BUCK THE CRITICS
Backloggd Alternative? 4 Trackers Compared
Backloggd did something the games side of the internet needed: it took Letterboxd’s diary-and-review model and applied it to games - log what you played, rate it, write about it, follow people who do the same. If you’re searching for a Backloggd alternative, it’s usually for one of three reasons. You want a real app on your phone rather than a website you’ve saved to your home screen. You’re tired of typing in a library you already own on Steam or PSN. Or you’ve noticed that games are only one shelf of your media life, and the other three - movies, TV, books - are scattered across other apps with other communities.
Every app below is a genuine game review app you can download today. Ours is one of them, and we’ll flag it clearly.
What Backloggd gets right - and where people hit the wall
The review culture is the draw. Backloggd’s ratings feel like they come from people who play games rather than people who market them, and the diary format makes your gaming year legible in a way a Steam library never is.
The walls people hit: it’s a website first, and the missing native app has been the community’s longest-standing request for years. Logging is manual, with nothing pulled in from your PSN, Xbox or Steam accounts. It’s a follower model - strangers with debateable taste. And it’s games only, forever, by design.
Different walls, different fixes. Here they are.
1. Buck The Critics - best for gamers who also watch and read
This is our app.
Buck The Critics is an all-in-one media tracker - games, movies, TV and books in one place, reviewed inside a private circle of friends rather than a public follower feed. Game pages carry platform, developer and publisher details plus trailers, your backlog sits in the same watchlist as your films and books.
Four things it does that better than the rest:
Ask about the game, don’t just log it. One tap on any game page gets you Buck AI: a thematic overview that answers “is this actually for me?”, the lore laid out in plain English, the trivia and easter eggs you walked straight past on your first run, and an interpretation of the ending you and your mate are still arguing about. You can ask it anything in free text too. No second tab, no wiki spiral, no stumbling into a spoiler you didn’t ask for.
Argue about games with your friends, not with strangers. Reviews carry likes, comments and nested discussion threads, and everyone in them is someone you invited. The difference between that and a public comment section is roughly the difference between a group chat and a train carriage.
Send your reviews somewhere people already follow you. One tap turns a review into a share image - artwork, your rating, your words - ready to post on X, Instagram or wherever your audience actually is. Your writing doesn’t have to stay locked inside the app that hosted it.
Work through a developer’s back catalogue. Developer pages carry complete credit histories, filterable by platform and genre, so “play everything FromSoftware made” turns into a list you tick off rather than a Wikipedia tab you keep reopening.
Underneath all of it sits the part nothing else on this list has. Buck compares your rating history against each friend’s and weights their opinions by how closely their taste matches yours - per media type. Your friend whose game taste is impeccable but whose film taste is a war crime gets counted accordingly, in both directions. When several friends have rated something, you get a calculated score predicting how much you’ll like it. That’s “what should I play next?” answered by people you trust rather than by a storefront with a sale on.
Where it falls short: logging is manual, like Backloggd’s - no PSN, Xbox or Steam import, no playtime scraping, no trophy sync. If pulling in a 400-game library without typing is the whole job, Backloggr below does that and Buck doesn’t. And the calculated scores need a few friends in your circle before they mean much; solo, you get the tracker, the backlog, the database and the AI tools, which is a decent app but not the point of it.
Best for: gamers who also watch and read, and anyone who’d rather hear “you’ll love this” from a friend than from an algorithm.
2. Stash - best free native app for logging and reviewing games
Stash is the closest thing to Backloggd that lives on your phone properly, and it’s the one Backloggd refugees keep recommending to each other. Around 300,000 titles across every platform going, statuses (Want, Playing, Beaten, Archived), ratings, written reviews with comment threads, a following feed, leaderboards, release alerts and a Steam library import. It sits at 4.7 stars from over 500 US App Store ratings, which for an indie tracker is genuinely strong, and it’s on both iOS and Android.
