Is StoryGraph better than Goodreads?

For tracking your own reading, yes on most measures: half stars against whole stars, real stats against a yearly counter, content warnings, and no ads. For looking books up, Goodreads is still ahead because of its catalog size and twenty years of reviews. Many readers use both.

Can I move my Goodreads library to StoryGraph?

Yes. Export your Goodreads library to a CSV from the Goodreads website, then import that file into StoryGraph. Your shelves, ratings and read dates come across. The export has to be done on the website, because the Goodreads app cannot do it.

Yes, with a paid Plus tier that adds deeper stats and charts. The free tier covers tracking, rating, content warnings and the standard stats, which is what most readers switch for.

Does Goodreads have half stars?

No. Goodreads ratings are whole stars only, and it has been one of the longest-standing requests from its users. StoryGraph supports half stars, from 0.5 to 5, which is the feature most often named when readers explain why they moved.

Who owns StoryGraph and Goodreads?

StoryGraph is independent. Goodreads has been owned by Amazon since 2013, which is the reason some readers prefer to keep their reading history somewhere that is not also a bookshop.

Comparison

StoryGraph vs Goodreads.

StoryGraph is the better tracker: half-star ratings, real reading stats, content warnings and no ads. Goodreads is the better library: two decades of reviews and a catalog nothing else matches. Most people who switch keep a Goodreads account for looking books up.

We build ReadersGuild, a different reading app, so read this knowing that. We are not in the table below and we do not win it. Every row is a feature you can check yourself in either app.

Feature	StoryGraph	Goodreads
Ownership	Independent	Owned by Amazon since 2013
Rating precision	Half stars, 0.5 to 5	Whole stars only, 1 to 5
Reading stats	Charts for pace, mood, genre and format	A yearly total and a challenge counter
Content warnings	Community-sourced, on the book page	Only if a reviewer mentions them
Recommendations	Filtered by mood and pace	Based on what you and similar readers shelved
Ads	None	Yes
Reviews and ratings volume	Smaller, growing	Two decades of accumulated reviews
Catalog size	Large, with gaps on obscure editions	The largest of any consumer book site
Importing your library	Reads a Goodreads CSV export	Exports to CSV
Price	Free, with a paid Plus tier for extra stats	Free

Pick StoryGraph if

You rate books precisely and whole stars have always felt blunt.
You want to see patterns in how you read, not just how many books you finished.
You want content warnings before you start a book rather than after.
You would rather your reading data did not sit inside a retailer.

Pick Goodreads if

You look books up more often than you log them.
You want the largest pile of reviews before deciding what to read next.
Your friends are already there and the social side is the point.
You need an obscure edition that smaller catalogs are missing.

So which should you use?

On the tracking itself StoryGraph wins on most rows, and it wins on the ones people actually leave Goodreads over: rating precision, stats, and not being an advertising surface inside a retailer.

Goodreads wins on the two things that are hardest to rebuild, because both are made of twenty years of other people's work. Its catalog and its review volume are not features a competitor ships; they are an accumulation.

Which is why the honest answer is that most switchers do not really switch. They track in StoryGraph and keep a Goodreads account open for looking things up. That is not a failure of either app, it is what happens when one is a tracker and the other is a library.

Neither is built for reading with other people in real time, which is a different problem from cataloguing what you have read. If that is the gap you feel, it is worth knowing that is the gap we are building into.

Moving your library

Either way the first step is the same, and it is the one people get stuck on: the export has to be done on the Goodreads website, because the app cannot do it.

How to export your Goodreads library, step by step

Common questions

Is StoryGraph better than Goodreads?: For tracking your own reading, yes on most measures: half stars against whole stars, real stats against a yearly counter, content warnings, and no ads. For looking books up, Goodreads is still ahead because of its catalog size and twenty years of reviews. Many readers use both.
Can I move my Goodreads library to StoryGraph?: Yes. Export your Goodreads library to a CSV from the Goodreads website, then import that file into StoryGraph. Your shelves, ratings and read dates come across. The export has to be done on the website, because the Goodreads app cannot do it.
Is StoryGraph free?: Yes, with a paid Plus tier that adds deeper stats and charts. The free tier covers tracking, rating, content warnings and the standard stats, which is what most readers switch for.
Does Goodreads have half stars?: No. Goodreads ratings are whole stars only, and it has been one of the longest-standing requests from its users. StoryGraph supports half stars, from 0.5 to 5, which is the feature most often named when readers explain why they moved.
Who owns StoryGraph and Goodreads?: StoryGraph is independent. Goodreads has been owned by Amazon since 2013, which is the reason some readers prefer to keep their reading history somewhere that is not also a bookshop.

Who wrote this

Both of them track what you have read.

We got interested in the part neither of them does: reading at the same time as other people, and being able to see it. That is what ReadersGuild is, and it opens soon.