The list that is currently four lists
Most people who read regularly have their books recorded in four places at once: the ones on the shelf, the ones on a reader, the ones borrowed from a library app, and a note somewhere of things to read next. A tracker is the attempt to put those in one list, and which one suits you depends entirely on whether you want a catalogue, a habit, or a conversation about books.
They are genuinely different products. A catalogue app cares about what you own. A tracker cares about pages and minutes. A social app cares about what everybody else thought. Installing the wrong kind is why so many people abandon one after a fortnight.
Three different jobs wearing the same name
| What you want | What to look for | What will annoy you |
|---|---|---|
| Not buying a book twice | Barcode scanning of your own shelves | Social feeds and reading challenges |
| A record of what you finished | Simple dates and a rating | An app that wants a review each time |
| Reading more regularly | A session timer and a streak | A catalogue with no sense of time |
| Talking about books | Reviews, friends, book clubs | An offline app with no community |
| Everything in one place | Import from a big service | Every app claims this and none quite manage it |
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Trackers, catalogues and the readers that track by themselves
Goodreads. The largest catalogue and the largest set of reviews, which is the whole reason to use it. The app itself is slow and cluttered, and it is owned by a bookseller, which shapes what it recommends.
StoryGraph. The considered alternative: mood and pace tags rather than star ratings, genuinely good statistics, and an import from the big service so you do not start from nothing.
Fable. Built around book clubs and discussion rather than a private log. The right one if the missing part is people to talk to about what you are reading.
Bookmory. A reading timer with progress by page, kept on the device. Quiet, quick to log a session, and it does not ask you to review anything.
Bookly. The same idea with much more presentation: session timers, charts and monthly summaries. Some of it is behind a subscription, so check what the free tier still covers.
Basmo. Reading sessions with a place for notes and quotes as you go, which suits non-fiction better than a bare page counter.
Book Tracker. Small, plain and quick: a shelf, a status and a date. A reasonable first try for anyone who found the others overwhelming.
Libib. A cataloguing tool rather than a reading diary. Scan the barcodes on the shelf and you have a searchable list of what you own, which is the version of this that pays off in a bookshop.
Libby. Borrowing from a public library with a card, and it keeps a history of what you borrowed. Free, and the single best reading app most people have never installed.
Amazon Kindle. Tracks progress across devices automatically and shows time left in the chapter. Its own reading statistics are private to it, which is one reason people keep a separate tracker as well.
Google Play Books. Takes your own EPUB and PDF files as well as purchases, so a mixed library stays in one place with progress synced.
Kobo. Good reading statistics built in, and a catalogue that is not tied to the same bookseller as everything else. A large install for what it does.
ReadEra. Reads your own files, keeps a proper library with progress and quotes, no account, no advertising. The one to start with if the books are files rather than purchases.
Moon+ Reader. Endlessly configurable, which is either the attraction or the problem. Its reading statistics and sync options are more detailed than anything else in this group.
Librera PRO. Strong on PDFs and academic reading, with bookmarks and notes that export. Useful when half the reading list is not really books.
Audible. Audiobooks count, and this is the app that tracks them properly, including a badge system nobody needs and a finished-date log that most trackers can import.
Storytel. A subscription catalogue of audiobooks and ebooks with its own progress tracking, strongest in Europe.
Everand. Another subscription catalogue covering books, audiobooks and documents, worth comparing on whether it actually holds the things you want to read.
Getting the four lists into one
- Pick the app you will still be using in a year Import matters more than features. Choose one that can take a file in and give a file back.
- Start with what you are reading now, not the archive A tracker earns its place on current books. Backfilling is optional and can be done in an idle hour later.
- Scan the shelf in one sitting, with the barcode reader Five hundred books is about two hours. Doing it once is what stops the duplicate purchases.
- Add the to-read list from wherever it currently lives The note on the phone, the photographs of bookshop tables, the recommendations in a chat thread. This is the list that actually gets used.
- Log the finish date and nothing else, at first A rating and a date is enough to be useful. Anyone who wants to write reviews will start doing it without being prompted.
- Export once and keep the file A yearly export into a folder is insurance against a service closing or a subscription you decide to stop.
- What you own, with barcodes
- Finish dates and a simple rating
- The to-read list, wherever you see one
- Library loans and their due dates
- Pages per day, unless you enjoy it
- A yearly target that turns reading into admin
- Reviews you are writing out of obligation
- Re-cataloguing a shelf into a second app
What actually makes people read more
The statistics are enjoyable and mostly beside the point. What changes how much people read is having the next book decided before the current one finishes, and having something to read in the pocket at the moments that would otherwise go to a feed.
That is why a library app and an audiobook app do more for a reading habit than any tracker. One removes the cost of trying something, the other fills the commute and the washing-up. The tracker is the record, not the engine.
Decide whether you want a catalogue, a timer or a conversation, then pick one app for it. Scan the shelf once, keep the to-read list where you will see it, and export every year.
Frequently asked questions
Can I move my history off the big service?
Yes. It exports a file of your shelves, dates and ratings, and the main alternatives import it. Reviews sometimes come across as plain text rather than formatted, and re-reads occasionally collapse into one entry, so check a handful afterwards.
Do audiobooks count?
Every tracker here lets you log them, and some distinguish listened from read if you want the distinction. Whether it counts is between you and nobody.
Is there a tracker that works entirely offline?
Several of the smaller ones keep everything on the device, which also means the data lives and dies with the phone. If you pick one of those, take the export seriously and keep a copy somewhere else.
What about books borrowed from a library?
The library app tracks the loan and the due date, but its history is separate from your tracker. Adding the title to the tracker when you start it is a two-second habit that keeps the record complete.
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