Best Personal Library App in 2026: Catalog Your Books at Home
The best personal library app in 2026: LibraryThing, CLZ Books, Libib, BookBuddy, and Achriom compared. Free options for cataloging your home book collection.
There are two different things people mean by “personal library app,” and the best one depends on which problem you have.
The first is cataloging: you want to know what books you physically own, where they are on the shelf, and who you have loaned them to. The best apps for this are LibraryThing, CLZ Books, Libib, and BookBuddy.
The second is tracking: you want to log what you have read, rate it, and get recommendations for what to read next. The best apps for that are StoryGraph, Hardcover, and Achriom.
Most people end up needing both. This guide covers the cataloging side first, then explains how the tracking options handle ownership awareness.
Last reviewed: June 27, 2026.
Quick verdict:
- Best free cataloger with deepest database: LibraryThing
- Best for serious collectors: CLZ Books
- Best free option for books, movies, and games: Libib
- Best iOS-only offline option: BookBuddy
- Best if you want your library to talk to an AI: Achriom
The cataloging apps
These are built around the question “what do I own?” They excel at barcode scanning, physical location tracking, and loan management. They are not primarily reading trackers.
LibraryThing
Best for: Deep catalog, rare books, pre-ISBN titles
LibraryThing has been cataloging personal libraries since 2005. It draws from 155 million titles across 2,200 library sources including the Library of Congress, making it the most comprehensive database for rare, pre-ISBN, and non-English books. It went fully free in March 2020 and has stayed there.
What it does well:
- No book limit, no paid individual tier, no ads
- Best database depth of any cataloging app, especially for older or niche titles
- Community reviews and ratings built on nearly three million members
- Work Pages redesign in January 2025 improved mobile responsiveness and added friend-weighted reviews
- Works well for physical book cataloging via ISBN entry or barcode scan
Platform: Web (primary), iOS, Android. The mobile apps are functional but the web experience is stronger.
Pricing: Fully free for individual users. TinyCat (a library OPAC product) is the only paid offering.
The limitation: Dated mobile experience. No AI features. No cross-media tracking. If you want your book catalog to connect to your film or music collection, you are running additional apps.
CLZ Books
Best for: Serious collectors who need edition-level detail and the best barcode scanner
CLZ Books is the most powerful cataloging app for collectors who care about specific editions, condition fields, and accurate scanning. Scanner 2.0, released January 2025, reads the entire camera frame rather than a center zone, and an OCR mode released November 2024 handles pre-barcode books by reading the ISBN printed in text. The claimed 97% scan success rate reflects this.
What it does well:
- Best barcode scanner of any book app, including OCR for old books
- Book value lookup (added April 2025)
- Reading history tracking (added February 2026)
- Fast cloud sync (updated April 2026)
- App Store rating 4.8/5
Platform: iOS, Android, web.
Pricing: $19.95/year for mobile (iOS and Android with cloud sync). The web version is a separate $39.95/year. A 7-day trial is available, no book limit during trial.
The limitation: The only paid option in this group. If you want free, LibraryThing or Libib are better fits. The value is in the scanning accuracy and edition depth.
Libib
Best for: Multi-media collections: books, movies, music, games, and board games
Libib is a barcode scanner and cataloger that tracks five formats: books, movies, music, video games, and board games (board game scanning opened to all users in November 2025). The free tier allows 5,000 items across 100 collections with no credit card required.
What it does well:
- Most generous free tier for a scanning-first cataloger
- Multi-media: one app for your full physical collection
- Loan tracking: log who borrowed what and when
- Android updated February 2026
Platform: Web, iOS, Android.
Pricing: Free up to 5,000 items and 100 collections. $99/year for organizations and educators (unlimited items, public catalog, patron management).
The limitation: A known UPC reuse bug can pull incorrect metadata for older titles whose barcodes were reassigned. Customer support is limited. The interface has friction. But for free multi-media cataloging, nothing else comes close.
BookBuddy
Best for: iOS users who want the highest-polish offline cataloging experience
BookBuddy has the highest user satisfaction of any app in this category: 4.8/5 across nearly 28,000 App Store ratings (Pro version). It is fully offline, requires no account, and stores everything locally with iCloud sync. The last update was May 2026.
What it does well:
- No account required, no cloud dependency, fully private
- Room and location tracking (tag exactly where books live)
- Loan tracking with due dates
- One-time purchase, no subscription
- Highest satisfaction ratings in the category
Platform: iOS, iPad, and Apple Silicon Mac only. No Android, no web.
Pricing: Free for up to 50 books. BookBuddy Pro is $9.99 one-time (a Companion website share feature requires a separate monthly subscription).
