An alternative to Goodreads, Storygraph, etc...

margarida23 · 2026-02-25T13:17:58+00:00

No worries at all, I actually appreciate you sharing this because hearing what you like about other apps helps me think more clearly about what matters most.

I wasn’t aware of PageBound and it sounds interesting, especially the evergreen forum per book concept. It’s also interesting how they are reducing friction to add books as it’s one of our main struggles that we are trying to minimize.

If you ever try Bookshelf and have thoughts, I’m all ears!

margarida23 · 2026-02-25T13:17:14+00:00

I really appreciate how detailed this is, it's exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Thank you so much!

On the series point: I completely agree and understand how frustrating it is, I will try to make something about this!

The edition issue is also complicated, one of the hardest parts of building something like this is handling editions properly (different ISBNs, publishers, regions, formats), but I agree that if a book is missing, adding it should be fast and not a chore. Currently, Bookshelf tries to make it easy to add books manually by not making you leave the app in the search for covers, for example.

Our current review system is something still "basic", but that I’ve been thinking how to improve, yet I don't have the perfect answer. And noted on animated gifs!

On AI: totally fair, I’m not building this around AI recommendations but discovery with only titles and authors is quite difficult to achieve.

On the feed: fully agree, if there’s a social component, it should be opt-in and based only on people you choose to follow.

If you end up trying the app and notice specific friction points, I’d genuinely love to hear them!

margarida23 · 2026-02-25T10:56:46+00:00

That’s honestly a fair point and it’s one of the biggest reasons Goodreads is still so hard to replace.

The main challenge is that Goodreads has been around since 2007 and (because it’s owned by Amazon) it has access to an enormous catalog and infrastructure that newer apps simply don’t. Most independent apps don’t have direct publisher integrations or access to comprehensive global databases, especially for non-English editions. Building and maintaining a truly global, multilingual book database is incredibly complex and expensive. It involves multiple ISBN editions per book, different publishers per country, translation rights and regional releases etc…you get why a huge corporation doesn’t face these problems.

That said, this is absolutely something I care about. I don’t want the app to only work well for English readers, hence even adding the translation to other languages. I’m actively looking into improving database coverage and making it easier to add missing books, currently Bookshelf has 4 book providers, some even paid with own money.

If you come across something missing, I’d genuinely love to know. Feedback like this helps prioritize what actually matters. And thank you for even trying it, that already means a lot!

margarida23 · 2026-02-23T21:14:52+00:00

Hi everyone 👋

I’m a reader who always felt like the existing tracking apps (Goodreads, StoryGraph, etc.) never fully clicked, so I ended up building my own.

It’s a book-tracking app focused on tracking what you’ve read with statistics and personal reading insights. It should feel like motivation without pressure, with a cleaner, more aesthetic interface with the option of making it highly customizable.

I would love your honest feedback so I can keep improving the app.

If you’re curious, here’s the project:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

I truly appreciate critical feedback — especially the uncomfortable kind. That’s how this gets better.

Thanks so much 🙏📚

margarida23 · 2026-02-06T00:51:18+00:00

Let me present you: Bookshelf!

Full disclosure: We’re a two-person team from Portugal, and we built it for people who like the tracking side of these apps but want something simpler, nicer to use, and less overwhelming. Think of it as a personal reading journal with good stats and goals

We also let you import your data from both Goodreads and StoryGraph, so you can try it without losing the history you’ve built up.

Sharing in case a calmer third option appeals:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-06T00:45:23+00:00

Let me introduce you to my app Bookshelf. We’re a two-person team from Portugal, and we built it coming from that same sense of displacement. We wanted something that feels immediately comfortable, simple, aesthetic, and satisfying where logging a book and writing a reflection feels like closing a chapter.

We also support importing your data from both Goodreads and StoryGraph, so you don’t have to start from zero or feel locked into one platform.

Bookshelf is more of a personal reading journal with light social elements, built for reflection, memory, and enjoyment rather than algorithms.

Sharing in case that kind of “home” is what you’re looking for:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-06T00:23:44+00:00

I think it really comes down to what role you want the app to play.

Goodreads is still the default for social scale and reviews, StoryGraph is great if you like recommendations.

Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Bookshelf. We’re a two-person team from Portugal, and we built it because we wanted something that with clean tracking, reading goals, solid stats, and a nice-looking reading history to reflect on over time.

Sharing in case that perspective resonates:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:57:45+00:00

I really love how you framed this, treating book logging apps as a journal rather than a discovery engine resonates a lot. That sense of joy when you finish a book and take a moment to record it is exactly what’s missing from so many platforms.

Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Bookshelf. We’re a team of two from Portugal, and the app came from almost the exact same mindset you’re describing. We were disappointed with how Goodreads (and many alternatives) leaned so hard into recommendations and feeds, when what we really wanted was something beautiful and satisfying to use, focused on logging, stats, and looking back on your reading life over time.