Where it falls short: it’s games only, and it’s a follower model - same two walls Backloggd has, just in a much nicer app. A chunk of the good stuff (deeper stats, some sorting) sits behind a Pro subscription, there are ads in the free tier, and reviewers mention the occasional bug and thin discovery beyond “most recent reviews.”
Best for: anyone whose complaint about Backloggd is purely “why isn’t this an app?“
3. Backloggr - best for importing a library you already own
Backloggr is the newest name here, launched in 2026, and it’s aimed squarely at the typing problem. Connect PlayStation, Xbox and Steam and your collection imports itself, trophies and achievements included, across a database of 350,000+ games. It layers a proper review system on top - verdicts, written reviews, spoiler warnings, helpful votes, community reviews on the home screen - plus completion stats, custom lists and home-screen widgets.
Where it falls short: it’s iPhone and iPad only, with no Android version, so half your friends can’t join you. It’s new enough that the community is small and the App Store hasn’t collected enough ratings to show a score yet. Trophy and achievement sync sits behind Pro, and, as ever, it’s games and nothing else.
Best for: trophy hunters and anyone with a library too big to enter by hand.
4. GG| - the original “Letterboxd for games” app
GG| has been at this since 2017, long before most of the current crop existed, and it built the review-app template the others borrowed: rate games out of five, write reviews, build ranked custom lists, follow other players, keep a wishlist and a backlog. If you searched for a games version of Letterboxd any time in the last several years, this is what you found.
Where it falls short: development has slowed considerably - the last substantial update landed in 2024 - and its App Store reviews are dominated by one complaint, which is how much sits behind the £/$4.99-a-month Elite tier. It sits around 4.2 stars from roughly 200 US ratings, well behind Stash. Games only, and a public follower feed.
Best for: people who want the app that’s been around longest and don’t mind paying for the full version.
The quick version
Match the app to the wall you hit. You want Backloggd but as an actual app: Stash, free and well-liked. You want your existing library imported with the trophies attached: Backloggr, if you’re on iOS. You want the elder statesman and you’ll pay for it: GG|.
And if the real problem is that your games, movies, TV and books live in four different apps with four different sets of strangers - Buck The Critics is the only one here that puts your whole shelf in one place, asks the AI your lore questions on the game page itself, and works out which of your friends’ opinions you should actually trust. Feature-by-feature table against Backloggd, Letterboxd, Goodreads and the rest on our homepage.
FAQ
Is there an app like Backloggd for all media? Buck The Critics applies the same log-rate-review model to games, movies, TV and books in one app, with a private friend circle in place of a public follower feed.
Does Buck The Critics track playtime or trophies? No - game logging is manual, like Backloggd’s. For automatic imports with achievements and trophies attached, Backloggr syncs PlayStation, Xbox and Steam (iOS only), and Stash imports Steam libraries.
Which Backloggd alternatives have a proper mobile app? Stash (iOS and Android), Backloggr (iOS only), GG| and Buck The Critics all ship native apps. Backloggd itself remains primarily a website.
Can I ask an app questions about a game’s story or easter eggs? Buck The Critics has Buck AI built into every game page - thematic overviews, lore explainers, trivia, easter eggs, ending interpretations, plus free-text questions, without leaving the app.
What’s the best Backloggd alternative for managing a backlog? Backloggr if you want the backlog built for you from your existing accounts. Buck The Critics if you’d rather your next game be picked by friends whose taste measurably matches yours - its watchlist holds games, movies, TV and books together.
Is Buck The Critics free? Buck is free to download on iOS and Android, and reviewing films and TV is free. Game tracking is a premium feature - but every new account gets a 14-day premium trial, which you can extend by inviting friends.
How much does premium cost? £39.99 / $39.99 a year to enrich you entire media life, every account starts with a 14-day trial you can extend by inviting friends. Reviewing films and TV stays free.
One backlog, one circle of friends, one app
Games, movies, TV and books, all in one place, rated by the only critics who matter. See the full comparison, or grab it free below.