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Goodreads is great, but there's a need for something fresher and newer. Although it's the primary source for book recommendations — from popular titles to indie books — and for connecting with book-loving friends, it can sometimes feel outdated.
That's why it's a good idea to find Goodreads alternatives that can offer more than just Goodreads reviews, quotes, and plot descriptions. Here, we'll explore nine popular, better alternatives to Goodreads, including mobile apps that offer new features, enhanced usability, and a more personalized reading experience.
One option worth mentioning is the Headway app. This platform is perfect for people who prefer to read book summaries and want a way to track their reading each day in a distraction-free manner. Now, if you're ready to discover your next reading adventure…
📘Download Headway and start enjoying your reading in a fun, engaging, and simple way!
Quick answer: Four Goodreads alternatives to check out
Headway — Try this app for elevating your personal growth with quick and insightful summaries of over 2,000 nonfiction titles in 15 minutes or less.
The StoryGraph — Try this platform for reading without ads and for getting personalized recommendations that are tailored to you based on your reading speed and mood.
BookWyrm — Try this service for a privacy-first approach and for features that help you catalog your books, keep track of your reading pace, and connect with other readers.
Anobii — Try this site for building a digital bookshelf, rating books, and interacting with other readers. You can share thoughts and recommendations with ease.
Top nine Goodreads alternatives for bookworms in 2025-2026
Here are the platforms (available for iOS and Android users). These apps serve as book tracking apps, libraries, and even self-growth tools. You'll find lots of new books there and even enhance your reading habits!
1. Headway — Become a better you with 15-minute book summaries!
Headway, an app launched in 2019, is a mobile application that provides summaries of nonfiction books in an easy-to-understand format. You can get important insights in just 15 minutes. The platform boasts over 50 million users, underscoring the demand for self-improvement and informational content from anywhere.
Main features: Concise 15-minute text and audio summaries (audiobooks-like), spaced repetition flashcards, daily challenges, and progress tracking
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: Headway focuses on providing brief, actionable insights from nonfiction book summaries. You can get quick learning without the commitment of reading a full book.
Additional benefits: Personalized content recommendations, a gamified learning experience, and offline access — all in one place.
2. The StoryGraph — Because life's too short for a book you're not in the mood for!
Founded in 2019 by Nadia Odunayo, The StoryGraph is an independent, Amazon-free platform that offers readers a modern, data-driven solution for tracking their reading. It has quickly attracted over 4 million users who are seeking a clean, customizable way to engage with and track their books.
Main features: Reading challenges and goals, reading stats, buddy reads, and content warnings
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: The StoryGraph offers a solution that goes beyond simply tracking books. This platform has personalized recommendations based on mood, pace, and genre — who knew you could get this personalized!
Additional benefits: Visual graphs, social features (including live reactions and connecting with friends), and star ratings.
3. BookWyrm — Social reading and reviewing, decentralized!
BookWyrm is an open-source, decentralized social platform for readers who care about privacy and community. Mouse Reeve launched it and utilizes the ActivityPub protocol. This approach enables users to connect with small, trusted communities and other ActivityPub services, such as Mastodon and Pleroma.
Main features: Recording your reading status, book tracking, writing reviews, and sharing quotes.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: BookWyrm offers a decentralized, ad-free environment where you have control over your data. You can build a community of like-minded readers without interference from a corporate entity.
Additional benefits: Integration with Mastodon, the ability to self-host, and an import your data feature (from services like Goodreads).
4. BookSloth — Connect with readers like you and discover books!
Lincy Ayala and Xiomara Figueroa created BookSloth in 2018. This social reading application, based in Puerto Rico, was designed to unite readers of YA novels. The platform encourages user engagement and personalization in book recommendations. This approach creates a unique experience that differs from other reading apps.
Main features: Customizable user profiles, book clubs, community-based discussions, and achievements for reading milestones.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: BookSloth offers a more modern and visually appealing user experience. This platform focuses on community interaction and user personalization, appealing to users who seek an interactive and social experience.
Additional benefits: No paywalls or ads, curated lists, and the ability to purchase books directly from Amazon.
5. Fable — The social app for bookworms and bingewatchers!
Fable is a social app that provides readers and TV watchers with a platform to discover and engage with their favorite stories. Although Fable is similar to other reading platforms, its focus on community interaction and personalized content makes this app essentially a mix of social media and book tracking.
Main features: Personalized stats and insights, setting reading goals, annotating e-books, and book clubs and discussions.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: Fable has all of the same features as Goodreads — you can even integrate your bookshelf — but the app has a really sleek user interface. The design makes reading a more dynamic experience.
Additional benefits: Integration with Kindle, access to curated feeds of book recommendations, and the option to purchase and read interactive e-books.
📘 For those who are stuck in 'currently reading' mode and can't move titles from DNF and TBR lists, you should definitely try Headway. Stop putting off those reads for weeks!
6. LibraryThing — A home for your books
LibraryThing, founded in August 2005 by Tim Spalding, is a social cataloging website that allows users to catalog and share their personal libraries. Spalding initially created LibraryThing as a pet project to catalog his own collection. He later changed it to appeal to book lovers and scholars. As of early 2021, LibraryThing has over 3 million users and has cataloged millions of books.
Main features: Catalog books, movies, music, community forums, reviews, and book rating systems.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: LibraryThing is a significant step up when it comes to cataloging and organizing your books or media in detail and according to your own specifications.
