With millions of users, Goodreads is one of the most popular book cataloging websites available. Its relevance cannot be understated: authors to readers alike rely on Goodreads for reviews and ratings. I have used Goodreads for about five years. But I think I am finally done with the platform. After so many annoyances surrounding the site, I have found an alternative that is leagues better than Goodreads.

Why Goodreads annoys me

Website design

God, the website design. Goodreads was bought by the multi-billion dollar company Amazon in 2013. Despite all the money Amazon has, the website still looks like it did in 2006. The desktop site is aggressively bad. The interface, the ugly links, it just looks like an early 2000s website. They have attempted to update parts of it, but the Web 1.0 look of it remains. And with Goodreads being a major player in the publishing industry—literally having the power to make or break authors—the website looks bad and lacks major features. Which brings me to my next point…

No stats or fun features

I was content with Goodreads until I discovered The StoryGraph. The Storygraph is a new book cataloging and review website launched in 2019. And once I made an account, I realized how much better Goodreads could be if they tried.

The StoryGraph is filled with data and stats about your reading history. Moods, pacing, genre, most read authors, even tracking books and pages read by the month. Ratings with half and quarter stars. Different versions for audiobook, digital, paperback, or hardcover. All of it, for free, on a sleek website. The most Goodreads does is track how many books you read and recommend similar books. This is the main reason why I decided to finally switch over to The StoryGraph, and I haven’t looked back. So many insights into my reading behavior and preferences, as well as more curated suggestions for my next read.

Review drama

I could spend an entire day listing off Goodreads review drama (but if you want more, just search “Goodreads controversies“ or “Goodreads review bombing“). And I am switching less because of this drama, and more of how reading others’ Goodreads reviews impacts my reading experience. When you look at a book listing on the site, a few reviews are displayed as you browse the book. But posts with the most engagements get bumped up to the top. Like inflammatory or negative reviews with lots of comments. So I will end up reading snippets of a negative review and it taints my perception of the book. I have decided not to read a book many times based on one negative review. Which is fine, but I want to be the one to make that decision. I just want a site where I can log my reviews and add new ones to my TBR. The StoryGraph is much better at hiding reviews when you search for a book.

Conclusion: I’m tired of ordinary

Goodreads is one of the first and most popular book review aggregation sites. This has lulled them into a sense of confidence. Their website looks like it hasn’t changed since 2007. Meanwhile, The StoryGraph is offering up all these stats and insightful data about your reading. And I think what makes it worse is that Goodreads is owned by Amazon. Amazon has the resources and talent to make Goodreads a data-driven powerhouse of an app that serves the user and introduces cool new features. But because they have dominated the game for so long, they don’t. Or maybe they don’t see any economic benefit in spending a lot of money improving a completely free site. Goodreads is where it all happens, for better or for worse. But after playing around with The StoryGraph, I find it hard to go back to Goodreads.