Goodreads vs Storygraph vs Readerly - I tried them all!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- I've been a Goodreads user for over a decade, but I don't looooooove that it's owned by Daddy Bezos. So instead we're trying out 2 of the big contentders, Storygraph and Readerly, to see if they can compel me away! (I also tried Basmo and Book Sloth, but I cut those from the experiment quite quickly because they just didn't work for me.)
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I made the switch from Goodreads to Storygraph last winter, and I've never been this consistent in keeping track of my reading. Maybe it's just my brain, but Storygraph feels a lot more user-friendly in terms of tracking reading progress, shelving read and unread books, and keeping track with different reading goals. I got overwhelmed by the formatting of the Goodreads website so often that I hardly ever tracked my reading on the site, and, on the rare occasion that I did end up updating my progress, I lacked the visual representation of my progress that Storygraph currently gives me. (Plus, exporting my Goodreads data only took, like, two minutes tops).
Makes sense - I’m probably just super used to Goodreads! Very set in my ways at this point 😅 and you’re so right about the visual progress.
I agree with all of this. Goodreads is soooo overwhelming, and now that Storygraph has a streak feature, I am encouraged to track my reading. I do agree with the video that the community is the best on Goodreads, but the website is so clunky. You'd think with all that Amazon money they'd make a better experience.
Goodreads feels so much more public to me and I wasn’t really comfortable sharing my thoughts there since other people can leave comments on your reviews. I like that StoryGraph feels more like a journal, especially because you can write private notes while updating your reading progress. Switching editions is so easy, way easier than Goodreads. I also love that the main home page is focused on what I’m reading and not what other people/friends are reading or popular books. And the trigger warnings on each book is so helpful.
That makes total sense! It’s all about how you use it. I don’t really leave written reviews that often, or change editions.
Agree with all of this. I love the private notes. I just wish there was a way to make notes about a book that you weren't reading yet (like a "why this is on my TBR shelf")
I reccomend Fable. It’s like Goodreads but classic IG
I love the reading challenges in Storygraph too! It's a fun way to get to books on your TBR that you tend to avoid.
I didn’t really experiment with that at all - maybe it’s worth another try!
This review was 8 months ago, but I think it's worth pointing out that Storygraph is Black owned. I've been with it since it was in like super-beta (idk tech terms haha). It felt really cool to go along with the app as it grew and took user feedback. I think at this point, it is very comparable in most areas, and better in others than Goodreads. It is missing a couple of features that I believe are on their roadmap. Really for me, it just needs to continue increasing the user-base to really flesh it out. But I understand folks not wanting to go through the headache that can be going along with a new thing as it's built. Being able to plug and play is valuable!
Ooh, I didn’t know that! Definitely worth pointing out! I think it’s definitely a fairly thing like you said. And I’m finding myself spending a lot less time on GR over the last year anyway, so it’s probably time to make the switch!
Been using story graph for two years. I think it's easy better than good reads because I actually use it.
And that’s the most important thing! Whatever gets you to actually use it.
I switched from Goodreads to Storygraph, since actually found the recommendations to be *better* so that's interesting.
I also like that I can narrow down my searches a lot more.
Very interesting! What's your usual genre? Since I read a lot of light romance I find that sometimes I just get labeled as "romance reader" so it shows me dark romance and smutty contemporary romance too, which isn't really my bag, so maybe that's why?
@@searchingforsamantha Could be. I read a lot of horror and sci-fi, so a very different bag.
@@searchingforsamanthafor recommendations, storygraph takes a bit of usage and input to actually get them right, I found. At first, mine were so off the wall I didn't even know what was happening, but lately after I used it more, they are getting a lot better. But I can't compare it to Goodreads because I started using Goodreads recently and I've experienced so many issues with it that I just mark the books I finished as read and leave. Even that, when Goodreads allows me to, cause often it just marks them as read by itself or moves my read books back into reading or want to read randomly.
Goodreads is just easy. I read mostly on my kindle. When I open the book and start reading, it marks it as currently reading on Goodreads. When I finish, it asks me if it should mark it as finished and I click yes. That’s it. I don’t have to think about tracking- which is my struggle with storygraph.
Oh that’s great! I don’t read much on Kindle so didn’t realise it makes it so easy there.
That’s good to know since I’m gonna get a kindle as a graduation gift soon. But it makes sense since Amazon owns both Kindle and Goodreads. Oh well, I don’t mind having to do extra steps for StoryGraph.
Love Storygraph, but I was keeping my own spreadsheet to track stats when I was with Goodreads. I've found the recommendations have gotten better over time, and I really appreciate that they continuously work to add features that are requested. You can also customize your audio reading challenge and have one for number of books, number of pages, and/or number of hours listened.
