Best Book Tracker Apps Compared: Goodreads, StoryGraph, Fable and Cherry Books

There is no single best book tracker app, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling one. What exists is a handful of good tools that are built for different readers. This comparison covers four of them: Goodreads, StoryGraph, Fable and our own Cherry Books.

A disclosure first, because it matters: we make Cherry Books. We have tried to write about the others the way we would want a competitor to write about us, which means sticking to what is publicly known, saying where the other apps are stronger, and being just as direct about our own limits. Apps change quickly, so treat everything below as a snapshot and check each product's current pages before you commit.

What to compare before you pick

Features lists tend to blur together. These five questions separate the apps in practice.

1. Is it personal or social? Do you want a private notebook for your own reading, or a place where other readers' reviews and recommendations are the point?
2. How do you want to find books? From a big public catalogue and community ratings, from mood and pace filters, or from your own shelf?
3. What do you want to record? Stars and finish dates, or also heat, tears, tropes, quotes and a journal?
4. What do you want to do with the data? Look at charts, make posts to share, or just keep it?
5. What does it cost, and what happens when you leave? Check the export options before you invest years of history.

Goodreads

Goodreads is the default for a reason. It is free, it is owned by Amazon, and it has a very large catalogue and a very large community, so almost any book you search for already has reviews and a page. You organise books on shelves, follow friends, join a yearly reading challenge and read other people's reviews before you buy.

• Strengths: the size of the catalogue and community, free to use, friends' reviews, easy to find a book's page, a familiar reading challenge, and a CSV export of your library (we walk through it in how to move your Goodreads shelf).
• Trade-offs: it is built as a public social network and a catalogue rather than a personal notebook, so the privacy of your own reading and the depth of what you can record about each book are not its focus. Readers who want to track things like heat level, tropes or per-book journals usually end up improvising with shelves and tags.
• Best for: readers who want a free, universal place to log books, see what friends are reading and browse reviews.

StoryGraph

StoryGraph positions itself as a more data-driven alternative. It leans on charts and statistics about your reading, lets you search and browse by mood and pace, and has community-submitted content warnings. It can import your Goodreads data, which makes trying it low-risk.

• Strengths: reading statistics, mood and pace as discovery tools, content warnings, a straightforward Goodreads import, and a free tier with an optional paid plan for extras.
• Trade-offs: it is still primarily a catalogue-and-discovery product. If you want a heavily personalised, decorative space for your own notes, quotes and posts, it is not the main idea. Check its current pages for what sits in the free tier and what needs the paid plan, because that line can move.
• Best for: readers who like numbers and want help choosing their next book by mood.

Fable

Fable is the social-reading specialist. Its centre of gravity is book clubs: joining one, following along with discussion prompts, and talking about a book with other people while you read it. Its app store listing describes clubs where members annotate and respond inside the reading experience.

• Strengths: book clubs and live discussion, a ready-made community around a book, and a social rhythm that keeps people reading.
• Trade-offs: if what you want is a private tracker with deep per-book records, a club-first product is solving a different problem. Check its current pricing and club access before relying on any particular feature.
• Best for: readers who want to read together with a community, or who join clubs regularly.

Cherry Books

Cherry Books is the one we build, and it is deliberately narrow: it is a reading tracker for romance and romantasy readers. Every book can carry a spice meter and a tear meter, tropes you can filter by, a quote wall with page numbers, a notebook, series shown in reading order, a timer, calendar and streaks, a year recap and 48 stamps to collect. You can turn your shelf into shareable cards and videos, and run buddy reads of up to ten readers where each note stays sealed until the reader reaches that page. It imports from Goodreads or StoryGraph files, spreadsheets, barcodes and, with a plan, a photo of your bookcase.

• Strengths: romance-specific fields, a warm and decorative design, sharing tools, spoiler-safe buddy reads, and an export of everything in a single file at any time, even after you cancel.
• Trade-offs, plainly: it is a paid product. After a 7-day free trial it costs $4.99 a month, $29 a year or $79 once, and there is no permanent free plan. It is a personal tracker, not a huge public catalogue with millions of community reviews or a recommendation engine built on them. It runs in the browser and can be installed to your tablet or phone home screen rather than being a big-store app. And it is a young, small product compared with the others.
• Best for: romance readers who want a personal, pretty tracker and are happy to pay for it, especially if they share on Instagram or TikTok.

At a glance

How to choose

• If you mostly want to see what friends think and find a book's page quickly, Goodreads is hard to beat.
• If you want your reading turned into statistics and like choosing by mood, try StoryGraph.
• If your reading life is social and club-shaped, try Fable.
• If you read romance, care about heat and tropes, keep quotes and notes, and want to post about your shelf, give Cherry Books a try.

You do not have to choose forever. Because most of these tools can import or export a library as a file, many readers keep a social account for friends and reviews and a separate personal tracker for the detail. If you are weighing a move, read what to check before switching from Goodreads first, and keep a copy of your export as a safety net.

If you would like to see whether Cherry Books suits you, the 7-day trial is free, and cancelling before day seven means nothing is charged.