KCLS vs StoryGraph
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
KCLS
Manage your library account conveniently from your mobile device. Discover new books, place holds, renew borrowed items, and easily locate library branches and their hours.
- Discover and search library collection
- Place, manage, and cancel holds
- Renew borrowed items
- Rate and save titles
- Find library locations and hours
- Browse bestsellers and new arrivals
Read full descriptionHide full description
Save time by managing your King County Library System (KCLS) account on your mobile device. The KCLS app makes it easy to discover and rate titles, place holds, renew items, and find library locations. Features: • Find items in our collection, using filters to zero-in on what you’re looking for • Browse bestsellers, new arrivals, and recent reader reviews • Check title availability and map locations where titles are available now • Place, suspend, activate, and cancel holds • Renew items • Rate and save titles to Shelves • Find library hours and get directions to the nearest location
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide 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
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: StoryGraph at 70% against KCLS's 28%. StoryGraph also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (3.6K vs 17). KCLS's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. StoryGraph sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. KCLS asks for nothing beyond the download.
StoryGraph holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: StoryGraph has 3.6K ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 28% of KCLS's written reviews are positive against 70% of StoryGraph's.
KCLS ships an update every 3 months, StoryGraph monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | KCLS | StoryGraph |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (17 ratings) | 4.5 (3.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 27.5% of reviews | 70.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 17 | 3.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Best chart rank | — | #36 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | King County Library System | The StoryGraph |
Customer experience
KCLS
StoryGraph
User reviews
KCLS
From 17 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to log in
- 👍 Fun books to read
- 👍 Excellent app
- 👍 Helpful for all ages
- 👍 Convenient for managing holds
Room to improve
- 🐛 Unreliable app
- 🐛 Constant sign in issues
- 🐛 Failed sign in attempts count against user
- 🐛 Return book function doesn't work
- 🐛 Search bar coded too narrowly
StoryGraph
From 3.6K App Store ratingsWhat 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
Bugs and requests
KCLS
Reported bugs
173 issues- Keeps logging out
- Constant sign in issues
- Failed sign in attempts count against user
- Return book function doesn't work
- Search bar coded too narrowly
Show 168 moreShow fewer
- No notifications for holds ready
- App times out
- Bookshelf features show blank
- Glitching frequently
- Kicks user out
- Won't accept card or passcode
- System errors after login prompts
- Search results blank
- Borrowing tab won't show books
- Opening a book doesn't work
- App crashes when viewing 'For Later' shelf
- App loads website in all views
- Navigation is a mess
- Wasted space
- Hard to find things
- App gets worse with each update
- Developers lack common sense
- Borrowing section takes long to load
- Borrowing section often blank
- App not reliable
- App didn't resize on iPad
- App remains small on iPad
- Confusing new UI
- Horrid update
- New version doesn't let you search by genre
- New version doesn't let you search by type of item
- App bounces user to multiple other apps
- Forces multiple sign-ins
- Doesn't work in the end
- Completely useless
- Confusing vocabulary
- Counterintuitive product
- Horrible new update
- App is slow
- Cumbersome new version
- Less visually attractive new version
- Missing 'On Order' filter
- Lacks website functionalities
- Awful new version
- Not visual
- Not user friendly
- Worst App ever
- Missing 'Just Ordered' option
- Useless to user
- Landing page shows holds, not borrowed
- Takes long to open Borrowing page
- Real drag to wait every time
- Easier to use browser version
- Black bars on top and bottom of iPhone X screen
- App is adequate at best
- App is unloved compared to website
- Design is outdated
- Keyboard and popup windows target non-Retina devices
- App forced into portrait on iPad
- Cannot be used in landscape on iPad
- Does not scale to iPad screen
