StoryGraph vs Goodreads vs Shelfola: which book app is right for you?

StoryGraph and Goodreads are the two names most readers know, and Shelfola is the new one we’re building. All three track what you read, but they’re built around different ideas, and the right choice depends on what you want from a book app.

Since we make Shelfola, here’s how we’ve tried to keep this fair: every claim about StoryGraph and Goodreads comes from their own help pages, roadmaps or app listings as of October 2026, and where we couldn’t confirm something we’ve left it out rather than guess. If you spot something that’s changed, tell us and we’ll update this post.

The short version

• Goodreads is the biggest. Unbeatable for the sheer number of reviews, groups and author activity, and convenient if you read on Kindle. Whole-star ratings and ads are the main trade-offs.
• StoryGraph is the data-lover’s choice. Moods, pace, content warnings, quarter stars and wonderful stats charts, funded by an optional paid tier instead of ads.
• Shelfola is built around trust and spoiler safety. Quarter stars with review-bomb protection, chapter-aware spoilers, page-locked buddy reads inside clubs, a calm chronological feed, capped email, and no ads at all.

Side by side

A dash means we couldn’t confirm it either way, not that the app lacks it.

Ratings: whole stars, quarter stars, and whether to trust the score

Goodreads uses whole stars. StoryGraph and Shelfola both let you rate in quarter stars, so a 3.75 can stay a 3.75.

Where Shelfola goes further is in how a book’s overall score is built. Ratings from accounts less than a week old and ratings made before a book’s release don’t count. Readers who finished the book count fully, and every book page shows the breakdown: how many ratings counted, how many came from people who finished, and what was left out and why. Goodreads has said it applies checks around pre-release ratings; we couldn’t find public documentation of how StoryGraph handles pile-ons, so we won’t guess.

Choosing what to read next

This is StoryGraph’s home turf. Its mood and pace tags, plot-or-character question and content warnings feed into recommendations and filters, and many readers switch for exactly this.

Shelfola has the same kind of reader tags (moods, pace and content warnings) and lets you search by mood and pace while excluding warnings you’d rather avoid. We don’t try to out-recommend StoryGraph; if personalised suggestions are your top priority, it’s a great choice.

Goodreads relies more on its enormous review base, lists (Listopia) and what your friends are reading.

Stats and looking back

StoryGraph’s charts are the best known: moods, genres, pages and pace over time. Goodreads has its Reading Challenge and Year in Books. Shelfola has private reading stats (charts, streaks, your taste and this year against last), reading challenges you can join or create, and a Year in Books recap. Shelfola’s stats are private by default; you choose whether to show them on your profile.

Spoilers

Goodreads lets reviewers mark spoilers, which hides that text behind a click. Shelfola takes a chapter-aware approach: reviewers tag spoilers by chapter, so you see everything up to the chapter you’re on and the rest unlocks when you get there.

Reading together

Both StoryGraph and Shelfola lock buddy-read comments to the point in the book where they were written, so you only see a comment once you’ve logged that much progress. StoryGraph’s buddy reads are for small groups (up to 15 people), with separate readalongs for bigger groups.

On Shelfola, buddy reads can run on their own or inside a club. Every message is stamped with a page (or chapter, or percentage) and stays locked until you reach it. You can choose to reveal one early on purpose. Clubs can be public or private with invite links and read with checkpoints for each section. You’ll get a bundled nudge at most once a day per reader when your buddies move ahead, not a ping for every message.

Goodreads has groups and discussion boards, which are great for big communities but don’t lock comments to your progress.

Social feed and notifications

Goodreads has the biggest social graph by far. Shelfola’s feed is deliberately calm: a Following tab that shows only the readers you follow, everything newest first, with no engagement ranking. You can tag @people and #books in posts, and mute anyone. Email is bundled, held overnight in quiet hours, and capped at 3 non-essential emails a day by default, or you can keep everything in the in-app bell.

Privacy

On Shelfola your library starts private, private profiles approve every follower, and when you import you choose whether your reviews are visible to everyone, followers only or only you. Both other apps have their own privacy settings; check them against what you need.

Getting your books in

Goodreads lets you export your library as a CSV from the desktop site, and StoryGraph lets you export from Manage account. Shelfola imports both files, plus Hardcover exports and any spreadsheet. You see a preview of every match before saving, and you can undo an import in one tap. Our step-by-step Goodreads export guide walks through it.

Which should you choose?

• Pick Goodreads if community size matters most, you want the widest pool of reviews, or you’re tied into Kindle.
• Pick StoryGraph if you want mood-based recommendations and the richest stats.
• Pick Shelfola if you read with friends or clubs and hate spoilers, want ratings you can trust, and prefer a quiet, ad-free space.

There’s no lock-in either way: export, import, and try. Shelfola’s StoryGraph guide and Goodreads guide show exactly what comes across.

A note on what’s new

A few more things on Shelfola: profile pictures, series in reading order, rereads, your own tags and lists, book data any reader can suggest fixes to, and a Daily Book Puzzle where you guess the day’s book in six tries. It also installs from your browser, works offline and scans ISBN barcodes in a shop.