Once a home collection passes a few hundred books, you start buying things you already own and forgetting who borrowed what. A catalog fixes both. You don’t need to pay for one: there are good free options, and the right one depends on how many books you have, whether you lend them, and whether you want your list online.
The options at a glance
| Option | Cost | Where the data lives | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| LibraryThing | Free | Online | Book lovers who want reviews, tags and a community |
| Libib (Basic) | Free up to 5,000 items | Online | A quick, tidy catalog with a phone app |
| Tellico | Free, open source | Your computer (Linux) | Offline cataloging of books and other collections |
| calibre | Free, open source | Your computer | E-books, not printed books |
| A spreadsheet | Free | Wherever you keep it | A few hundred books, no frills |
| Khulla | Free, open source | Your computer | A home or family library that lends books |
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a cataloging site and community for book lovers. It went free to all members in March 2020; before that, cataloging more than 200 books needed a paid membership. You add books by searching or by ISBN, and get tags, reviews, recommendations and a social side.
Good for: readers who enjoy the community as much as the catalog. Consider: your catalog lives on LibraryThing’s site.
Libib
Libib’s free Basic plan catalogs up to 5,000 items in up to 100 collections, with no adverts, and its phone app can scan barcodes to add books. Lending, patrons and circulation are in the paid Pro plan ($9 a month or $99 a year at the time of writing).
Good for: a fast, clean catalog you can check from your phone in a bookshop. Consider: tracking loans means paying, and the data is online.
Tellico
Tellico is an open-source collection manager from the KDE community. It handles books, and also films, music, games and more, and keeps everything in a file on your own computer. It’s a Linux desktop app.
Good for: Linux users who want a private, offline catalog of several kinds of collection.
calibre, for e-books
calibre is a free, open-source e-book manager. It’s excellent for organising, converting and reading e-books, but it isn’t designed for printed books on a shelf. If your collection is mostly digital, start here.
A spreadsheet
For a few hundred books, a spreadsheet with columns for title, author, ISBN, shelf and “lent to” is perfectly good. It starts to hurt when you want to see what’s overdue or find a book by any word in its title. We compare the two in a library catalog in Excel vs library software.
When the home library lends books
Some home collections are really small lending libraries: a family library shared with the neighbourhood, a teacher’s collection for students, a reading room in a house. At that point you need to know who has which book and when it’s due.
Khulla is free, open-source library software made for exactly that kind of lending, and it works for a large home collection too. It installs on Windows, Linux or Android, keeps the catalog in a file on your own device with no account or internet, and tracks members, loans, due dates, holds and optional fines. It can print barcode labels to stick on each book’s spine.
Be honest with yourself about whether you need it:
- It’s built for a library. It asks you to set up an administrator account and loan rules, which is more than a personal list needs.
- Books are typed in. There’s no ISBN lookup from the internet and no import from another app or a spreadsheet.
- One catalog per device. It doesn’t sync to your phone or share a live catalog between two computers.
If you only want to know what you own, LibraryThing, Libib or Tellico will be quicker. If you lend books and want to know where they are, Khulla does that at no cost.
Tips for cataloging a home library
- Start with the shelf you use most, not A to Z. A partial catalog is useful straight away.
- Use the ISBN where the book has one: it’s the fastest way to add a book in apps that look titles up, and it tells editions apart.
- Record the shelf or room. A catalog that says you own a book but not where it is only solves half the problem.
- Decide your categories before you start: by subject, by genre, or a simplified Dewey. Changing later means re-labelling.
- Back it up. Online services do this for you; with a desktop app or spreadsheet, keep a copy somewhere else.
Summary
- LibraryThing and Libib’s free plan are the easiest online catalogs for a home library.
- Tellico and a spreadsheet keep everything offline; calibre is for e-books.
- Lending is where the free options run out: Libib charges for it.
- Khulla is free, offline library software for a home library that lends, with the setup of a real library system.
Questions
What is the best free app to catalog a home library?
For most people, LibraryThing or Libib's free plan: both look up books by ISBN and are free for a personal collection. Tellico suits Linux users who want everything offline, and a spreadsheet works for a few hundred books.
Is LibraryThing free?
Yes. LibraryThing became free for all members in March 2020, with no limit on the number of books. Before that, cataloguing more than 200 books needed a paid membership.
Can I track books I lend to friends?
Libib's lending features are in its paid Pro plan. A free library management system such as Khulla tracks loans, due dates and borrowers at no cost, but it's built for a lending library and takes more setting up.
Can I catalog my home library offline?
Yes. Tellico and calibre are desktop apps that keep everything on your computer, and a spreadsheet works offline too. LibraryThing and Libib store your catalog online.
Try Khulla in two minutes
Open the demo in a browser: nothing to install, no account to create. When it fits, download Khulla for Windows, Linux or Android.
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