Comparison

StoryGraph vs Bookshop.org

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

StoryGraph

Track your reading habits with insightful stats and personalized book recommendations powered by AI. Discover new books based on mood, pace, and genre, and connect with friends for shared reading experiences.

Highlights
  • Import Goodreads data
  • Personalized book recommendations
  • Track reading habits with stats
  • Discover books by mood and pace
  • Read with friends (buddy reads)
  • Custom reading challenges
  • Content warnings for books
Features
Read full description

Import your Goodreads data: We will import all of your currently-reading, read, to-read, and did-not-finish shelves. Any custom shelves will be mapped to a custom tag on The StoryGraph. Simple tracking and insightful stats: Easily track and learn about your reading habits with our wide range of charts and graphs. See how your reading develops over time and use that to help you pick better books. Get smart personalized recommendations: Our machine learning AI is like your trusted go-to friend for book recommendations. It'll understand your reading preferences and find the best books for you. Discover books by mood: In the mood for something adventurous, funny, and fast-paced? What about a darker, slower, more emotional read? Mix and match our comprehensive set of filters to choose your next perfect book. Read with friends: Add live reactions to specific parts of the book without fear of spoilers. Comments are locked for other participants until they reach that point in their reading. Don't have people to read with? We’ve got machine learning-powered suggestions for great reading buddies. Reading Challenges: Want to read one book from every country in the world? Or how about read a book per week across a range of genres? Our reading challenges feature help you set up personal goals or join in with others. Custom Tags: Enhance your book tracking and discovery by making use of our custom tags feature. You can search and filter books by your tags and share curated lists with friends. Content Warnings: When you review a book, you can let us know if there's any content within it that might be triggering for others. Then, when searching for your next read, all of this information is at your disposal. Features: • Import your Goodreads account • Sync with Kobo • Reading charts and graphs • Streaks • Favorites • Buddy reads • Readalongs • Book Clubs • Personalized machine learning recommendations • Follow your friends to see what they're reading • Annual reading, page, and listening goals • Search/browse books by mood, pace, and more • Custom tags • Lists to share with your friends or the public • Create your own reading challenge or join in with others • Dark Mode • Barcode Scanner • Giveaways • Browse similar books • Find similar users • Half and quarter star ratings • Built-in DNF (Did Not Finish) functionality (including tracking pages read) • Progress updates with built-in reading journal • Author-approved and user-submitted content warnings Want to support an independent, Goodreads alternative? Consider upgrading to Plus! • Keep the platform ad-free: You'll help The StoryGraph stay independent! • Custom Charts: Create your own pie and bar charts. • Extra Stats Filters: Filter down your stats to a custom time period, or view stats for your fiction or nonfiction reads, your custom tags, any particular mood or genre, and more. • Custom Wrap-Up Graphics: Pick any custom date range and instantly generate shareable graphics for your reading. • Compare Stats: Compare any two stats segments of your StoryGraph library, whether that's a particular year against a custom time period, your To-Read Pile against your owned books, or a combination of several other options. You can also compare any stats segment with any segment from any other user — mix and match however you like. • Exclusive Charts: When comparing your reading across two different years, see exclusive year-on-year charts on the number of books read and their genres. • Shape the roadmap: You get to vote and comment on upcoming features as well as submit official requests for new ones • Priority Support: Your support tickets and requests for book information updates will be handled first Privacy Policy: https://app.thestorygraph.com/privacy Terms of Service:https://app.thestorygraph.com/terms-of-service

About

Bookshop.org

Read your ebooks and discover new titles while supporting independent bookstores. All ebook purchases made through this platform directly benefit local bookshops, ensuring their continued success in the digital age.

Highlights
  • Read ebooks from your library
  • Browse millions of ebooks
  • Add titles to wishlist
  • Support local bookstores with purchases
  • Connect seamlessly with Bookshop
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Bookshop.org’s mission is simple: We help local, independent bookstores thrive by giving more than 80% of our profits back to our network of 3,000+ stores. In our app, you can read millions of ebooks - and every purchase supports an independent bookstore near you! In the Bookshop app you can: - Read your ebooks in our customizable ebook reader. - Browse millions of titles and discover your next favorite read in romance, thrillers, mystery, fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and more. - Organize your TBR into custom shelves. - Highlight in five different colors, and add notes to your highlighted passages. - Sort & filter highlights and notes by date created, book order, and more. - Save titles to your wishlist so you can read them later. - Shop knowing that over 80% of the profit goes directly to local, independent bookstores. We’re a Certified B Corp, and we’ve raised more than $50 million for independent bookstores nationwide since 2020. Download the Bookshop.org app to support bookstores, not billionaires.

