LibraryThing
Catalog your books and media
How much does LibraryThing cost?
Prices are current as of 11 Sept 2026.
LibraryThing has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to LibraryThing
| LibraryThing |   Reading List: Book Tracker |   BookBuddy: Book Tracker |   Book Tracker: Bookshelf & TBR |   Bookshelf: Book Tracker & List |   Bookshelf-Your virtual library |   iCollect Books: Library List |   CLZ Books - library organizer |   BookBub |   Little Free Library |   NetGalley Shelf | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 3.6 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 3.5 | 2.1 |
| Reviews | 449 | 51K | 39K | 25K | 8.7K | 8K | 6.2K | 4.8K | 1.1K | 180 | 118 |
| Released | 2015 | 2017 | 2010 | 2019 | 2019 | 2019 | 2011 | 2009 | 2015 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Monthly price | — | $2.00 | $1.99 | — | $6.99 | $2.99 | — | $1.99 | — | — | — |
| Annual price | — | $14.00 | $19.99 | — | $29.99 | $19.99 | $29.99 | $19.99 | — | — | — |
| One-time price | — | $3.00 | $9.99 | $9.99 | $9.99 | $59.99 | $44.99 | — | — | — | — |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest.
LibraryThing reviews
3.6 out of 5, based on 449 reviews.
What people like
- Barcode scanner works really fast and well
- It is completely free to use
- Simple interface with no annoying ads
- Great for quickly counting your whole library
What they complain about
- Crashes often when you use it
- Edits disappear if you forget to save
- Very slow to load book details
- Hard to add books without an ISBN
AMAZING!
My mum suggested this app to me when I said I wanted to count all of my books. She has had it for a while (and has about 400 or more books counted) and finds it super useful and amazing. I couldn’t agree more! This app is free, useful and SO fun and easy to use! DOWNLOAD LIBRARY THING TODAY YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!! 😀😀😀
app crashing when adding book
7/13/2026 app crashes when trying to search or add a book. even happens after deleting and redownloading app. plz fix
Good but it’s been crashing none stop recently
I haven’t had any issues until recently, and not it seems like i can’t add anything out even look up stuff via the app. What am i doing wrong?
Infuriating
If you just want to scan barcodes and accept whatever you get, this app will satisfy you. The scanner is as good as you will find. But if you edit your book entries, this app is treacherous and may as well have been designed to infuriate users who curate their book catalog. Best practice among app developers is to save edits unless the user cancels them. This app confuses you into thinking it works that way, because the “Save” button disappears when you scroll down, but “Close” is visible at all times in the top bar. So you work your way down the page, adding tags, assigning a bookshelf, adding details, maybe writing a review. Your only visible option for exiting the page is “Close” so you tap it. Guess what? All your changes were discarded! I have fallen for this so many times, unable to believe that LibraryThing could be so perverse as to require users to select a “Save” button that is concealed most of the time. It’s clear that user testing was neglected. Whoever was hired to code this obnoxious kludge seems to expect app users to think like punch-card programmers. (“If no SAVE command, erase buffer.”) I wrote this review to remind myself to never again trust this app for any task other than scanning barcodes. Editing the resulting entry must be done in the web browser. As of Feb. 2026 the last app update was 2 years ago. So I don’t have much hope for improvement.
Non-functional scan
Unable to use the scan feature to add books to my library. The button does not trigger any action. It would be nice to be able to scan a cover and have the title and author returned.
Long Time User
I have used Library Thing for many years. It has made my life so much easier! As a serious bibliophile, I appreciate its ease of use without a lot of unnecessary distractions. It has allowed me to manage our family library of almost 10,000 volumes quickly and efficiently and I cannot imagine life without it! Thank you!
The app is broken
Scanning doesn’t work. After newly creating an account and installing the app for the first time, most of my books just says “The data couldn’t be read because it isn’t in the correct format” despite collecting the correct ISBN from the scan. Of course the same ISBNs work on the website without issue. Additionally many buttons cause the app to crash. Reinstalling did not help.
Great but doesn’t support many non-English books, no reference category
Please add a category for reference materials. I don’t exactly “read” a dictionary but it isn’t a favorite either. I was not able to add books from Japan even if they had English titles and an ISBN.
Suddenly Slow and Always Crashing
I have loved this app and I use it for my very large home library. But it has recently becoming very slow and often crashes when I am entering books. Would love to see it fixed!
Hard to edit anything
Not user friendly
Love it!
Thank you for updating the issues! This is a great app for reviewing and adding to my collection. Really handy in bookstores.
