A Goodreads alternative for people who want to read more, not log more

Most people looking for a Goodreads alternative already know how to log a book. What they want is to actually finish more of them. ReadFirst is built for that second part: it is an app lock and a reading tracker in one, so the next page of your book comes before the next scroll. It is not a social network, and it does not try to replace Goodreads for reviews and recommendations.

We make ReadFirst, so we are not neutral. We checked every fact about Goodreads on its App Store page and website on 20 October 2026.

What is Goodreads?

Goodreads is a book community and reading tracker owned by Amazon, and it describes itself as the world's largest site for readers and book recommendations. On the iPhone app, "Goodreads: Book Tracker & More", you sort books into shelves like Want to Read, Currently Reading, Read and Did Not Finish, and you can make your own lists.

You update your progress by page or percentage, set a yearly Reading Challenge, join seasonal challenges and get a Year in Books recap. The social side is the heart of it: friends, ratings, reviews, comments and book club groups. You can add books by scanning a cover or searching an ISBN. Goodreads is free, with no in-app purchases listed on the US App Store on 20 October 2026, and it runs on iPhone, iPad and the web.

Goodreads vs ReadFirst at a glance

Where Goodreads is a great choice

Goodreads is the right home for your reading life in public. Its catalog and its community are the main reasons people stay, and ReadFirst does not try to match either.

• Finding your next book. Reviews from other readers and recommendations help you pick what to read. ReadFirst has no reviews and no recommendations.
• Friends and groups. You can see what friends are reading, comment on their updates and join book club groups. ReadFirst has no social feed.
• A long history. If you have years of ratings on Goodreads, that record lives there. ReadFirst does not import from Goodreads.
• Free and everywhere. Goodreads costs nothing and works on the web as well as on iPhone and iPad.

If those are the things you love, keep Goodreads. Nothing on this page is a reason to delete it.

Why readers pick ReadFirst

ReadFirst is for people whose problem is not the log but the evening that disappears into a feed. It changes the moment where you choose between your book and your phone.

Your book comes before your feed. You choose the apps and websites that pull you away, and Apple Screen Time keeps them locked. To open them, you read a printed page and take a live photo of the last page you read. The page is checked on your iPhone and the photo is never saved. Only the apps you chose are locked, never your phone. More on how read to unlock works.

Pages become minutes. Your rule decides the trade, for example one page for 15 minutes in your apps. Minutes only run while you use the locked apps, and if you read more than the rule asks, the extra minutes go into a bank for later that day.

A daily habit, not a yearly number. A yearly number is far away on most days. ReadFirst works with a daily reading goal in pages, a streak that forgives one missed day a month, weekly, monthly and yearly progress with share cards, and 60 reading medals.

A shelf for paper books. Add a printed book by barcode, cover photo, title search or by typing it in, and watch it move from Reading now to Finished. The book tracker is fed by the same pages that open your apps, so the book in your hands and the book in the app match.

Quiet and private. There is no ReadFirst account. Your books and reading sync with iCloud, and there is no public profile to keep up.

Want only the tracker for now? Set the minutes in your rule to 0 and ReadFirst runs in Track only: every page counts for your book, your goal and your medals.

Can you use both?

Yes, and for many readers that is the best setup. Use Goodreads for discovery: reviews, your want-to-read list, friends and book clubs. Use ReadFirst for the daily reading itself: the page before the scroll, the streak, the goal and the shelf of what you are reading right now.

There is no import from Goodreads, so you add the printed books you are reading now to ReadFirst. Most people start with the one or two books on their nightstand, which takes a minute with the barcode scan. When you finish a book in ReadFirst, you can still rate and review it on Goodreads.

Which one should you choose?

The honest answer depends on what you want more of: talking about books, or reading them.

Choose Goodreads if:

• you want reviews and recommendations to decide what to read next
• your friends and book clubs are already there
• you read e-books as well as paper and want one log for everything

Choose ReadFirst if:

• you own more unread books than you would like to admit and your phone keeps winning the evening
• you read printed books and want a daily habit with a goal, a streak and medals
• you want a tracker without a feed, a profile or an account

Choose both if you love the Goodreads community and still want a nudge to put the next page first. You can compare more options in our best reading tracker apps list.