7 Best Goodreads Alternatives for Readers in 2026

Goodreads is pretty much the default place to track books, but it doesn't do everything readers want from a modern reading app. The interface feels dated, recommendations aren't always great, and some features are missing or handled better elsewhere.

So, here are some of the Goodreads alternatives I have tried. Some are for discovering books, some make tracking enjoyable, and others are built around communities.

Let’s check them out.

TL;DR

• Best overall alternative: The StoryGraph
• Best for mood-based picks: The StoryGraph
• Best for reading stats: The StoryGraph
• Best for clean design: Hardcover
• Best for book clubs: Fable
• Best for notes and highlights: Literal.club
• Best for bookish discussion: Pagebound
• Best for logging reading format:Pagebound
• Best for cataloguing: LibraryThing
• Best open-source option: BookWyrm

Goodreads is still the OG for me

I’ve been using Goodreads for over a decade now. I need a plain reading tracker, and it just works for me. Plus, it has almost every book I read (perhaps due to its Amazon connection).

Many other tools miss indie books, especially self-published ones or ones from small, independent publishers. And that's a dealbreaker for someone whose reading is mostly indie.

Thus, Goodreads is my main reading tracker app. I track my reading on Goodreads and use most of these alternative platforms just to post book reviews. Goodreads has also introduced some much-wanted features recently, such as a Did Not Finish shelf and finer quarter and half-star ratings.

But it’s true that Goodreads isn't pretty and it isn't smart about recommendations or comprehensive about reading stats. So, these Goodreads alternative apps... for readers who want something more than what it offers.

Goodreads Alternatives at a Glance

The 7 Best Goodreads Alternatives

StoryGraph

StoryGraph is the closest thing to a full Goodreads replacement. You log books the same way, but you also get mood and pace-based recommendations, content-warning filters, and detailed reading charts based on your activity.

• Best for: readers who want stats and mood-based picks.
• Skip if: you want a big social feed.
• Price and platform: Free, with StoryGraph Plus at $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year). Available on web, iOS and Android.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a cataloguing site first and a tracker second. You can track your reading, rate and review books, and join groups and forums. Its records come from Amazon, the Library of Congress and thousands of other libraries, which helps if you read older or less common titles.

• Best for: readers who want a detailed catalogue plus a community.
• Skip if: you only want a simple, light tracker.
• Price and platform: Free. Available on web, iOS and Android.

Fable

Fable is built around community. It combines book clubs and dedicated book feeds with discussion rooms. It also helps you track your reading, with lists, goals, daily streaks, genre breakdowns and shareable monthly recaps. It’s a social app for bookworms and bingewatchers.

• Best for: readers who want book clubs.
• Skip if: you only want a private, no-fuss tracker.
• Price and platform: Free, with an optional paid Fable Plus subscription at $5.99 a month (or $49.99 a year). Available on iOS and Android.

Literal.club

Literal.club is a social reading platform with shelves, progress tracking and reading goals. You can also post highlights and notes, and scan a page with your phone camera to share a passage. Apart from that, you can join book clubs or follow what friends are reading.

• Best for: readers who highlight and annotate as they read.
• Skip if: you aren’t keen on sharing notes and passages.
• Price and platform: Free to sign up; the Plus plan is $40 a year and the Supporter plan is $80 a year. Available on web and iOS.

Pagebound

Pagebound launched in early 2025 and it’s what you'd get if Goodreads and Reddit had a baby. Its main feature is book-specific forums, so discussion stays attached to individual titles. One standout feature I noticed is the tandem reading status, for books you’re reading and listening together.

• Best for: readers who want to talk about a specific book.
• Skip if: you want in-depth reading stats.
• Price and platform: Free, with an optional Royalty plan at $10 a month. Available on iOS and Android.

Hardcover.app

Hardcover.app was built by readers frustrated with the dated experience of Goodreads. It has a polished interface, community-curated lists and reading challenges. But the database is smaller, especially for older and non-English titles, so check your reading preference before moving over.