Screenshots

StoryGraph4 screens
Bookshop.org4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bookshop.org at none against StoryGraph's 2. Bookshop.org also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). StoryGraph's advantage is review sentiment (70% vs 57%) and chart position (#35 vs #146). On price, ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. StoryGraph sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Bookshop.org asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bookshop.org holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.6K and 2.2K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 70% of StoryGraph's written reviews are positive against 57% of Bookshop.org's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

StoryGraph ships an update monthly, Bookshop.org every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
StoryGraph versus Bookshop.org: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStoryGraphBookshop.org
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (3.6K ratings)4.8 (2.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.3% of reviews — better56.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3.6K — better2.2K
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
Best chart rank#35 — better#146
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB111 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperThe StoryGraphBookshop, Inc.

Customer experience

StoryGraph

All ratings3,594 ratings
Positive85.6%
Neutral5.0%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews1,034 reviews
Positive70.3%
Neutral12.4%
Negative17.3%

Bookshop.org

All ratings2,175 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral3.2%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews180 reviews
Positive56.7%
Neutral22.8%
Negative20.6%

User reviews

StoryGraph

From 3.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 🚀 Excellent reading stats and data visualization
  • 💡 Innovative features like buddy reads and reading challenges
  • 👍 Clean and modern design
  • 💡 Independent company, not owned by big tech

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🐛 Slow performance and loading times
  • 🐛 Issues with importing data from other platforms
  • 🐛 Missing some basic features like custom shelves/lists
  • 🐛 Confusing navigation and UI in places

Bookshop.org

From 2.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Wonderful app
  • 👍 Great alternative to Amazon
  • 👍 Supports local bookstores
  • 👍 Clean and pleasing interface
  • 👍 Solid app for a new release

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Formatting issues (lack of italics, poor paragraph spacing, etc.)
  • 🐛 Buggy page turning and navigation
  • 🔧 Limited customization options (fonts, themes, brightness, etc.)
  • 🔧 Missing essential features (highlighting, note-taking, search, etc.)

Bugs and requests

StoryGraph

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or freezes when trying to update reading progress
  • Incorrect book details and page counts
  • Login issues where users get logged out frequently

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to track re-reads and multiple editions of books
  • More robust social features like following friends, liking reviews
  • Barcode scanning to easily add books
  • Customizable reading challenges and goal tracking
  • Dark mode option

Bookshop.org

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inability to remember last page read
  • Scrolling issues and unexpected page skipping
  • Formatting problems (stripped italics, weird paragraph spacing)
  • Settings not persisting between app sessions

Requested features

7 requests
  • More font and theme options
  • Ability to adjust line spacing, margins, and other formatting
  • Implement highlighting, annotation, and note-taking features
  • Add search functionality
  • Improve page turning and navigation
Show 2 more
  • Provide better dark mode/night reading experience
  • Sync reading progress across devices

In-app purchases

2 purchases

StoryGraph

Subscriptions2
  • The StoryGraph Plus Monthly$4.991 Month
  • The StoryGraph Plus Annual$49.991 Year
None

Bookshop.org

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is StoryGraph free?
StoryGraph is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bookshop.org free?
Bookshop.org is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, StoryGraph or Bookshop.org?
Bookshop.org is rated higher. StoryGraph averages 4.5 out of 5 from 3.6K ratings, while Bookshop.org averages 4.8 from 2.2K ratings.
Do StoryGraph or Bookshop.org have ads?
Neither StoryGraph nor Bookshop.org shows ads.
Which is updated more often, StoryGraph or Bookshop.org?
StoryGraph ships an update monthly, and Bookshop.org every 5 days. Most recently, StoryGraph was updated on October 26, 2026 and Bookshop.org on October 25, 2026.
Which is more popular, StoryGraph or Bookshop.org?
StoryGraph currently peaks at #35 in the App Store charts, and Bookshop.org at #146. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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