The limitation: iOS and Mac only. If you or anyone you share a library with is on Android, this doesn’t work.
The tracking apps with ownership features
Reading trackers are built around the question “what have I read?” The best ones now have some ownership awareness built in.
StoryGraph (5 million users, January 2026) has a native “Owned” flag as a first-class feature: it appears on each book’s profile and has its own searchable section in your library. It does not have barcode scanning for catalog-building, location tracking, or loan management. It is a reading tracker with an ownership tag.
Goodreads has no native owned shelf. Users create a custom shelf named “owned” as a workaround. It is not a first-class feature. The DNF shelf added in March 2026 was a more meaningful addition.
Hardcover has no physical cataloging features. It is a social reading tracker.
Achriom
Best for: Readers who want their book catalog to connect to an AI across all their media
Achriom tracks books alongside films, TV shows, albums, and anime in one library. You can scan your physical bookshelf to add books quickly, and the AI librarian works across everything you have logged: ask what to read next based on your film ratings, or find novels that connect to the music you love, and it reasons across your whole collection.
What it does differently:
- Physical bookshelf scanning to add books fast
- Books tracked alongside films, TV, albums, and anime
- AI librarian that reasons across all formats (“what to read based on my five-star films”)
- Half-star ratings, DNF support, Goodreads import
- Private by default
Want your book collection to talk to an AI? Achriom catalogs your books alongside everything else you consume, and the AI librarian finds the threads between them.
Try Achriom free →The limitation: Achriom is not a physical cataloging tool in the CLZ or Libib sense. No location tracking, no condition fields, no loan management. If you need to know which shelf a book is on, use CLZ or LibraryThing alongside Achriom.
Quick comparison
| App | Physical scan | Location tracking | Loan tracking | AI | Cross-media | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LibraryThing | Yes | No | No | No | No | Free |
| CLZ Books | Yes (best) | Yes | Yes | No | No | $19.95/yr |
| Libib | Yes | No | Yes | No | Books, movies, music, games | Free / $99/yr (org) |
| BookBuddy | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | $9.99 one-time (iOS only) |
| Achriom | Yes (shelf scan) | No | No | AI librarian | Books, films, TV, albums, anime | Free / $9.99 mo |
| StoryGraph | No | No | No | Plus only | No | Free / $4.99 mo |
Which should you use?
Use LibraryThing if you want the deepest free catalog, especially for rare, old, or non-English titles. The database depth beats everything else and the price is zero.
Use CLZ Books if you are a serious collector who wants the best barcode scanner, edition-level detail, and accurate metadata for older titles. Worth the $19.95/year.
Use Libib if you want to catalog multiple physical formats (books, movies, games) for free. The 5,000-item free tier is genuinely generous.
Use BookBuddy if you are on iOS and want a polished, offline, private cataloging experience. Highest satisfaction ratings in the category. The $9.99 one-time purchase is straightforward.
Use Achriom if you want your book collection to connect to your films, music, and TV, with an AI that reasons across all of it. For the wider comparison of reading trackers, see the best book tracking apps guide.
Common questions
What is the best app to catalog my home book collection?
For free cataloging with the deepest database, LibraryThing. For the best barcode scanner and edition detail, CLZ Books ($19.95/year). For a free multi-media catalog (books, movies, games), Libib. For iOS with offline privacy and the highest user ratings, BookBuddy ($9.99 one-time). For a catalog that connects to an AI across all your media, Achriom.
Is LibraryThing still free?
Yes. LibraryThing went fully free in March 2020 with no book limit and no paid individual tier. Many articles still cite the old $25/year pricing. That has not been accurate since 2020.
What is the difference between a book catalog app and a reading tracker?
A catalog app tracks what you physically own: barcode scanning, location tags, loan tracking, condition fields. A reading tracker logs what you have read: status, ratings, dates, recommendations. Most readers need both. LibraryThing, CLZ, Libib, and BookBuddy focus on cataloging. StoryGraph, Hardcover, and Achriom focus on tracking, with some ownership features.
Can I scan my bookshelf to add books?
Yes. CLZ Books has the most accurate scanner (Scanner 2.0, launched January 2025) and handles pre-barcode books via OCR. Libib and BookBuddy also scan barcodes. Achriom supports physical shelf scanning to add books quickly.
What happened to Delicious Library?
Delicious Library was discontinued in November 2024 after the developer retired the Amazon and barcode APIs it depended on. It has been removed from the Mac App Store. If you have a Delicious Library catalog, the recommended migration path is Book Tracker, which accepts CSV imports from Delicious Library.