I compared The StoryGraph to Goodreads back in 2022 when the platform was still pretty new. I promised an update after many of the changes The StoryGraph team planned were implemented. It’s been more than a year, but I wanted to see how the new platform would grow. A big issue I had with it when it first came out was lack of reviews/information on indie and self-published books. Back in the day, you had to add your own indie books to The StoryGraph if you wanted them in your read history!
Now, The StoryGraph has been around for several years, and it is the primary platform I use to keep track of my books. I already preferred it to Goodreads back in 2022 because the appearance looked more clean, I found better recommendations, and I really liked the stats feature.
Last time, I posted as comprehensive of a feature review as I could. I feel like my list still covers most of the features on each site. This time I wanted to focus mainly on my user experience and updates that were important for that.
Let’s Start with Some Background
The StoryGraph was originally created by Nadia Odunayo back in 2019 as a way for tracking books. She then began adding book recommendation and social features in response to feedback from users. The StoryGraph has often been compared to Goodreads as an alternative, but there are some key differences between the platforms that make each better for different readers. The StoryGraph now uses a free/premium subscription model, with certain features only being accessible to premium members.
The StoryGraph team is still small, with Nadia remaining the only developer.
So What Changes Has The StoryGraph Made Since 2022 and How Do They Compare to What Goodreads Offers?
DARK MODE!
I am a HUGE fan of dark mode. I have every browser, app, and website that offers it set to dark mode. When The StoryGraph came out with dark mode in 2023 I was SO EXCITED. In my eyes, this feature alone makes The StoryGraph LEAGUES better than Goodreads.
Goodreads does not have built in dark mode. It looks you can get it on Android app, but not on a browser or IOS.
General Navigation
Goodreads mobile home page (left) and The StoryGraph mobile home page (right)
Each site has differences in navigation that highlight different features and change user experience.
One Goodreads, my home page first shows me ads my social feed, where I can see reading updates from friends. I can then navigate to My Books, Discover, and Search pages on the bottom menu or click “More” to see My Profile, Reading Challenges, and more.
On The StoryGraph, my home page shows my currently reading books along with my to read pile, recommendations, popular this week, and giveaways. Using the bottom menu, I can natigate to my Reading Stats, Challenges, Community, and Profile.
Notably, The StoryGraph has fewer options to naviage through on the bottom menu and seems to be more directed at your current, past, and feature books. Goodreads on the other hand is more socially directed with its home page and has more navigation options on in its menu.
Already, you can see which users might prefer which platform: Goodreads for engaging with other readers and The StoryGraph for tracking books.
Goodreads added a DNF option
One of The StoryGraph features I highlighted in my last comparision was the DNF option, which Goodreads did not have at the time. Now it does.
Both platforms also have a pause book option, although I am only able to view this option on The StoryGraph once I have marked a book “currently reading”.
Goodreads Stats vs. The StoryGraph Stats
In my last post, I incorrectly stated that Goodreads didn’t have a stats feature. It does, I just didn’t know how to find it! (It’s a link on your profile under the shelf tags).
I’m biased because I’ve been using The StoryGraph stats since 2022 and barely looked at my Goodreads stats, but I just don’t think Goodreads compares. Goodreads doesn’t track mood, authors, book formats, and a lot of other stats I like to see on The StoryGraph. I also dislike that it’s not all displayed on the same page. I find the stats feature on Goodreads to be difficult to find and navigate. Compared to The StoryGraph, which displays your stats page on their main menu.
In my 2024 reading wrap up, you can see how The StoryGraph displays my reading stats. I just love how colorful all the charts are! It’s also very easy to sort by year, month, or look at stats for all time.
Reviews
It’s difficult to compare quantity of reviews on The StoryGraph and Goodreads because each platform displays and categorizes their reviews differently. On The StoryGraph, you only have reviews. You can filter for reviews with written explanations, but you can’t see how many there actually are compared to reviews where readers just answered the built-in questions. On Goodreads, you can clearly see how many ratings and how many reviews there are for each book.
Here you can see the self published book, Heart of Stone, has just over 600 reviews on The StoryGraph but has only 351 reviews on Goodreads. BUT, it has over 1000 ratings on Goodreads. You can’t see how many of The StoryGraph’s reviews have actual written reviews.
Also, reviews are so much easier to find and sort through on Goodreads. For The StoryGraph, you have to click into a new page to see reviews, but you just have to scroll down on Goodreads. It’s not just how easy reviews are to find. I can’t tell you how many times I use the search reviews function on Goodreads, which I have not been able to find on The StoryGraph. I also prefer that Goodreads automatically only displays written reviews to The StoryGraph where you have to select to filter out reviews that only answer built-in questions with no explanation.
I almost always use Goodreads to browse reviews when I am considering starting a book, which says a lot about the functionality of The StoryGraph reviews page. It just doesn’t work as well for me. I can be very specific about what details I want to know before starting a book, and Goodreads allows me to quickly search for them.
Indie and Self Published Books
I wasn’t kidding when I said you had to add indie/self published books yourself when The StoryGraph was still new. It didn’t take long though for me to start finding my niche books in the search without having to add them. In the past year, I have only encountered 1 book that wasn’t already in The StoryGraph and it was published less than a month from the day I looked for it and only had 6 whole reviews on Goodreads.
Comments, Likes, and Other Social Features
The StoryGraph originally intended to act as reading tracker without the pressure of social media-like features. I remember a lot of people asking about getting comments and added to The StoryGraph so it would be more like Goodreads. Looking at my feed, I am still only able to leave likes on people’s updates and reviews.
To be honest I rarely if ever use any of the social features on either platform. I feel like these features are just unnecessary? I exclusively use these platforms to track my reading, TBR, and sometimes to find my next book. These are not the places I look for discussions and likes, even if they are book related.