- App is almost unusable due to instability
- Very buggy
- Features to refine searches not working
- 'Done' button doesn't work for refinements
- 'Done' or 'Cancel' button doesn't work for refinements
- 'Refine' feature stopped working
- 'DONE' button for refining results isn't working
- App looks horrible on an iPad
- App keeps crashing
- App closes within seconds of opening
- App tells user something's on hold when it's not
- Lag with dialogue boxes
- Invalid Patron Access error
- App had a bunch of issues initially
- App won't stay open
- Redirected to mobile website for holds
- Redirected to mobile website for ebooks
- Slow when placing a hold
- Slow when checking account
- Difficulties with logging in/out
- Difficulties with changing accounts
- Can't suggest authors
- Can't recommend other books in a series
- Doesn't mark books read through Overdrive app
- New version is confusing
- New version is slow
- New UI very difficult to use
- Cannot listen to audiobooks through Apple Music
- App gets worse with each update
- Developers lack common sense
- App times out
- Bookshelf features show blank
- Glitching frequently
- Kicks user out
- Won't accept card or passcode
- System errors after login prompts
- Search results blank
- Borrowing tab won't show books
- Opening a book doesn't work
- App crashes when viewing 'For Later' shelf
- App loads website in all views
- Navigation is a mess
- Wasted space
- Hard to find things
- App gets worse with each update
- Developers lack common sense
- Borrowing section takes long to load
- Borrowing section often blank
- App not reliable
- App didn't resize on iPad
- App remains small on iPad
- Confusing new UI
- Horrid update
- New version doesn't let you search by genre
- New version doesn't let you search by type of item
- App bounces user to multiple other apps
- Forces multiple sign-ins
- Doesn't work in the end
- Completely useless
- Confusing vocabulary
- Counterintuitive product
- Horrible new update
- App is slow
- Cumbersome new version
- Less visually attractive new version
- Missing 'On Order' filter
- Lacks website functionalities
- Awful new version
- Not visual
- Not user friendly
- Worst App ever
- Missing 'Just Ordered' option
- Useless to user
- Landing page shows holds, not borrowed
- Takes long to open Borrowing page
- Real drag to wait every time
- Easier to use browser version
- Black bars on top and bottom of iPhone X screen
- App is adequate at best
- App is unloved compared to website
- Design is outdated
- Keyboard and popup windows target non-Retina devices
- App forced into portrait on iPad
- Cannot be used in landscape on iPad
- Does not scale to iPad screen
- App is almost unusable due to instability
- Very buggy
- Features to refine searches not working
- 'Done' button doesn't work for refinements
- 'Done' or 'Cancel' button doesn't work for refinements
- 'Refine' feature stopped working
- 'DONE' button for refining results isn't working
- App looks horrible on an iPad
- App keeps crashing
- App closes within seconds of opening
- App tells user something's on hold when it's not
- Lag with dialogue boxes
- Invalid Patron Access error
- App had a bunch of issues initially
- App won't stay open
- Redirected to mobile website for holds
- Redirected to mobile website for ebooks
- Slow when placing a hold
- Slow when checking account
- Difficulties with logging in/out
- Difficulties with changing accounts
- Can't suggest authors
- Can't recommend other books in a series
- Doesn't mark books read through Overdrive app
- New version is confusing
- New version is slow
- New UI very difficult to use
Requested features
23 requests- Correct misspellings in search
- Allow less than exact search terms
- Auto-correction in search
- Word suggestion in search
- Dark mode option
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- Filter search by genre
- Filter search by subject
- See reviews and comments in app
- Limit search to specific word and exclude derivatives
- Predictive text feature in search
- Add library card to Apple Wallet
- Optimize for iPhone X screen
- Suggest authors, not just books
- Mark books as read through Overdrive app
- Push notifications for holds/due dates
- Account overview/summary screen
- Return 'On Order' filter
- Return 'Just Ordered' filter
- Dark mode
- Advanced search filters
- Improved search functionality
- Better iPad optimization
- Push notifications
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
In-app purchases
KCLS
No in-app purchases
StoryGraph
- The StoryGraph Plus Monthly$4.991 Month
- The StoryGraph Plus Annual$49.991 Year









