LibraryThing vs LARL Connect
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LibraryThing
Catalog your personal book, DVD, and CD collections. Easily add items by searching or scanning barcodes. Enhance your catalog with high-resolution cover photos and browse your collection visually.
- Catalog books, DVDs, and CDs
- Search for media items
- Scan ISBN barcodes
- Add high-resolution cover photos
- Browse collection by cover type
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The LibraryThing app allows LibraryThing members to catalog and browse their collections. LibraryThing is focused on books, but you can add most media, including books, DVDs and CDs. LibraryThing relies on data from Amazon, and over 65 million library records. Add books by searching for them or scanning their ISBN barcode with the camera. Add high-resolution cover photos of your books with the cover editor and browse your books by cover type to find copies that need better covers.
LARL Connect
Manage your library account from your phone. Search for books, place holds, and renew borrowed items. Access digital collections like ebooks and audiobooks with your library card.
- Search library catalog
- Place holds on books
- Renew loans
- Access ebooks
- Access audiobooks
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Companion library catalog app for the Lake Agassiz Regional Library. Search books, place holds, renew loans, and access ebooks and eaudio. To use this app, you need a library card at a participating member library.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: LARL Connect at 5.0 against LibraryThing's 3.5. LibraryThing's advantage is ratings volume (278 vs 1) and update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
LARL Connect holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LibraryThing has 278 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
LibraryThing ships an update every 4 weeks, LARL Connect every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LibraryThing | LARL Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (278 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 47.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 278 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LibraryThing.com | Equinox Open Library Initiative, Inc. |
Customer experience
LibraryThing
LARL Connect
Bugs and requests
LibraryThing
Reported bugs
3 issues- Barcode scanner not working
- Books disappearing from catalog
- Editing and saving issues
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to create custom collections
- Offline access to library
- Integration with other book apps
- Lending/loan tracking feature
LARL Connect
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
LibraryThing
No in-app purchases
LARL Connect
No in-app purchases