I don't love the mood section and skip it a lot, but I like you don't have to fill out every section to review a book. It's also really nice I can search through my tbr or recommendations by genre, mood, length, etc to help narrow down what I'm looking for. I think it just takes a little bit of getting used to when you've been using Goodreads for so long, but I i wouldn't go back now even if there wasn't the Amazon thing. I'd give it another try. ;)
Fair enough! I’ve heard a lot of good things lately about how responsive they are to requests.
How do you track your audio? I can never find the option for audios!
@@Amrowe23 You have to change your book edition to an audiobook version. Then you'll have the option to track either percentage or hours and minutes.
Thank you - that’s super useful to know as a lot of my reading is audio!!
I want to make the switch from Goodreads to Storygraph but I feel like the community and database of books are better on Goodreads.
Yeah, agreed! It’s so ingrained in book world that it’s hard to quit it
My only real complaint about The StoryGraph, and I know it's kind of a nitpicky one, is that the mood pie chart should really be a bar graph or something. The pie chart looks like it's showing the proportion of the books you've read that fit a given mood, but since books can and do have multiple moods, what it's actually showing is the proportion of the mood tags across all the books you've read that are a given mood. For example, if I've read two books, one of which is adventurous and mysterious and the other of which is adventurous and emotional, the adventurous slice of the pie chart will be half the pie even though 100% of the books I've read are adventurous. I wish I could afford the Plus subscription so that I could suggest changing it to a bar chart, but I can't afford it. :(
That's a really good point! I hadn't clocked that. I also didn't even realise there was a plus subscription 😅
I have both, Goodreads and Storygraph. I have been wanting to have a year subscription for awhile, after hearing your review I may wait on this. I like having them both for different reasons. I mainly use Goodreads to track the books I have read, Storygraph is fun backup for the extras.
If you can keep both going, then maybe that’s worth it! I just don’t have it in me to do both 😅
my pal just told me about one yesterday called Literal! i spent the evening setting up a profile and think i like it a lot. it seems to be community friendly but just as worthwhile as a single user keeping track of reading goals, ratings (including half stars), and a pretty large database! :) plus it’s super cute!
Half stars!! 🙌 I’ll definitely check it out!
I have Goodreads and StoryGraph and prefer StoryGraph for tracking the most part! I love that it’s easy to import your data from GR into SG. I use GR if I’m looking to read reviews of books I’m thinking of buying, but in saying that I do really enjoy that SG doesn’t immediately show the rating of a book if you look it up. You can first look at the pacing and tags etc, make up your own mind, and then read reviews and check out the star rating etc. I’m super influenced by negative reviews and ratings and sometimes I don’t want to be as who knows how many books I’ll personally enjoy I’m missing out on 😅 the mood tags may not be as well laid out as they could be, but they’ve really helped me reflect on books and identify what I enjoy in a read. I also love that StoryGraph is Black Female owned and is constantly improving! I do use both and I’m probably going to continue.
It’s only since making this video that I’ve learned more about the SG team, and it’s definitely making me want to give it another go!
Do you think people tend to use goodreads/the storygraph on their phones more than on their computers?
I would assume so - I sure do! The only time I ever use it on my computer is if I’m looking something up when planning a video.
This is really interesting, I got off Goodreads a couple years ago because I found the user experience and look and feel of the site so terrible. And the Amazon thing. And I just moved to tracking in a Google sheet. Not social at all unless I share it with someone😅 I love that I can do what I want, I just wish there was an automated way for me to bring in all the metadata on a book, I have to type in all that stuff myself. I looked at story graph as an alternative but I really disliked the preset categories for things like mood. Just didn't resonate.
Totally agree! You’d think they would keep Goodreads more up to date given how popular and important it is, but I guess there’s not a clear way to monetise it 🙄
i would really like you to give Fable and Hardcover a shot! Both newer book tracking/book social media apps that seem really promising!
Very good idea! I’m actually planning a re-do of this and those are 2 new names to me, so I promise to add them to the list!
@@searchingforsamantha I just started trying Hardcover. It only managed to import about half my books from Goodreads. But, I have a couple thousand covering nearly seventy years with a lot of technical nonfiction (math and computer science), so your experience may differ.
Good to know, thank you!
You should try Bookly if your just looking for something to keep track of books!
I’ll check that one out! Clearly I need to do a follow up!
I don't get along with StoryGraph. I hate its minimalism, I can never find the options I need, I have no idea where the list of books is or how to filter them by tags. And it feels a lot of overwork to fill in all those "mood" fields and whatnot. Plus, it's missing a lot of books in my language and it's too much work to input them.
Yes!! So well said 🙌 though I’m hearing a LOT of grumbles about Goodreads at the moment, so maybe we’ll get an influx of new options!
You had to add a lot of books on Storygraph yourself in the beginning !! But since there are less users on Readerly, it takes more time for the database to grow. I found out Readerly is shutting down.
I’ve since found that out too! I can’t say I’m surprised 🥴 I hope some new contenders emerge this year!
