User-generated fiction publishing and reading app, owned by Naver alongside Webtoon
Free plan9 researched notes
Goodreads
Amazon-owned book cataloguing, review and recommendation app
As of 1 September 2026, Goodreads is free to use. A book tracking and review platform, free with no subscription, owned by Amazon since 2013. Softwr lists it under Publishing. Goodreads is made by Amazon.com, Inc., available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Goodreads does
Goodreads lets readers catalogue books they have read, are reading or want to read, write and browse reviews, join genre and book club groups, and track annual reading challenges. It has one of the largest user-generated book review databases available, which makes it a reference point for reviews even for people who never post themselves. Ownership is the detail that explains its current state. Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013, and while the core service has remained free with no subscription or premium tier, integration into Amazon commerce is built throughout the app: book pages link directly to Kindle and physical purchase options, and reading data feeds recommendation systems that ultimately serve Amazon retail interests rather than an independent literary platform. Long-time users and industry commentators have repeatedly noted that the interface and moderation tools have seen limited meaningful investment since the acquisition, a common pattern when a free community product is not central to its owner's core business. Buyers here are readers wanting a shared reference for reviews and a personal reading log, and the trade-off is that the product is effectively a data and commerce feeder for Amazon rather than an independently monetised service, which is why it remains free but also why feature development has been slow relative to the size and engagement of its user base.
What people use it for
- A reader wanting a personal log of books read with ratings and notes over time
- Someone checking aggregated reviews before buying or borrowing a book
- A book club coordinating discussion in a dedicated group space
- A reader setting and tracking an annual reading goal through the Reading Challenge feature
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Goodreads.
- Being owned by Amazon since 2013, the platform is structurally oriented toward driving Kindle and Amazon purchases rather than existing as an independent literary community, even though it remains free to use.
- Interface and feature development have seen limited meaningful investment since the acquisition, and long-standing user complaints about outdated design and moderation tools have gone largely unaddressed for years.
- Review and rating manipulation, including review bombing and coordinated fake reviews, has been a persistent, documented problem with limited effective moderation response.
- The recommendation engine and reading data are used to inform Amazon retail and advertising systems, which is a real data use consideration for readers who value privacy around their reading habits.
- There is no official API for third-party developers since Amazon deprecated the previous public API, which has limited independent tools and integrations that used to exist around the platform.
Pricing
What Goodreads costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Goodreads
Free
- Full cataloguing, review and group features at no cost
- No ads sold directly within the reading experience beyond Amazon purchase links
- No premium tier exists
Capabilities
Features
Reading tracking and shelves
Custom shelves for read, currently reading and want-to-read status
Reviews and ratings
A large user-generated review and star rating database per book
Reading Challenge
Annual goal-setting for number of books read, tracked automatically from shelf updates
Groups and discussions
Genre, author and book club discussion boards
Author profiles and Q&A
Verified author pages with reader question threads in some cases
Kindle and Amazon purchase links
Direct links from book pages to buy the Kindle or physical edition on Amazon
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Goodreads free?
Yes, there is no subscription or premium tier; all cataloguing, review and group features are free.
Who owns Goodreads?
Amazon, which acquired it in 2013.
Does Goodreads have an API for developers?
Amazon deprecated the previous public Goodreads API, so third-party tool development is now much more limited than it once was.
Keep looking
Where to go from Goodreads
- Goodreads alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Goodreads pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Goodreads badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Publishing softwareThe full category
- Best Publishing softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Goodreads, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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Goodreads badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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