Keeps crashing
Whenever I try to open the author tab, the app crashes. Not a fan.
Adding/Deleting?
I’ve been adding books, and I have about 2271 added, then noticed the number doesn’t go up as I add. It does sometimes, but not always. Am I losing titles somewhere..or it’s not adding correctly? Love the app except for that
App/Website Not Working
The app won’t allow me to edit books. As soon as I hit edit it goes to a white screen that just spins and then it would let me close it.
Needs more sources
For the most part, I really like the app; however, it is missing a key source Barnes & Noble. I would also like to see Target added because both of these retailers offer exclusive editions. The ISBNs on these books are different, so when you scan or enter the number, nothing comes up. I do like the ability to scan my books, which has made cataloging my library pretty easy. I just wish that the app had more features of the website. I log all the books in the house, but I like to categorize them by location, and if it’s my book or my kids’. I have to create categories on my computer, then I can select it. That makes it a pain when I’m trying to organize things.
(Edit) Fixed Functionality
The website is wonderful, but the app often crashes or freezes on both my phone and tablet, and the barcode scanner consistently causes the app to stop working. It would be much more useful as an app if the barcode worked and were not so slow. (Edit 6 December 2025) The app can still be slow some days, but it doesn’t crash nearly as often and the barcode scanner works again, so I am very happy with it! I also appreciate that it’s functional without fluff or ads. I respect the developers for that.
The Worst!
Will ask you to create an account then won’t let you log in.
Import option
The only things that I’d like to improve are being able to scan mass market books into the app and being able to import titles and etc from our Nook and Kindle libraries.
Good but only if you have a handful of books of the same interest
This doesn’t allow you to change the names of the files, you have to group them all in one place or remember which file you put them in
Needs an iPad version
Except for scanning books, the website is better
Top book inventory
It’s free! This is my favorite app for keeping track of my inventory of books
Badly needs an update
This app hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. It now has glitches which render it unusable for anything other than viewing your catalog, which has at times been buggy on the app to begin with, sometimes failing to find a book that is in my catalog. You can no longer edit books, as other reviewers have noted. This may have coincided with the release of iOS 26. Scanning books into your catalog has been the main benefit of this app through the years. But the app isn’t even very useful as a scanner anymore since you need to use a browser if you want to make any edits.
Awesome app
I really enjoy the app. It’s been super easy and helpful to scan our library of books. One suggestion - we homeschool - I would like to be able to edit the “collections” to indicate general themes such as American History, or Roman history.
Great but only for Books
This app worked great while I was scanning my books but as soon as I started to scan my movies and cds it stopped respecting my selected sources. No matter what I have chosen it always uses Bowker Books in Print, which results in most details being excluded like the movie cover and dates. This means either a different scanner has to be used or manual entry which means not using this app at all. Please fix this.
Incomplete features
I like the simplicity of this app. However, it needs options to import data from other apps like Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, etc. Also need to be able to customize shelves.
Does Exactly What I Want
I have no complaints whatsoever! I needed an app that allowed me to quickly add books to my library, easily view books, modify organization order, etc. LibraryThing does all of that splendidly. I also like being able to view more details on LT or Amazon as needed. Whether scanning barcodes or searching by name., LT always finds my titles.
Frustrating
Edit button hangs up on iPhone.
Scanner is great!
The scanner is great and works quickly. A couple of features I'd like to have: organization by genre (the ability to click through genres to see your books) and an import/export option, if only for a list format which could be printed, listed in a Word doc, etc. It would be great if this app worked with other apps -- like Goodreads, Libby, and so forth. An added bonus would be a "Wishlist" easily accessible from the main home screen. I love the categories under "Collections," but would prefer them to be more easily accessible. Love the simple look and feel. Makes this app less overwhelming than some of the others, but some things could be improved on.
Frustrating
Excited to start using the app to keep track of my books. However, it lacks basic functions and frequently doesn’t save the edits I try to make. The save option is no where to be found after I key in the changes. This is happening with increasing frequency.
Good but needs some mods.
The barcode scanner is great. I love how fast I can add books. However. I have books in my collection without an ISBN (ex. the volume 0 series from BOTM) that I cannot add. An option for users to manually add books to the catalog that aren't in the database would be amazing.
Great so big or small collection
I was looking for a good book tracking app to know what I have and so far love this app! The barcode scanner is perfect and I didn’t realize how many books I had till I was done! So far greatly enjoy and makes me looking for what I need so much easier!
