Goodreads vs. The StoryGraph- Pros and Cons — Tina

Mar 28

Mar 28 Goodreads vs. The StoryGraph- Pros and Cons

I love tracking my reading (as you probably guessed) and have been doing so using various methods for about 11 years. I still have a paper journal where I jot down every book I finish and a spreadsheet I use, but my main source has been to track through Goodreads. I’ve been hearing about The StoryGraph and figured it was time I give it a good go. I think there are some things they do very well and I wanted to compare it to my experience using Goodreads.

The StoryGraph

So what is The StoryGraph? It’s a reading tracking website that allows users to catalog the books they’ve read and gives users insight into their reading tastes. It just came out of Beta in January 2021, so I think I’m ready to use it consistently and possibly as a Goodreads alternative.

Both The StoryGraphs and Goodreads allow you to…

Track your reading
Switch to different versions of the same book (for ex: audio vs. hardcover)
Set and track a reading goal for the year

First Impressions of The StoryGraph

I like it a lot! It’s still relatively new and I bet more features are coming. It feels easy to use and I like that you can make note of certain things about the books without writing a full review. (For example, select if a book is character driven or plot driven and select the overall mood of a book). I was able to import all of my data over from Goodreads with no problem, but I would wait until you are ready to consistently use it to import. I carried everything over late 2020 but didn’t consistently start updating it until now, so I had to manually add a bunch of books at once.

Pros of The StoryGraph

Book recommendations! I think this is the most interesting feature. It takes what you’ve rated highly and what you typically like to read and gives you other book recommendations. You can also search for something by mood, genre, and/or length. I put in that I was looking for something fast paced, dark, and excluded a bunch of genres and it spit out Temper by Layne Fargo (and many others). Which actually does sound like something I’d like!
HALF AND QUARTER STARS. Finally. This allowed me to get more nuanced and once there are more people rating, I think you’ll get a better idea about a books’ true collective rating.
More review options (to rate it character driven vs. plot driven or a mix, etc.)
Better search function
Ability to mark a book as owned
Easier search function to find friends- just need their user name
Really easy to list and find content warnings- or to ignore that altogether
You can set up a lot of reading challenges- including those hosted by others (like Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge) or set your own
You can DNF!
Cheers for supporting a Black female owned company!

Cons of The StoryGraph

Community feature is unclear- would like to see a list of people I’m following, but it sounds like they’ve made the choice not to focus on it being a social website
Not a lot of people are on it yet
User page is too simple- I would like the ability to link my social pages/website
No traditional app (but they do have a workaround that I’m using on my phone, which works fine)
No way to search by genre (but I am a mood reader, and do like that they group their suggestions this way)

Pros of Goodreads

I’m used to it
I’ve spent years building my social network on it
It’s easy to see the reviews from recommenders’ I’ve come to love over the years
I can write a comment about what made me add a book to my TBR list

Cons of Goodreads

The website is slow
The search function is terrible. It’s almost a joke how bad it can be sometimes.
Hasn’t been updated in many years

The Takeaway

In my opinion, The StoryGraph is a better experience. It’s more user friendly and I think once more people get on it, it will be even better. My cons are really just things I’d like to see, and I wonder if they’ll be added eventually. I am not a paid customer but the plus features do intrigue me. I probably will still continue to use my Goodreads account, mainly for the social connection. But I can see that going away once more people come to The StoryGraph….maybe.

To that end- join me! (Although that might be against the spirit of the website? I dunno man.)