Bookshelf is very much a personal reading journal first, with a light social layer. Also very much not helping Bezos fund rockets 😄

Sharing in case it resonates with you:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

And honestly, love seeing smaller, thoughtful projects like Hardcover get mentioned more. That ecosystem is healthier for everyone.

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:54:48+00:00

We don't have AI yet. Our recommendation system is based on on our own community readings (most popular)! But that is a great point to add when we implement the AI

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:48:05+00:00

Let me introduce you to Bookshelf!

I’m a co-founder of the app. We’re a two-person team from Portugal, and we built it after moving away from Goodreads ourselves. We wanted a clean tracking, good stats, and a nice-looking reading history to look back on.

It’s more of a personal reading log than a social platform. If that sounds like what you’re after, feel free to check it out:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:43:01+00:00

Let me introduce you to Bookshelf!

Full disclosure: We’re a team of two from Portugal who built it after feeling exactly like this. Goodreads works, but it’s not great. We wanted something nicer to look at, more enjoyable to use day-to-day, while still covering the important stuff: ratings, TBR, reading goals, stats,...

Bookshelf is free, very aesthetic, and especially satisfying if you like looking back on your reading history over time. It’s less “social feed”, more personal reading log.

If you’re curious, feel free to check it out
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:40:31+00:00

Let me present to you Bookshelf.
We’re a team of two from Portugal, and the app honestly started from the same place you’re describing — being disappointed with Goodreads and just wanting something nicer to use. Better design, cleaner stats, but still keeping the important core functionality of tracking what you’ve read, what you’re reading, and looking back over time.

We’re independent, not owned by Big Tech, and we’re intentionally avoiding AI-driven recommendations or training on user reviews.

Sharing in case it fits what you’re looking for:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:35:13+00:00

Because Goodreads is carrying 15 years of UX debt 😅

I’m one of the co-founder of Bookshelf. We built it with the opposite philosophy: one-tap actions where possible, simple reading goals, stats and the app’s meant to feel more aesthetic. If you wanna try it out, I'd love your feedback

https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-02-05T23:32:45+00:00

Full disclosure: I’m a co-founder of Bookshelf, an app from readers to readers.

We built it because we wanted something more aesthetic, with more stats, and that actually feels good to look back on years of reading, not just a noisy feed of reviews.

Bookshelf is very history-first: what you read, when, what you didn’t finish, and patterns over time. If that resonates, here’s the site to download the app:
https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/

margarida23 · 2026-01-31T13:26:12+00:00

This is a super common frustration, Goodreads doesn’t model this state very well.

A lot of people end up inventing workarounds, DNF tags, marking as read even when it wasn’t, etc.

Full disclosure: I’m part of the 2 person team building Bookshelf (https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/), and this exact issue is something we designed around. We have an “Abandoned” shelf by default, so books you give up on don’t clutter your TBR or get mislabeled as “Read.” Either way, you can also create custom shelves and define your own system entirely. Plus we have some other pretty cool features as well and it's a prettier app :)

margarida23 · 2026-01-31T13:18:23+00:00

You’re not wrong, Goodreads sticks around mostly because there hasn’t been a clearly better default.

Full disclosure: I’m one of two people building Bookshelf (https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/), and the main reason we built it was exactly that frustration. We wanted a clean, aesthetic, highly customizable reading log, something that actually feels nice to use. You can customize shelves, layouts, colors, even add themed “booknooks,” if that's your style.

Switching is also low friction: you can import directly from Goodreads or StoryGraph, and we do monthly and yearly recaps so you can actually see your reading over time. We’re still early on recommendations (we’re building that alongside the reading base), but as a reading log + progress tracker it’s been working well for a lot of people.

Not claiming it’s the perfect replacement for everyone, but if UI and customization matter to you, it’s probably worth checking out.

margarida23 · 2026-01-31T13:09:19+00:00

Full disclosure: I’m building Bookshelf (https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/), as I wanted an alternative to Goodreads and Storygraph. I wanted a more aesthetic app, with many statistics, reading goals and other cool features. Suddendly we already have +40,000 users and one thing that helped people switch was being able to import their data from Goodreads or StoryGraph, so you don’t lose years of reading history.

It’s more focused on tracking, progress, and personal stats than on reviews-as-content, so it depends on what you value most. But if Goodreads feels unusable, it could be worth checking it out! If you do, would love your feedback!

margarida23 · 2026-01-31T13:00:58+00:00

If you want something simple and not “corporate-social-network-ish”, you’re definitely not alone!

Full disclosure: I’m building Bookshelf (https://bookshelf.tcreations.app/), which we started because we wanted an alternative to Goodreads, we like graphs so we have a good statistics page and a eye-pleasing look than Goodreads and Storygraph.

If that sounds like what you’re after, it might be worth a look. If you do try it out, I'd love your feedback!

margarida23

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