Can’t add anything
“Add to catalog” does nothing- it presents me no search bar or barcode scanner. It’s just essentially a blank screen that says “nothing recently added”
Good App
The Barcode Scanning function works really efficiently. The app is missing the feature of adding new collections. However that can easily be accomplished thorough the web interface. That is the only shortcoming, because it eliminates being able to use the service entirely through the phone. Other than than, well done to the team at LibraryThing.
Crashes constantly!
Crashes often. No back button to get from scan mode to the home page. Frustrating.
So Close to great!
Love this app for organizing my daughter’s hundreds of books. Sadly, tags and custom book entries aren’t working. If they did, it would be perfect!
Glad I finally found it
Great companion app for quick library scanning onto the librarything website. 150 books in 1 1/2 hours is amazing.
Freezes constantly
.
Older books
I really like this app - it’s a case of ‘the more you use it , the better it is’ but many of my books are old without any ISBN or other digital identifications. How can these Best regards added to my library - but it is a very good app
Longtime user, but missing key feature in app
I love LibraryThing. I’ve used the web version pretty much since they started, and I purchased the lifetime membership shortly afterward. But one key feature, pretty much the only feature that I want in a mobile version, is missing: sort by call number. It boggles the mind that the primary benefit of accessing one’s library like this is not a feature of the mobile app. Sure, the covers of my books look great, but why would anyone need to sort by “date added” or “rating”? If you’re organizing a large personal library, which has long been LT’s strength, call number is key.
$29.99
Downloaded this app today to start cataloging my home library. After scanning 30 books it brought up a screen that said I needed to pay $29.99 to upload more books. I loved a lot of the features that this app has but I just don’t think it’s worth it to pay $30 when there are plenty of apps that do the same thing. I might consider paying $10 but not $30. Deleting this app!! Lower the price & I’ll consider using it again.
Absolutely brilliant app
Really quick and makes adding books a breeze
It never works!
Started off great. Now it never works.
Great app but!
This app is great, scanner works lovely. I really like how you can sort by author and add your own covers for books! However, I really wish you could make your own collections.
Love the website, not the app
I’ve been using the library thing website for years but wanted to try the app so I could scan barcodes and add books faster. And just a few minutes that has shut down on me a few times. Very glitchy and does not save the time I was hoping it would.
Great idea, needs tweaks
Great idea and amazing to have a catalog, unfortunately the app glitches when I try to go into the tags tab. Tags were the main reason behind the catalog for downloading this app for me, hence the 4 stars.
Love having the app!
So glad to finally have the app; works great too! Thanks LibraryThing team!!
this is a basic app
I had high hopes for this app. However, it has a lot of flaws, and programming that does not address basic user needs. It’s basically useless for anything that isn’t currently in print. So if you are book collector, expect to have to do a lot of manual searching and sorting through possible correct records, but no guarantee it’s the right edition or printing. There’s a lot of available free online records out there to use, but this does not have many items that collectors actually would like to see. You might get incorrect entries, requiring you to enter in the correct information, there’s going to be lowercase titles, member tags that aren’t relevant for you, no clarity in your search as to what edition or publication date you’re looking at to select from. and it’s also really glitchy, and not intuitive. sorry. in needs way more beta testing than it got.
Handy to record what books you have
This is great for recording what books you have, especially if you lend lots. What it doesn’t do but I wish it did was to have a section where you can say who you’ve lent the book to. That would be amazing!
Great idea, but not functioning well
Scanning titles into the app and connectivity to Amazon info and photos is great. Well planned compared to other options…I thought I’d found the one. However, the app is slow to load titles for reference in general and won’t load at all today. The app says I’m not connected to the internet, which I am, and the website says the server is not responding. It would be nice to be able to customize catalogs more, but I could live with how the app is currently by using tags, but my titles won’t load when I select a tag. It’s frustrating to have taken the time to scan/add my titles and and categorize them with tags, then not be able to access them… especially while I’m out shopping or trying to recommend something.
Need iPad App
Please add an app for the iPad. Using the iPhone version on a larger tablet is crazy - it’s just too small.
LibraryThing FAQ
- Is LibraryThing free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 175 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does LibraryThing have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to LibraryThing?
- Reading List: Book Tracker (4.8 from 51,168 reviews, premium from $1.00), BookBuddy: Book Tracker (4.8 from 38,682 reviews, premium from $1.99) and Book Tracker: Bookshelf & TBR (4.7 from 25,334 reviews, premium from $1.99).
LibraryThing download
Last updated 2 years ago.
LibraryThing sells in 175 countries. It was released 10 years and 11 months ago, on 9 Oct 2015. It holds a 3.6 rating from 449 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does LibraryThing make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.