Fresh goals and organization are the best way to reset any time of year! From tracking your reading goals to updating the list of what books you’ve collected, taking the time to reflect on your week, month, or even year can be a fun and relaxing way to organize everything.
My favorite way to do all of this is with apps! Libib, LibraryThing, Bookshelf, Fable, Margins, and Mibrary (iOS only) are among the most popular book-tracking apps for both Apple and Android users! All of these offer a free version that requires an account to tailor your shelves to you.
I’ve tried and tested them all to help you find the one that works best for you. Let’s check them out together!
A quick key for the apps below: The easiest apps to use are for Bookish Beings, while those are a little harder to work with or take more time to figure out are for Armchair Librarians.
Book Tracking Apps: Which One Will You Choose
Library Thing
Ease of use: Bookish Being
Barcode scanner: Yes
LibraryThing is one of the best-known book-tracking apps and definitely the easiest to use! The simple interface is great for showing first-timers what they’re looking for in a personal library app and how to navigate tags, catalogs, and more.
Pros
Adding books is easy with the search function or the barcode scanner. Having both offered a variety that
I found helpful. The “batch” option also makes adding multiple books at once simple and efficient.
You can mark when and where a book was acquired, when it was read, and more.
Books in your collection can be viewed by title or cover.
Titles always have a cover option for you.
The catalog option lets you view books in your catalog by author and easily sort them by a variety of criteria.
It’s perfect for any-sized library, as there’s no limit on the number of books that can be added.
The app automatically fills in details like publisher, summary, and classification.
CONS
Like Goodreads, the app’s database is sourced from Amazon, so some editions can be a little harder to find.
Collections are pre-created by the app, not you, and most are organized alphabetically by title.
The app can easily crash when you use certain features. For me, the most consistent bug occurs
when selecting an author’s name while viewing a book’s details.
I love a straightforward, simple app. LibraryThing does pretty much everything a home librarian wants straight from the scan, especially when using the scan option! However, it can get a little intense when it comes to the sort criteria. Anything more than basic searches or criteria has to be tagged for LibraryThing to sort, and that’s something you have to manually do yourself.
Here's a tip: Take a minute to create a list of your favorite ways to sort and scan all of your books with the barcode scanner (note: the search function won’t flag duplicates), then make a day of diving in to tag them according to the list!
Bookshelf
Ease of use: Bookish Being
Barcode scanner: Yes
Bookshelf is definitely the cutest of these tracking apps, with a variety of graphics and elements that make it a bit more fun to use. This app’s most amazing feature is the ability to sort, and it also offers the best of both worlds by doubling as a reading-tracking app!
While not as in-depth as StoryGraph or some other reading trackers, the statistics they offer are interesting and a nice addition.
Pros
The app itself has form and function. It’s pretty without sacrificing any of the functionality expected of a tracking app on both the personal library and reading sides.
You can “batch” scan books with the barcode scanner, search for a book by title, add a book from the community, explore pages, or add a new book manually. The options are all there to catalog books, and they all flag duplicates.
Data is sourced from VitalSource, the online textbook platform, and uses a model similar to that of the VitalSource app.
Author, description, publisher, and length are automatically filled in, and reviews from other users are included.
Sorting can be done with tags and a wide variety of other filters within any collection.
Books are sorted alphabetically by author.
The free version offers everything you need to set up any-size library and doesn’t limit the number of books you can add, so whether you choose to get the paid version is up to you.
CONS
This app doesn’t group books by series unless you put in the series information.
Adding a book is public in the “Community” part of this app, so everyone in the app can see that you’ve added a book and its details, which can feel a little strange for anyone looking to use this as a library-tracking app.
Information can be missing or incorrect in some books and editions
since data is sourced from VitalSource and user uploads.
Who doesn’t love having a community? Bookshelf absolutely delivers on its ability to create communities with family and friends. Anything and everything can be shared, depending on your preference, so not only are shelves and collections super easy to create, but you also get to decide which ones are shared with others. No one needs to know about those guilty-pleasure reads if you don’t want them to!
Fable
Ease of use: Bookish Being
Barcode scanner: No
I had to try this app after seeing it all over social media. It’s so easy to see why it's so popular, too! Not only is this app adorable, but it’s also the most social and multi-use of all the apps on this list. Between the community tab and book clubs, there are so many ways to engage.
Pros
Everything about this one is super user-friendly,
from adding books to finding reviews, relevant posts, and book clubs.
You can rate with quarter, half, and full stars with a little DNF ticky box in the review area.
The community section feels a lot like Facebook, which makes it very intuitive, and adding friends is a breeze.
Buddy reading is quick and simple with the book club function. It's spoiler-free, the chats are so organized, and the organizer doesn’t have to archive the club for every book!
Fable is Beta testing a partnership with Everand to link the two, like Goodreads and Kindle, with the added benefit that Fable Plus is free if you have an Everand subscription.
It’s a really good tracking app. Stats are organized in cute graphs with a monthly wrap-up
and a little summary about what kind of reader you are.
It has a wide variety of pre-established lists, but it’s easy to create custom lists for owned books or other categories.
CONS
This app is manual entry only! The search is extensive, offering ISBN, title, or author,
but you can’t scan your books in.
While there’s so much you can do with the app, many of the graphs and really dialed-in tracking features
are only available in the paid version.
There’s an option to read e-books in Fable, but it took asking Professor Google how to do that with books I’ve purchased. The free classics were easy to figure out, though!
Fable is perfect for readers looking for community and to engage with other bookish people! I love the way this app looks, how easily I could navigate and add items to each list, and the stats I could access in the free version.
