What is the best reading-tracker app? 📚💕 I tested them all for you

Introduction to Reading Tracking Apps

Overview of the Video

• Viv introduces herself and her focus on book content across YouTube and Instagram.

• The video aims to discuss various methods for tracking reading, including personal journals, Excel sheets, and reading apps.

Goodreads: Pros and Cons

Features of Goodreads

• Goodreads is highlighted as a popular app with a strong social aspect, allowing users to follow friends' reading activities.

• Criticism includes its outdated interface and limited rating system; it lacks half-star ratings which could enhance user experience.

Limitations of Goodreads

• Users can only set a yearly reading goal without detailed statistics on their reading habits.

• The tagging system is restrictive; users cannot create multi-word shelf names, limiting organization options.

StoryGraph: A Better Alternative

Advantages of StoryGraph

• StoryGraph offers superior statistics compared to Goodreads, providing insights into genres and tropes read over time.

• It allows for better categorization by enabling books to belong to multiple categories (e.g., romance and fantasy).

User Experience

• Users can import data from Goodreads via CSV files easily.

• The app supports quarter-star ratings for more nuanced feedback on books.

TBR Bookshelf: Subscription Model Insights

App Overview

• TBR Bookshelf requires a subscription for full features but offers a 7-day free trial for new users.

Pricing Considerations

Book App Review: Features and Limitations

Categorization of Books

• Different genres like fantasy and romance have unique labeling systems, such as "spice" for romance and "tension" for thrillers.

• The current system lacks a search feature to filter books by spice level, which would enhance user experience.

Tagging System

• Users can add tags easily, but cannot search or categorize these tags later, making it cumbersome to find specific books.

Statistics and Search Functionality

• The app provides basic reading statistics (e.g., number of books read per month), but lacks advanced features found in other apps like StoryGraph.

• The search functionality is poor compared to Goodreads; users often encounter irrelevant results due to inadequate algorithms.

Book Tracker Overview

• Book Tracker is an iOS-only app that does not support social media features for comparing reading goals with others.

• It tracks both physical books and audiobooks separately, which the user finds unnecessary.

Rating System Changes

• A significant drawback was the change in the rating system from a 1-to-5 scale with half/quarter stars to a 1-to-10 scale, leading to loss of previous ratings.

User Experience with Categories

• Users appreciate the ability to create custom categories with color sorting but note that this app has a one-time purchase fee of $1.99 for full access.

Redo App Features

• Redo offers visually appealing book covers and allows tagging similar to a bookshelf layout but has limited reading statistics.

Social Media Aspect & Design Preferences

• While Redo includes some social media features like blog posts, its dark mode design may not appeal to all users who prefer lighter interfaces.

Overall Impressions

App Reviews and Recommendations

Bookshelf App Review

• The speaker expresses dissatisfaction with the Bookshelf app, noting the absence of a 7-day trial and their experience with the one-month version for $5.99.

• Critiques include a lack of social media features and limited reading statistics; the rating system allows half stars but lacks tagging capabilities.

• Although categories can be added, they are difficult to find, leading to frustration despite discovering this feature after two days of use.

Bookle App Review

• The Bookle app also lacks social media features but includes an AI for book recommendations, which the speaker finds interesting yet unnecessary.

• Focused on encouraging more reading, it allows users to set alarms and track daily reading progress by logging pages read.

• The speaker prefers an app that tracks completed books rather than just current reads; uploading Goodreads data costs $4.99.

Leo Reading Tracker Review

• The Leo Reading Tracker does not have social media aspects either; it only provides statistics on reading time without desired detailed metrics like trope tracking.

• Users can only rate books with whole stars (1 to 5), lacking options for nuanced ratings such as spice levels or half stars.

• This free app is ad-supported without an option to pay for an ad-free experience, which frustrates the speaker.

Ideal App Features Discussion

• The speaker advocates for improvements in Goodreads' layout and rating systems while appreciating its social component that allows interaction with friends’ updates and reviews.

• They express a desire for better tag sorting features in Goodreads and plan to suggest these changes directly via email as a content creator.

Conclusion & Additional Thoughts

• While using multiple apps (Goodreads for socializing, TBR shelf for ratings), the speaker hopes suggestions will enhance user experience across platforms.