Readerly sound like a nightmare to use when looking at the overall useage. I personally use Storygraph because it's been easier to *get* back into reading. I wanted to try out the private journaling feature, and while the moods were "subjective" it actually worked out for me because it helped with the vibes.
Having used it for about a year now myself... There's a misunderstanding about how the graph works. They don't update dependate on the review, It's only dependate on when you *finish* the book alone. I don't really review myself and my graph still updated on the books I finished. And unfortnatly the covers do the "recs" dirty because publishers are actually changing the covers of books to what they think are "trending" (aka: Buff shirtless men/close ups of women that have nothing to do with the discriptions) I've noticed this with two of my favorite authors: Anne McCaffery and Mercadies Lacky. Their today covers are *awful* compared to what they used to have for the Rowan and The Black Griffin, The White Griffin, and the Silver Griffin. (and the audiable cover for Wolf Walker is an amature photoshop atraucity that is nothing like the origonal cover) So they *could* have been giving you recs that actually matched to your romances, but the covers are total shit which is a shame. I stopped trusting covers after that and read the summeries on both kindle/Audiable and on StoryGraph because of what I have noticed over the years. (Also, same with Genres of late as well as some of the summeries.... The Rowan is a heavier Scifi than people think it is because they put "Romance" within it when the Romance isn't the main focus. It's actually the last half of the book as McCaffery's books focus more on themes than the Romance, but isn't shy from that romance as it's just more of "this is just what humans are. They are emotional, so romance is just part of that human condition.") It's just something I noticed and why the Recs aren't the biggest issue for me as I'm sure Goodreads have the same exact issue in that regard as most of the problems I saw *from* Amazon directly.
Very interesting! I think I’m due a second try with SG…
@@searchingforsamantha Another feature I should mention, which I actually didn't realize Goodreads didn't have until people kept mentioning it, is that you can actually catagory a book you DNFed as "DNF" now as well. And they also have a new buddy read system (which also I didn't realize Goodreads didn't have until people pointed this out.)
You can actually do that on GR, but you have to set it up yourself. I have done it for mine. But the fact that it’s a native option on SG is very telling of their understanding of the reading experience!
@@searchingforsamanthaI have noticed people talking about making their shelves on GR. You can take your GR info and transfer, and I think how those shelves translate is through tags that you can put on the books yourself (the origonal tags are automatic) but yeah, the DNF is right with the "To read", "read", "Finished" drop down that is right next to the book you're looking at, you can also click on weather you own it already or not in both your TBR or already read. which have been a nice little perk for me personally.... (especually since I've been obessed with Stuff your Kindle Days >_> but also reminds me if I checked it out of the library or not in a short hand.)
I need as many reminders of my library books as possible 😂😂😂
Yeah, the main reason to bail out on GR is to avoid the Amazon connection... but as far as being actually for real functional, it's a clear winner. I'm an active participant in groups on there, I avidly read my friends' reviews and glean book recs from them, the social aspect of it is just as valuable to me at this point as the tracking function. Heck, members of both of my IRL book clubs have read my reviews to the group on the occasion where something came up that prevented me from attending. I absolutely get that we don't want to line Jeff's pockets any more than they already are... but for a different site to be an actual contender it's going to have to be as GOOD as GR.
Agreed! And I’m hearing a lot of chatter about moving to SG after the whole wrapped thing, but I’m still not convinced.
@@searchingforsamantha uh oh, what whole wrapped thing? Too much book drama to keep pup with!
Basically someone hard-coded a website that will scrape your GR for you to create a 2023 wrapped and it seems to have highlighted even more GR’s lack of features. Basically, if someone’s little brother could do it that quickly, why is it so difficult for Amazon to do stuff like that?
I can never find the books I read on any app... But that's probably because some of the books are in German and I read a lot of unpopular books. 😅
It’s very centred on the English language market for sure! My first book was published in German, and I don’t think it’s even on Goodreads!
I’ve been researching alternatives to Goodreads, simply for the Amazon-thing, but the subjective “moods” on Storygraph rubs me the absolute wrong way, haha. And if a 5 stars-system feels like too little/limiting, why not just change to a 10 stars-system (or similar) instead? To me, the whole .25, .5 and .75 just signals that someone can’t commit to an actual opinion, haha… So I’ll be staying on Goodreads for now too, even though I despise Amazon… *sigh*
I’m in exactly the same boat. Though I do occasionally wish for a half-star option 😅
Readly closed i think
That would make a lot of sense! They should take it down off the App Store 😅
@@searchingforsamantha yeah haha i checked their website after you mentioned them and their landing page is them just saying they didn’t have enough users so they had to close. But they’re keeping things up for a while so users get can get their data out
That explains so much 🙈
What is your username in Goodreads? :)
I’m not actually sure 🙈 but this is my profile: www.goodreads.com/author/show/19441369.Samantha_Parks