A LibraryThing alternative that's an app, not a website
LibraryThing is a deep, much-loved cataloguing site. Volumes brings the same care for a home library to native apps on iPhone, iPad and Mac, then keeps going: your reading progress, the books you've lent, the quotes you've kept, and Siri and widgets for all of it.
LibraryThing is a long-running cataloguing website and community for book collectors. Volumes is a native app on iPhone, iPad and Mac for your catalogue, your reading, your loans and your quotes.
Volumes and LibraryThing, feature by feature
Feature
Volumes
LibraryThing
No account needed
YesKept in your own iCloud
NoMembers' app
Not tracked across apps
Yes
Yes
No ads
Yes
YesAds only for signed-out visitors
Native Mac app
YesNative on iPhone, iPad and Mac
PartlyiPhone app on Apple silicon Macs
Barcode scanning
YesOne book or a whole shelf
Yes
Track who borrowed a book
YesPlus hand-over links
YesOn the website, not the app
Record which shelf a book is on
Yes
NoNo dedicated field
Save your own quotes
YesPhotograph the page
PartlyShared quotations per book
Import from Goodreads
YesAlso StoryGraph, LibraryThing
Yes
Export your library
NoComing soon
YesTab-delimited, Excel, JSON, MARC
No subscription or paid tier
YesEverything included
Yes
Android or web
NoComing soon
YesAndroid and web
YesPartlyNoNot mentioned in their own listing or help pages
Under the library title on iPhone, the gear on iPad, and ⌘, on a Mac.
Import from Another App
Tap Choose a File and pick the export. Or share the file to Volumes from Files or Mail.
Add to My Library
Check the count, then add. Volumes tells you what came in and anything it couldn't use.
What to expect
Comes across
Title, authors, ISBN, publisher, page count and publication years
Start, finish and acquired dates, and from those whether you've read a book
Your collections and tags, as lists
Stays behind
Ratings, reviews and comments
Physical locations and library fields such as Dewey or LC numbers
Books already in your library are skipped, so importing twice is safe. Want to see it first? Try a sample library.
Which is for you
An honest choice
Choose LibraryThing if…
You want detailed bibliographic records and a collectors' community.
You catalogue more than books.
You work mostly in a web browser, or need Android.
Choose Volumes if…
You want native apps on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
You want no account, with your catalogue in your own iCloud.
You want reading progress, lending and quotes alongside the catalogue, in the app.
You want to scan a whole shelf and set its location in one go.
Privacy and price
What it costs you
LibraryThing
A membership account is needed. Its app's privacy label lists only a device identifier, not linked to you. Signed-out visitors to the website see a few ads.
Free since 2020, when LibraryThing dropped its membership fees and book limits.
Volumes
No account and no ads. Your library is kept in your own iCloud, and Volumes doesn’t track you across other apps or websites. The privacy policy sets out the little that leaves your device.
Free on the App Store, with no subscription.
LibraryThing
An app, not a website
LibraryThing's iPhone app is for members, and its lending lives on the website. Volumes is built as an app first: scanning, lending, quotes and statistics are all on the phone in your pocket and the Mac on your desk, and they work offline.
What Volumes won't give you is LibraryThing's depth of bibliographic data, its Common Knowledge, or its community. If those are why you're there, it's worth staying.
Questions
Good to know
Can I import my LibraryThing catalogue?
Yes. Export it from LibraryThing's Import/Export page, then in Volumes open Settings, tap Import from Another App and choose the file. Collections and tags come in as lists.
Does Volumes catalogue things other than books?
No. Volumes is made for books.
Can I get my books out of Volumes later?
A full library export is coming soon. Until then you can share any single book or quote, and your library lives in your own iCloud rather than on our servers.
What do I need to run Volumes?
An iPhone or iPad with iOS 26 or later, or a Mac with macOS 26 or later. Volumes is free on the App Store.
Everything else
Everything else in Volumes
Your reading, your shelves, your loans and your quotes, in one private app on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
