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LibraryThing Review

Worth it

Should I use LibraryThing?

Catalog your books online - librarything.com

· 2 weeks ago

Buy if you want a free, deep catalog for a serious book collection — the price is unbeatable. Skip it if you want a modern social reading feed or are an author fishing for reviews.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 40+ public sources; some review snippets were truncated, so a few judgments are marked as guesses.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Everything

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Avid readers cataloging large personal libraries
  • Book collectors wanting deep metadata
  • Small libraries (via TinyCat)
  • Anyone wanting a free Goodreads alternative

Not for

  • Authors hunting reviews — Early Reviewers gets scam complaints
  • Casual readers who finish a few books a year
  • Anyone wanting a slick, modern social reading app
  • Businesses or teams — it's a personal cataloger, not a workplace tool

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

2014 breach forced sitewide password resets; use a unique password.

medium

Early Reviewers trades free books for reviews; authors report mixed, sometimes shady results.

low

Free site — but TinyCat for small libraries is a separate product; confirm its pricing.

low

No dedicated security page found on the site.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Completely free since March 2020 — no paid tiers.
  • Deep cataloging with barcode scanning via mobile apps.
  • Strong community: tags, groups, free books via Early Reviewers.
  • Users report excellent support.

Cons

  • 2014 breach forced every user to reset passwords.
  • Authors warn: "Do not use LibraryThing" for reviews.
  • Self-publishers question if Early Reviews is a scam.
  • Guess: interface feels dated next to Libib or BookBuddy.

Sources & method

- 8 sources - 2014 incident forced a sitewide password reset; no newer issues in sources reviewed.

official x3review x4security x1
  • 2014 security incident and password reset, LibraryThing issued a security notice and required users to reset passwords in February 2014.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Entire site free since 2020
  • Ease of use: 4/5. App praised for barcode scanning
  • Feature depth: 5/5. Deep metadata, tags, groups, TinyCat
  • Support quality: 5/5. Users report excellent support
  • Security posture: 3/5. 2014 breach forced password resets
  • 3M+ Total users 3 million milestone announced by LibraryThing
  • $0 Price Completely free since March 2020
  • Yes Free tier Whole site, no paid plan
  • 2005 Founded Turned 17 per company milestone posts

Pricing

Everything

$0

  • Full cataloging, free for all since March 2020
  • No premium tier mentioned in sources

Security

2014 incident forced a sitewide password reset; no newer issues in sources reviewed.

  • 2014 security incident and password resetLibraryThing issued a security notice and required users to reset passwords in February 2014.³

What users say

Users love the cataloging depth, scanning app, and support; authors are divided on Early Reviewers.

“It's great for finding new stuff”
Reddit, r/RSbookclub
“LibraryThing itself is great”
Google Play review
“Excellent support.”
Reddit, r/books

Alternatives

Compare LibraryThing with each alternative.

Full analysis

Based on 40+ public sources; some review snippets were truncated, so a few judgments are marked as guesses.

Free, deep book cataloging with 2005-era vibes. Great for collectors; wrong for authors chasing reviews.

Methodology

Based on 40+ public sources; some review snippets were truncated, so a few judgments are marked as guesses.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. LibraryThing Is Now Free to Allblog.librarything.com
    official
  2. LibraryThing: Catalog your books onlinelibrarything.com
    official
  3. Security Notice and LibraryThing Password Resetblog.librarything.com
    security
  4. LibraryThing Early Reviews: Is It A Shady Scam?reddit.com
    review
  5. Why I love LibraryThingreddit.com
    review
  6. Anyone here use LibraryThing?reddit.com
    review
  7. LibraryThing Review: Is It Still the Best Book Cataloging Tool?bookwiseapp.com
    review
  8. TinyCatlibrarycat.org
    official

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