Goodreads allows you to like and comment on friends’ reading updates and reviews. Overall, the platform also seems more focused on social aspects, with the home page opening up to your feed.
Ads…
Popular opinion: I HATE ads.
You will notice that I have never displayed advertisements on Word Wilderness and that is because I HATE them. They slow down site speeds, make navigating pages a nightmare, and just look ugly! I’ve lost count of the amount of times I went to Goodreads and tried to click on something only for that gigantic ugly banner ad to load right as I click to take me somewhere completely different from where I wanted! Ads are the worst!
The StoryGraph does not have ads. It makes the experience of using their site so much better.
It looks like The StoryGraph makes money for their platform by offering a premium subscription to unlock additional features and the ability to contribute to their roadmap. This makes sense to me since they are not advertising on the site so they have to make money somehow to keep it online. I have never bought the premium subscription, so I can’t speak to its features. I certainly hope their subscription model is working for them so they don’t have to resort to ads!
Speed/Load Time
I have noticed that the StoryGraph occasionally takes a long time to load. I don’t have this issue with Goodreads (aside from ads late loading and causing headaches).
Is The StoryGraph Still Working On Any New Features?
The StoryGraph still has a roadmap with many upcoming changes for thensite.
Looking through the “up next” suggested changes, it looks like they are working on site speed and adding the option to filter reviews, which are both changes I am looking forward to seeing!
So has The StoryGraph Surpassed Goodreads?
Yes… but also no.
If you ask me, The StoryGraph is so much better at tracking your reading. I made it my primary reading tracker back in 2022 and have not looked back. I have realized since I started blogging that I really need to minimize the amount of platforms I need to update regularly. Keeping track of multiple platforms gets tedious and time consuming very quickly. I prefer The StoryGraph reading stats so solely keep track of my reading there. I also like the built-in review questions which make it easier for me to jot down quick thoughts about books I don’t want to review in detail. I only post important reviews for books I was given by authors or publishers on Goodreads.
Goodreads is definitely better if you are browsing reviews of a book because you are going to find more there. The StoryGraph still has good search and recommendation features, but often I want to read what people are saying about a book.
Goodreads is still an objectively bigger and more popular platform. There’s no way around that. Goodreads also makes it very easy to connect with your kindle or other Amazon reading device, so you can review books on your kindle right after completing and view you notes/highlights on Goodreads. My kindle, like all of my family’s kindles, is under my grandma’s Amazon account, so I don’t use these features. For other people, Goodreads being a bigger platform and allowing you to connect to your ereader might make it harder to part with.
In 2025, I am still using both platforms. The StoryGraph works best for keeping track of my reading, and I like to browse Goodreads reviews when I have questions about a new book.
Which platform do you prefer? Are there any StoryGraph or Goodreads features you love that I didn’t talk about?
Comments
6 responses to “Has The StoryGraph Surpassed Goodreads in 2025?”
I still post reviews on Goodreads and every now and then I’ll scroll through my GR feed and like/comment in friends’ reviews, but I no longer have my TBR there or use it on a regular basis for anything beyond posting reviews.
I’ve been a StoryGraph Plus subscriber since it launched. It offers me additional stats tracking, which I really appreciate. Most people will be just fine with the basic stats, though.
Also, StoryGraph does have a “pause” option! It’s been around for several months now. If you go in the “to read” (etc) dropdown menu, it’s one of the options.
Oh; I forgot to mention that I love the StoryGraph option to include content warnings. I know not everyone likes them, but I really appreciate that they are there.
Also the personalized reading challenges and buddy reads! I love having those so easy to access on SG.
I’m glad I got to hear from someone who is using the premium version as I have not purchased that yet. Basic stats have worked just fine for me, and are definitely more than I would like to calculate manually, although in the future I may consider upgrading. I totally missed that StoryGraph added the pause option!! I went and checked, and looks like I am only able to view the option when I have marked a book as “currently reading”. I don’t know if this is the case for you?
I definitely love the content warnings feature on The StoryGraph, although I wish publishers were better about adding the warnings. Sometimes the reader added ones get to be a pretty long list and it’s hard to tell what warnings are big things and others are barely mentioned. I don’t think this is a StoryGraph specific issue though, book content warnings are just not as universal as film content warnings, and I wish that would change.
I love creating personalized reading challenges! I’ve been making one for self published/indie books every year.
Yes, it is the same for me that I can only pause a book that I am “currently reading.” I hadn’t tried from any other book status before, so I hadn’t noticed that!
I like storygraph a lot for the the stats, the reading challenges and the content warnings.
I still use goodreads as well though because the app is just a little easier to navigate for me and I still use the goodreads group for Turtle Recall, a discworld reading group. But I’m also considering perhaps moving to discord as there a lot of people have been going for those things. I think goodreads will be phasing out more for me then. I do still link to goodreads in my reviews on the blog because that is as you said the biggest platform so people more from outside our community of bloggers will likely be more drawn to there.
Have you tried any of the other new tracking reading sites? There have been a lot of new ones popping up recently.
Yeah, I think a big thing is people are just used to Goodreads so switching to something new takes time. You can do buddy reads, readalongs, and bookclubs with The StoryGraph (which I didn’t discuss because I haven’t had a chance to use those features) so that could be an alternative for the Turtle Recall. Discord is nice though because it seems to function more like a group chat so people may be more active. I tried Readerly for a while, but didn’t like it enough to keep using it. I see a lot of people on Fable for book clubs/a bookish social media. I want to review more platforms, but the time it takes to set up a new profile and keep up with yet another platform is a barrier at this time in my life.