• Best for: readers who want a clean, modern design.
• Skip if: you read a lot of older or non-English books.
• Price and platform: Free, with a Supporter plan at $4.99 a month (or $49.99 a year). Available on web, iOS and Android.

BookWyrm

BookWyrm is a free, open-source social network for tracking and reviewing books. It runs on the fediverse, so you join a community-run server and can follow readers on other servers. There's no single company behind it.

• Best for: readers who care about open-source tools.
• Skip if: you want a large community.
• Price and platform: Free. Available only on web.

Other Trackers Worth a Look

Many other reading trackers are also available online, but they aren’t that suitable as a Goodreads alternative. They focus on a specific aspect of the reading experience, rather than overall tracking.

• Bookmory is a private mobile tracker with a reading timer, notes and quotes, and reading stats.
• Bookly leans into habit-building, with session timers, streaks and gamified goals.
• Shelvd focuses on visual reading tracking, with digital shelves, reading progress, and a social-media-friendly interface.

If you review ARCs, my free ARC tracker spreadsheet is a simple way to keep requests and deadlines in one place.

Personal Library and Cataloguing Apps

If you’re looking for something to help just with cataloguing, you can check out Libib and Book Catalogue. Libib is a free home-library software to catalogue books, movies, games and music. Book Catalogue is an open-source Android app for managing a collection, with barcode scanning, ISBN lookup and shelf organisation, among other features.

Reading apps often don’t have appropriate algorithms for discovering indie books, so I built OwlCupid. You can swipe through the catalogue, shelve the ones you like, and buy them off Amazon (currently). It's free to use.

How to switch From Goodreads

Most of the popular reading apps can bring your library across using a Goodreads export.

1. On Goodreads, open the My Books page.
2. Choose Import and export option from the side panel.
3. Click Export Library to download a CSV file of your Goodreads library.

Next, in your preferred Goodreads alternative app, find its import option (usually in settings or on the shelf page) and upload the CSV. The app will match the books as per its database and save them to your library.

Check the app's own help page before you start, since menus and supported formats change. And keep your Goodreads account until you've confirmed everything came across.

FAQs about Goodreads alternatives

Why are people no longer using Goodreads?

It’s mostly the old-school interface, clunky experience and lack of features. The app is slow to load and it hasn't been updated suitably over a decade. Many readers have moved to newer apps due to those. Goodreads did introduce the Did Not Finish shelf this year, along with quarter- and half-star ratings, but these arrived quite late.

Is Goodreads owned by Jeff Bezos?

Yes and no. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, and Goodreads is owned by Amazon since 2013. So, Bezos doesn't personally own Goodreads; Amazon does.

What are some good alternatives to Goodreads in 2026?

StoryGraph is the best Goodreads alternative overall, and Hardcover.app can be your pick for clean design. Fable is suitable for book clubs, Literal.club is for highlights and notes, and LibraryThing has a catalogue comparable to Goodreads. Apart from those, Pagebound is a good app for book-specific discussions and BookWyrm suits readers who want open-source software.

Why StoryGraph instead of Goodreads?

StoryGraph gives you mood and pace-based recommendations, detailed reading stats, and content-warning filters. And then, it can import your Goodreads library as well. Check that it has the books you read before you switch, especially if you read a lot of indie titles.

What website allows me to read any book for free?

No legal site has every book, but there are good places to start. For classics, Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks offer public-domain titles for free. If your library supports it, apps like Libby and Hoopla let you borrow current books, though availability depends on the library.

For newer and indie books, free sections on online marketplaces, book-deal newsletters, and ARC platforms are the best places to look. I've collected these and more in my post on r/IndieBookFans about ways to read free and low-cost indie ebooks.

If you want to try only one...

Start with StoryGraph. It's the closest thing to a full Goodreads alternative, and its stats make tracking more fun than a plain shelf. Goodreads still wins on catalogue size, though. Therefore, if you can't find a book elsewhere, you can always log it there too.

Other reading apps are also free to sign up. So, maybe pick two... give each a week, and keep the one that fits how you read.

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