Goodreads vs The StoryGraph: Which Is Better in 2026?

The Short Answer

Choose Goodreads if community matters most: it has by far the most readers, reviews on almost every book ever published, and it syncs with Kindle. Choose The StoryGraph if you care about your own reading more than other people's: it has far deeper stats, recommendations based on mood and pace, content warnings, and no ads.

You don't have to pick one forever. The StoryGraph imports your whole Goodreads library for free, and plenty of readers keep Goodreads for browsing reviews while tracking in The StoryGraph. The sections below go through each difference so you can decide which matters to you.

Size and Community: Goodreads Wins

Goodreads has been around since 2007, has been owned by Amazon since 2013, and has more than 150 million members. That scale is its biggest advantage: almost any book, however obscure, has ratings and reviews, and there are groups, author pages, giveaways and the annual Goodreads Choice Awards.

The StoryGraph was founded in 2019 by software engineer Nadia Odunayo and passed 4 million users in 2025. That's impressive growth, but it's still a fraction of Goodreads, and you'll feel it: reviews are thinner on less popular books, and there are fewer people to follow. It does have buddy reads and reading challenges, but if a big social network is what you want, Goodreads has no real rival.

Stats and Tracking: The StoryGraph Wins

This is The StoryGraph's home ground. It charts your reading by mood, pace, genre, format, page count and more, and shows how your taste changes over time. Most of that is free; StoryGraph Plus, at $49.99 a year, adds custom charts, extra filters and year-on-year comparisons.

Goodreads' tracking centers on the annual Reading Challenge and its Year in Books recap: good for a books-per-year goal, but thin if you want to understand your reading. Goodreads does have one tracking advantage: it syncs with Kindle, so your progress, Notes & Highlights and Reading Challenge can update from your Kindle once you link your Amazon account.

Finding Your Next Book: Different Approaches

The StoryGraph is built around discovery by feel. Every book carries community tags for mood (dark, hopeful, reflective and so on) and pace, so you can search for "dark, emotional, medium-paced" rather than just a genre, and its recommendations are built on those tags. Readers and authors can also add content warnings, graded as graphic, moderate or minor.

Goodreads' discovery is people-powered: millions of reviews, reader-made lists and what your friends are shelving. If you trust other readers' opinions more than an algorithm, that volume is hard to beat. If you know the mood you're in but not the book, The StoryGraph is better.

Ratings: Now a Tie

This used to be one of The StoryGraph's clearest wins. For years Goodreads only allowed whole stars, and in October 2024 it said it had no plans to change that. Then, on October 5, 2026, it added half and quarter stars, the same precision The StoryGraph has had from the start.

Both apps now let you rate a book 3.5 or 3.75. Your existing Goodreads ratings stay as they were until you change them; our guide to Goodreads half-star ratings covers how.

Shelves: Closer Than They Used to Be

The StoryGraph has long had built-in Did Not Finish and Owned statuses, which Goodreads users had to fake with custom shelves. That gap has narrowed: in 2026 Goodreads rolled out its own Did Not Finish shelf, which records how far you got and keeps your rating and review with the book.

Both let you create custom shelves or tags, and both handle the basics (want to read, currently reading, read) well.

Price, Ads and Ownership

Both are free to use. Goodreads is ad-supported and owned by Amazon, which for some readers is reason enough to leave. The StoryGraph is independent, shows no ads, and funds itself through StoryGraph Plus; most of its features stay free.

How to Move From Goodreads to The StoryGraph

On the Goodreads website, go to My Books, then Import and Export, and click Export Library. When the file is ready, download the CSV. In The StoryGraph, the import page appears when you first sign up; if you already have an account, go to Manage Account and choose Import Goodreads Library. Upload the CSV, and if you have custom shelves, map them to StoryGraph's categories. The import is free.

If you've re-rated books with Goodreads' new half and quarter stars, those are in the export file at their exact value (a 3.75 stays 3.75), so check a few of them in The StoryGraph after the import.

Keep your Goodreads account for a few weeks while you check everything arrived. Our step-by-step Goodreads export guide covers the export in more detail.

Using Both Together

Many readers don't choose. They keep Goodreads open for reviews, lists and friends, and do their actual tracking in The StoryGraph, where the stats and mood-based recommendations live. The only cost is logging books in two places, and some readers simply stop updating Goodreads and use it as a review search engine.

If Neither One Fits

Neither Goodreads nor The StoryGraph times your reading sessions or tells you when you'll finish the book you're on. If that's what you're after, Parch, the app behind this site, is built around it: start a timer, read or listen, and pages for print and minutes for audiobooks feed a daily streak, then Parch uses your pace to estimate your finish date. It's private by default, with no feed or followers, rates to two decimal places, and imports your Goodreads library in one step.

If you want the opposite, more community rather than less, Hardcover is an independent app with Goodreads-style social features and half-star ratings. Our guides to the best Goodreads alternatives and the best StoryGraph alternatives compare the options in depth.