Additional benefits: No ads, TinyCat (which is an OPAC for small libraries), and an early reviewers program.
7. Libib — Your library has never looked so good!
Libib — a library management app — has been around since 2013 to help you manage your personal and organizational library collections. You can create a catalog for books, movies, music, video games, and board games. The app uses barcode scanning, cloud syncing, and other features to help you seamlessly access your catalog on any device.
Main features: Barcode scanning for easy item addition, customizable collections and tags, cloud syncing, and support for multiple media types.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: Libib offers a broader range of flexibility and is more user-friendly for library media, not limited to just books. This feature is especially great if you want to include other media in your collection.
Additional benefits: Pro version, OPAC sharing features, and the ability to import data.
8. BookBrowse — Your guide to exceptional books!
Founded in 1997 by Davina and Paul Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse is an independent online magazine and reader advice service. It focuses on curated book recommendations, reviews, and other reader resources, especially for book clubs. Instead of providing user-generated content, which is featured on most sites, BookBrowse offers content written by professionals to help you find great books.
Main features: Book reviews and recommendations, author interviews, curated "read-alikes," and "beyond the book" content.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: BookBrowse offers professionally curated content and provides a platform featuring content from both individual readers and professionals. This approach differs from sites that rely solely on user-generated reader reviews.
Additional benefits: Access to a twice-monthly e-magazine, library subscriptions, and "book-club level" resources.
9. Anobii — Share your passion for books!
Anobii is a social networking site for readers. You can catalog, rate, review, and discuss your favorite books here. Greg Sung founded this platform in 2006. Later, the Italian publisher Mondadori acquired Anobii in 2014, and then Ovolab purchased it in 2019. This site has a database of millions of books, with over 2 million reviews and 25 million ratings — an impressive feat.
Main features: Scanning barcodes, customizable digital library, private messaging, and community interactions.
Why it's a better Goodreads alternative: Anobii has a very slick, modern, and engaging interface. The platform is focused increasingly on community engagement. If you like reader engagement, this platform offers a better experience than Goodreads.
Additional benefits: Create and join a book club, gain curated feeds, and enjoy in-app book purchases.
Goodreads alternatives: Extra spaces for book enthusiasts
Regardless of the well-established credibility of Goodreads, there are plenty of other places to meet, communicate, and discover books. Social communities like BookTube (on YouTube), BookTok (on TikTok), and Bookstagram (on Instagram) are all hugely popular among readers. These platforms offer creative ways to interact with books and each other beyond the typical review:
BookTube has allowed creators to upload reviews, haul videos, and reading vlog entries. This platform expands the overall experience from just reading books to sharing your reading history and thoughts through reviews.
BookTok is a rapidly growing TikTok community where short videos about books and reading challenges take place. The platform aims to get readers to engage. Books often go viral here, and BookTok is frequently the birthplace of discussions about a book.
Bookstagram is a unique ecosystem that focuses on sharing amazing photographs of books. Users often share captivating prose that inspires readers, while showcasing aesthetically pleasing images and illustrations.
Books + self-growth = Headway, a worthy Goodreads alternative
All of these communities have changed how we engage and interact with books. You don't need to visit book stores anymore. These platforms create engaging, regularly updated, visual, and interactive alternatives to reading traditional hardcover books.
Perhaps you've downloaded hundreds of apps, hoping that one of them would help you take a step toward personal self-growth. You want to become a better version of yourself — some app has to work eventually, right? (Hint: it probably won't.). Well, that endless scroll is about to end with Headway. We have more than 2,000 summaries of the best books!
📘Test drive Headway to help build your daily habits toward growth. Make steady progress on your way to becoming a better you.
Frequently asked questions about Goodreads alternatives
What is the Gen Z version of Goodreads?
For Gen Z book lovers, The StoryGraph is often considered the modern alternative to Goodreads. It's ad-free, visually clean, and it curates book recommendations for you based on your mood, pace, and preferences. The StoryGraph is not like Goodreads — it's about data and feelings, not just ratings. This approach makes it more personal and less busy.
Is LibraryThing better than Goodreads?
It depends on your goals. LibraryThing offers a better experience for readers who love to catalog their reading and organize their libraries. While it's less social than Goodreads, it has far more privacy options and customization options for your personal cataloging. If you're a serious book collector or you're conducting research, you'll find more reliability and precision on LibraryThing.
Is Goodreads shutting down?
No, Goodreads is not shutting down. Although it may be outdated and subject to criticism, Amazon still owns and operates this platform. Millions of readers continually use the app to track their books and reviews. Meanwhile, more modern platforms, such as The StoryGraph and Fable, are becoming increasingly popular over time.
Why are people upset with Goodreads?
Readers often express that Goodreads appears outdated and cumbersome. The website has apparently remained unchanged for years. Issues such as bugs, a low frequency of improvements, and a cluttered website design are common user complaints. There's also a widespread dislike of what feels like an obsession with monetization — something that's often attributed to Amazon's ownership.
Does Jeff Bezos own Goodreads?
Indirectly, yes. Goodreads is owned by Amazon, which Jeff Bezos founded. Amazon purchased Goodreads in 2013. At the time, the company sought to integrate Goodreads more closely into its Kindle offerings and book marketplace. Bezos has since stepped down as CEO, but Goodreads continues to operate as a subsidiary of Amazon.
