The Best Goodreads Alternatives in 2026, Honestly Compared

StoryGraph is the best Goodreads alternative for most readers. It imports your Goodreads shelves, DNF included, and adds quarter stars, deeper stats and mood filters. The rest of the shortlist depends on what you want: Hardcover for owning your data, Siftivo when choosing the next book is the hard part, Margins for the nicest phone app, Fable for clubs, and Pagebound for talking about a book while you read it.

Siftivo is ours, so read our placement with that in mind. We put it third because most people leaving Goodreads want a new home for their reading log before anything else, and StoryGraph and Hardcover do that job better. Facts about the other apps come from their own sites, help centers and store listings, and the head-to-head is in Siftivo vs Goodreads.

Goodreads does four jobs, and no one app replaces all of them

Goodreads has been around since January 2007, and some of what it does has no equal. It says more than 75 million members have shelved more than 2.2 billion books, so almost every book has ratings and reviews waiting. Its Kindle integration is the deepest of any tracker, its Reading Challenge is the reference version of a yearly goal, and it added a proper Did Not Finish shelf in March 2026. There’s no paid tier at all.

Before you move, work out which of its four jobs you’re replacing.

• The log. Shelves, ratings, progress, a record of your year. Every app below does this, and every one rates in at least half stars, which Goodreads says it has no plans to add.
• The crowd. Reviews on almost every book, friends’ shelves, groups and the Choice Awards. Nothing here comes close, so you may want to keep an account for reading reviews.
• Kindle. The Kindle app can mark books Currently Reading and Read on its own, and linked accounts sync your highlights. Of the six below, Fable can import your Kindle book lists, Margins says it’s preparing Kindle sync, and Hardcover’s FAQ says direct sync isn’t technically viable today. StoryGraph and Pagebound don’t advertise it, and Siftivo has none.
• Choosing. Goodreads builds recommendations from your shelves, ratings, genre preferences and book-to-book similarity, though the most recent explanation on its help site dates from November 2019. It doesn’t advertise mood filters, content warnings or vibe search.

1. StoryGraph

Best for

a complete tracker with deep stats, mood filters, challenges and clubs

Price

Free, or Plus at $4.99/mo or $49.99/yr

Platforms

Web, iOS, Android

Visit StoryGraph

StoryGraph’s Goodreads import brings over read, currently reading, to-read and DNF shelves, and turns your custom shelves into tags, so very little gets lost. Then it adds what Goodreads doesn’t advertise: browse filters across 14 moods, three paces and page-count bands, content warnings graded by severity, a way to flag content you’d rather avoid so recommendations adjust, and quarter-star ratings. Its reading stats are the deepest of any mainstream book app. It has reading challenges, goals and streaks, spoiler-locked buddy reads, readalongs for up to 1,000 people and book clubs, plus automatic Kobo sync.

The catch is that its discovery leans on filters you set and a reading preferences survey, which suits readers who know what they’re in the mood for. It doesn’t advertise Kindle sync, and its own roadmap lists offline mode on mobile and an API as not yet built. Custom charts and stat comparisons sit in Plus.

2. Hardcover

Best for

an independent, ad-free tracker with a public API

Price

Free, or Supporter at $4.99/mo or $49.99/yr

Platforms

Web, iOS, Android

Visit Hardcover

Hardcover exists because of Goodreads. It started in May 2021, after Goodreads announced it was discontinuing its API, and it’s built on the opposite idea: a public GraphQL API on the free plan, OAuth for third-party apps, and community tools for Kobo and KOReader sync. It’s independent, ad-free and self-funded, and says it will never share reader data with outside AI services. The tracking runs deep, with DNF and Paused statuses, a series tracker, goals by books, pages or hours, a reading journal and per-book privacy. Its Goodreads import brings books, ratings, reviews, lists and owned books.

What holds it back is that creating your own Vibes recommendations and the For You view are Supporter-only, as are stats for any date range. Book clubs were still in team alpha testing as of Hardcover’s October 2026 report. There’s no direct Kindle sync, and imports miss start dates and repeat reads, because Goodreads’ export only includes your most recent finish date.

3. Siftivo (ours)

Best for

picking what to read next from three books you love

Price

No paid plan

Platforms

Web, iOS

Visit Siftivo

Siftivo is for the choosing job. You name three books you love, and Daily Picks hands you three books a day, each one naming the book behind it. A match badge on picks, book pages and lists says how well a book fits you and why, in a line like “Because you loved Lonesome Dove.” In Explore you see one book at a time, and a like steers what comes next while a pass only removes that book. Mark a book card Not for me and it stops coming back in Picks and Today, and the taste page holds up to three books to steer away from. Search takes a description of what you want. The log is covered too, with half stars, DNF with an optional reason, progress by pages, percent or time, a private journal and reviews. Its Goodreads import brings read, currently reading and want to read, with ratings and reviews.