With the manual-entry-only con, my tip to make putting your books in more fun is to import your lists from Goodreads or make a day of adding your owned books!
Libib
Ease of use: Armchair Librarian
Barcode scanner: Yes
Of the apps on this list, this is definitely the most comprehensive one for tracking books, movies, music, and more! With the ability to group series, add tags, mark as read, and more, Libib can be a labor of love. It’s definitely worth every minute, though!
Pros
Creating collections and adding books was a breeze. The ISBN scanner took only a few seconds to find the book and update the shelf; it also flagged a duplicate title when I added it.
The app automatically fills in the description, ISBN, length, publisher, publication date,
and the number of copies scanned for you.
There are so many options for customizing how you interact with or organize books and collections, including tags, groups, notes, ratings, status, and cover images. All of which are easy to find and update.
Books can be marked complete with or without the dates read,
or marked as “in progress,” along with other status options.
The app is designed to be simple and straightforward for every library,
so there’s no limit to the number of books that can be added.
I had no issues with glitches or crashes while adding and updating books.
Libib also sources its data from open data sources like Google Books and university libraries.
CONS
There’s no dedicated search function, so some books can be harder to find.
The app doesn’t automatically group by author or series, and each collection is organized alphabetically by title.
Some books may contain incomplete information because Libib sources its data
from university libraries and open data sources.
What I love about Libib is that the app is all about tracking and community-sourced information on literally everything. They’re even Beta testing ways to organize and catalog board game libraries!
With everything you can do in this app and all that they’re working for, it’s super easy to pour hours into getting your library set up exactly how you prefer it.
Margins
Ease of use: Armchair Librarian
Barcode scanner: Yes
If you like Goodreads, but want an app that’s a little kinder to you when it comes to half stars, layout, and editions, Margins is that girl. This app is absolutely beautiful, the art is interactive, and there are cute quotes on the search tab before you start typing.
Not only is it visually stunning, but it also provides the basic stats you’re looking for when tracking, and you can be more selective when adding your friends and creating your community.
Pros
This app is the most import-friendly on this list!
It allows you to import your information from StoryGraph, Fable, and Goodreads.
There are tons of options for pre-set lists, and it’s easy to add customized lists yourself.
Book recommendations are based on “vibe,” and their groupings are interesting.
Everything in the app is available when you sign up; it’s entirely free!
The filters here are amazing, and you can choose to view your books in grid or list view.
Once you find a book, everything you’d want to change, catalog, or track,
and more is available when you pull up the menu at the bottom of the same screen.
Stats are basic but break down by day, week, month, and year.
CONS
Some elements overwhelm the app a little bit, so some of the pages I tested didn’t consistently load.
The app doesn’t integrate with Kindle or other e-reading services.
Backdating has to be done in a specific order, so it can be a little difficult to organize your list accurately.
This app knows what readers want and gives them exactly that. It’s very aesthetic and straightforward with a touch of whimsy that makes it almost endearing. The lack of a scanner for inputting books, and the wide variety of filters and information you can update mean that organizing your home library and TBR can be an undertaking, but it’s definitely one you wouldn’t regret!
Mibrary: Book Scanner & TBR
Ease of use: Armchair Librarian
Barcode scanner: Yes
When reading your bookshelf, there’s nothing better than being able to just look at your shelves! Mibrary is perfect for exactly that. This little app is amazing because you can scan in your book’s cover, spine, and more!
Pros
You can scan your books! This app offers three ways to add books:
scanning the barcode, searching by title, author, or genre, or entering the details yourself.
Mibrary is highly customizable. You can scan in the covers, spines, and sprayed edges of your books.
Your photos are used to create a super cute shelf view! The view is easy to reorder: just hold and drag the books.
Half and full stars are available for rating, and you can rate the spice of the books the same way, too!
Recaps are done really well. They’re limited to the stats available to you,
but the month is presented like Spotify’s yearly listening recap.
Once you’ve added friends and they’ve added you, you can create buddy reads.
Every tab is easy to understand; it offers a shelf view, grid view, or list view depending on your needs, and the home page organizes stats and other information in an easily digestible format that
highlights everything at a glance.
CONS
The biggest con to this app is that pretty much all of the stats and shelf decorations are behind a paywall.
In the free version, you only get your lifetime books and pages read and your owned books.
Being highly customizable means that when you scan in or manually enter a book,
you’ll need to upload a photo yourself, no matter which edition you’re reading.
Your profile can be set to public, but that change doesn’t open the community.
You can’t make friends in the app; you need to add your own to the app.
Currently it's only available on iOS.
The bookshelf view in Mibrary is so much fun! I love that it shows me exactly what I own, how it looks on my shelves, and that the filters are so easy to use for sorting what’s on the TBR and what’s left to read.
For those who aren’t looking for tracking or like other apps for that, this one is the best for keeping your shelves organized and offers a couple of cute shelf decorations.
My final thoughts are that all of these apps were amazing! I definitely found something that works best for me, but some of what I loved about these apps could be things you’d like to avoid or the other way around. I hope you can find your perfect choice!
So, whether you’ve tried many apps before and are looking to give a new one a go, or someone starting completely fresh, good luck and happy tracking!
All logos are sourced from Google / the app stores.
The apps featured have been selected and recommended by the author of this blog,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsements of OwlCrate
Alice is a cat lady who loves books with experience in marketing and writing. While she loves fantasy and mysteries, she’s exploring all sorts of new genres with the help of Bookstagram. Find her on socials @alibrarymouse and recommend your favorite books.
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