move on to the next.
You can get recommendations tailored to your specific tastes based on your shelves with access to an established community of book lovers. Goodreads also offers the option to set yearly reading challenges for yourself for no reward other than your sense of accomplishment.
Goodreads has stagnated, and many users are looking elsewhere for book communities. There are now many other options, all with features that match or surpass those of Goodreads. Book lovers can find a slew of apps designed to fit their needs, including apps designed for social reading.
Since its initial release at the beginning of 2021, StoryGraph has received some major quality-of-life updates. It’s praised as not only an alternative to Goodreads but also as the best option to replace the platform.
StoryGraph offers many more features when it comes to reviewing books, and the recommendations you get are better tailored as it considers more factors. The website and app now offer a premium subscription, called The StoryGraph Plus, for $4.99 per month with the option for a 30-day free trial. With the premium subscription, subscribers receive extra data points for reading stats, priority maintenance assistance, and the ability to vote on new features for the site.
The platform also provides some features Goodreads does not: a Did Not Finish option, allowing you to track which books you started but didn’t finish, and half-star ratings.
If you’re on the fence about switching, we’ve put together some pros and cons of Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
Bookly is a book-tracking app that hosts frequent readathons and allows users to track their reading with timers. You can also rate, review, and create notes for the books you’re reading. Users can earn coins by reading and reaching milestones, which they can then spend on costumes for Bookly’s adorable mascot, Bloo.
However, one major drawback is that, with a free account, you can only have up to 10 books on your Bookly bookshelf. The premium subscription, Bookly PRO, offers a personal assistant and unlimited book tracking for $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year.
Fable is a book-tracking app that also hosts virtual book clubs. You can post photos, discussion posts, and comments on other users’ posts. The app even has a way to start a daily reading streak. In virtual book clubs, users can annotate and react to parts of books that the entire book club can see. The reading app also offers free downloads of classic literature. Finally, Fable recently expanded to allow users to track TV shows, as well!
If you’re looking to learn more about Fable, check out why I’ve switched from Goodreads to Fable for good.
BookTrib is an interesting website that establishes itself as a “Lifestyle Destination” for book lovers. The book cataloging platform provides news and allows its users to leave reviews. Instead of a shelf called Currently Reading like Goodreads, BookTrib offers a shelf called My Nightstand, which displays users’ books.
What sets BookTrib apart is its news aspect. It publishes a newsletter called The Exclamation Point! that covers all things books, publishing, and media.
BookTrib offers articles about pretty much everything book-related, and it goes pretty in-depth with what it covers. The platform also allows its members to do live chats with authors and even do book giveaways.
BookBrowse markets itself as a magazine for book lovers and claims to be the people’s guide to exceptional books. It helps you find your next book and avoid being disappointed with it. Even though this website looks dated, it still has a ton of great features. BookBrowse has giveaways and games and offers a magazine twice a month with a subscription ($15 for three months or $45 for a year).
Book Browse offers access to book reviews, previews, and even author interviews and reading guides. You can also sign up for book clubs and free weekly newsletters from BookBrowse.
LibraryThing offers “a home for your books” and even calls itself the Facebook for books. It houses well over two million book lovers and allows you to store and share book catalogs and other book metadata. LibraryThing also offers virtual scavenger hunts throughout the year, with chances to win free merchandise or page badges. You can access LibraryThing via its website or app.
LibraryThing is used by book readers, writers, libraries, and publishers. It’s similar to Goodreads in that it allows you to catalog books from various sources and has a social aspect. LibraryThing lets you catalog and track your movies and music, too, and it’s completely free. If you’re a data nerd, LibraryThing offers more data-driven visualizations than other Goodreads alternatives.
Libib takes it a step further than only cataloging books. It also supports movies, music, video games, and now board games! It offers a website and an app, allowing you to create and share a collection.
You’re free to catalog as much as you want, with a cap of 100,000 items, though it’s doubtful that you’ll even come close to reaching that. Libib is one of the best media cataloging systems, if not the best. It also offers paid services for libraries looking to track patrons, books checked out, and other useful data for running a library.
If you have a blog, Anobii is the best place for you. The platform allows you to connect your blog to your profile after you register as a user. Other than that lovely perk, Anobii is pretty close to Goodreads in what it offers, but with a more social twist.
Anobii lets you create a book library that houses books you’ve read or wish to read. You can rate and organize books into categories and read and write reviews. The platform also lets you email contacts, invite your Facebook friends, or even upload your contact list. You can also join groups and discussions and become a part of the community. You can even search for bookstores near you with its interactive map.
Revish has been around since 2007. It allows you to share your reading experiences and thoughts by writing reviews for titles you’ve read. It lets you make a reading list, which you can then share with your friends so they can see what you have your eye on. Apart from a reading list, you can also keep a reading journal, which helps you know what you were reading at any given time. You can even find movie and TV recommendations on the site, as well.
The Revish platform also encourages you to participate in and create groups and discussions. The website provides you with its API and widgets that help you add your Revish content to your blog or website if you want to do that. Its design is a bit outdated, but it still does the job.
Goodreads is an excellent cataloging website. It helps you track your current reads and everything you plan to consume in the future. Despite plenty of helpful features, it has shortcomings, including issues that users have continuously raised (like the lack of a Did Not Finish button or half-star rating system) but have never seen the light of day.
You may have had to put up with Goodreads a long time ago when there were no other options for cataloging your reading. Now, there are plenty of options, so choose an alternative and move on.