The catch is that Siftivo is lighter than StoryGraph or Hardcover as a tracker. There are no reading challenges or yearly goals, no charts beyond a journal heatmap and profile counts, no book clubs, no e-reader sync and no export. There’s no Android app, and the iPhone app has no iPad layout. The import runs on the web and skips custom shelves, the DNF shelf, start dates and date added. Book pages have a Get it on Amazon link, and our About page says bookseller links are affiliate links, which is worth knowing if Amazon is part of why you’re leaving.

4. Margins

Best for

a beautiful phone tracker with vibe search and a focus blocker

Price

Free, or an optional subscription at $5.99/mo or $59.99/yr

Platforms

iOS, Android

Visit Margins

Margins is the most pleasant app here to open every day, and its ratings agree, with a 4.9 average from more than 19,000 US App Store ratings and features from Apple’s own editors. Its vibe search takes a typed mood, plot or setting, or even a Pinterest image, and hands back books. A built-in blocker turns off social media and notifications while you read. You can choose the cover for your edition, sort your library by color and get hand-illustrated monthly recaps, and it added quarter-star reviews in September 2026. It imports from Goodreads, StoryGraph and Fable.

The catch is that Margins runs on iOS and Android and doesn’t advertise a web app for tracking. Kindle sync isn’t shipped yet. It doesn’t advertise content warnings, spice ratings or a data export, or say what its paid subscription unlocks beyond premium features and priority support. Social is following readers and their Stories, with no advertised clubs.

5. Fable

Best for

joining creator-led book clubs with spoiler-free chapter rooms

Price

Free, or Fable Plus at $5.99/mo or $49.99/yr

Platforms

iOS, Android, Web (store and account only, no clubs or reading)

Visit Fable

Fable is where to go if Goodreads groups were your favorite part. It has the biggest club scene of any book app, with thousands of public clubs, many run by BookTok and YouTube creators, and the largest past 70,000 members. Each club book gets chapter-specific discussion rooms, so spoilers stay in rooms you haven’t reached yet. It also has its own ebook reader and a free tracker with half stars, spice levels, a DNF shelf and streaks. It imports Goodreads lists and reviews, and lists from Kindle.

You give up a few things for the clubs. They and the reader work only on a phone or tablet. The free app shows ads, and weekly goals and advanced stats need Fable Plus. Fable doesn’t advertise a library export, and since 2025 it has been owned by Scribd, the company behind Everand.

6. Pagebound

Best for

per-book forums sorted by how far each poster had read

Price

Free, or Pagebound Royalty at $10/mo or $100/yr

Platforms

Web, iOS, Android

Visit Pagebound

Pagebound calls itself what you’d get if Goodreads and Reddit had a baby. Each book has its own forum, you can sort its posts by how far the poster had read, and a spoiler tag applies only to readers behind the poster’s progress, so you can talk about a book forty percent in without a club. The feed is chronological, there are no ads and no AI by stated policy, and Quests turn reading challenges into badges. Ratings come in half stars with sub-ratings, its Goodreads import brings shelves, history, ratings and reviews, and you can export your library to CSV.

The catch is that Pagebound has no algorithmic recommendations by design, so discovery comes from forums, lists and Quests. Detailed stats are in its paid Royalty tier, and it doesn’t advertise content warnings or Kindle sync.

My pick

For one app that takes over the Goodreads log and adds more on top, StoryGraph.

Hardcover is the better home if you care who holds your data or want an API. If your log is fine where it is and the trouble is what to read next, use Siftivo next to whatever you track in.

Margins suits a reader who wants a nightly ritual on the phone. Fable is for joining a club, and Pagebound is for talking about books without one.

And if you read on a Kindle and love the Reading Challenge, staying on Goodreads is a perfectly good answer.

What I’d do today

1. Export your library from the Goodreads desktop site. You keep it whatever you decide.
2. Pick the job you most want done better: the log, choosing, clubs or book talk.
3. Import the CSV into the matching app above and check that your ratings and shelves landed where you expect.
4. If choosing is the job, give Siftivo your three favorite books at siftivo.com and compare tonight’s picks with the top of your want-to-read shelf.