Anime Tracking Site Comparison

I was surprised to find that there wasn’t any readily available information comparing the different sites you can use in order to keep track of the anime which you have watched. I could find some discussions of what people used, but no real comparisons. This post aims to give a comparison of the different sites available, and look at some of their key features. I’m certain that it won’t be comprehensive, and of course if the sites have any major changes, the information may become outdated, but I’m hoping it will be a somewhat useful resource. As I am mostly using my personal experiences, while I have done my best to test out the different basic features, I may still have missed out on some available functionality. This in itself is perhaps telling because I was unable to find the information. If I’ve missed something important, please let me know! I’ll do my best to try and have accurate information regarding each site, although I may not update this post indefinitely. This post has received an update as of October 2017

For each site I have looked at the ease of importing existing information, how you can score your shows, the options for tracking your titles (e.g. ability to create custom lists or filters), ability to customise your list design, the site UI, ways of interacting with other users (contacting or befriending them), what sort of details may be available in the database for a particular title, and the forum or community aspects of the site. Different people look for different things when it comes to tracking anime, but hopefully these are some of the important key features. I’ve linked to my profile on each site so you can see how it looks live. I have not touched on phone apps which can tie into updating your anime list. I don’t have a phone which would support using apps, so it’s not something which I can really test out for myself. If there was someone who was interested in putting this information together, I’d be interested to see it!

AniDB
Importing existing information: This was possible, but you needed to export and save your data as an XML file and upload it onto the Anime DB website. The import process takes some time.
Scoring: The site uses a 1-10 scale. The site tracks scores with both an average and a weighted average score for each title.
Tracking Options: You can create custom lists featuring manga or anime, which gives you a chance to showcase your favourites. AniDB can be tied into an applet or application which will automatically update your details as you watch shows. This seems to be weighted towards shows which are stored on your hard drive and perhaps is less effective in this day and age where many people choose to stream anime. I found it quite difficult to update entries manually, it’s far easier to continue to batch import XML files to update my list.
List customisation: There’s no way to customise the appearance of your list. You can sort your list by several available filters like status, weighted score, and average score.
UI: The site design feels like it’s fresh out of 2004. The site doesn’t appear to be fully optimised for mobile, with some site interactions requiring mouse hover instead of being able to be activated via general pointer events, making using some menus impossible with a mobile browser.
User Interaction: You can add friends and send users private messages. You’re able to exchange anime recommendations with your friends, which appears to be unique to this site.
Database: AniDB is very up to date with different fansub groups and their offerings, and all the different ways you could watch a series. The staff and character credits seem to be fairly well updated, even for less popular titles.
Forums/Community: The forums are pretty quiet with only the actual airing anime discussions seeming to have regular post activity, and other subforums going days without replies. The site has an IRC channel which you could use to chat with other users (do people still use IRC?).
Overall Thoughts: This site has good tracking of scores and titles and I like the way that they deal with stats but the design and the whole site philosophy is quite dated.

AniList 

The list style has been customised via the site dropdowns

Importing existing information: This was really easy as you could just enter your username from another database, and the import was done for you without any fuss.
Scoring: You can choose from a variety of scoring options, a 1-10 scale, a 1-100 scale, a 1-10 scale allowing for decimal points (effectively the same as a 1-100 scale, only missing the lowest options), a 5 star scale, or just smiley faces. It doesn’t make it easy to compare scores with other users, but there’s definitely options to suit your preferences.
Tracking Options: You can choose to have your anime titles default to romaji, English, or 日本語. There’s some good stats breakdown on your profile page, featuring score distribution and also a graph showing your genre preferences..
List customisation: There’s customisation available via some simple dropdown menu options, making it easy to use for someone who is unfamiliar with web design, but there’s not finer control over edits without using browser add-ons like Stylish. I like being able to customise the CSS of sites I use as it gives me a bit of extra control over the appearance, but I appreciate that the dropdowns would be a lot easier for most users. I know staff have mentioned that they would consider giving more customisation options to users in future site updates. It’s also possible to add custom categories to your list, so you can have things like movies grouped together, or shows you’d like to rewatch grouped together.
UI: The site looks clean, modern, and elegant. I did find the search to be a bit laggy because it doesn’t wait for you to confirm your search terms but starts sorting through entries as soon as you put in a letter. Weirdly the mobile version of the site seems to be a little easier to use. Some functions are easier to find on mobile than when using a PC. Most things felt fairly intuitive, but it was hard to find information regarding site functions which I was uncertain about.
User Interaction: You can follow users, interact with their activity via a home page feed, and it’s possible to send users a private message.
Database: Their information seems to mainly be copied from other sites, but staff are reasonably prompt at dealing with user requests for database updates, so it’s easy to get information added or corrected if you’re prepared to go through the submissions process. You can also link your account to the seasonal tracking chart AniChart to help you track shows you are interested in watching if you like keeping up with seasonal anime.
Forums/Community: The forums are very quiet, there’s threads going back days on the front page. They do have a discord channel if you’re interested in chatting with other users live. The forums seem to be well moderated and staff are prompt to respond to user feedback.
Overall Thoughts: This site has a special category for shows called TV shorts. While perhaps this isn’t a big deal for everyone, I really appreciate this as a way to make it easier to find shorts. It’s a fairly crisp, modern design with lots of custom list options but it doesn’t seem like a great place to interact with other users.

Anime News Network
Importing existing information: There’s no way that I could find to do this. You need to add any previously viewed titles one by one. ANN does have an A-Z database with tickboxes so you can do this more readily than having to search each title individually, but it’s still a real pain.
Scoring: ANN actually has word descriptors for each of its ratings, on what is effectively an 0-10 scale. Options range from ‘Worst ever, maybe useful as a sadistic torture device’, to ‘Masterpiece, exquisite beyond words’. This non-numerical way of rating to me seems to put a weight on personal enjoyment over technical factors owing to its wording. You can also rate different versions separately (e.g. English dub & English subtitles) and also add comments for each title.
Tracking Options: ANN has an option to track your physical media (DVDs and Blu-rays) in addition to just keeping track of the shows which you have watched. You can also create your own personal lists featuring different anime or manga.
List customisation: There’s no way to customise your list. The design is barely above plain HTML, so it’s not exactly pretty or modern, but it is easy to read.
UI: I had no trouble finding information, except that the actual adding of anime is somewhat nightmarish. The site is optimised for mobile and is perfectly functional on a mobile browser.
User Interaction: You can find ‘like-minded users’, those who have their lists set to be publicly viewable who have added similar titles with similar ratings. You can PM users but there doesn’t seem to be any way to add friends, and actually finding any contact links at all was challenging.
Database: ANN has very detailed information on their anime entries, with extensive staff credits, DVD releases, and airing dates in different countries. Their information seems to be the most up-to-date of any site I have looked at owing to ANN’s primary function as a news website.
Forums/Community: There’s an active forum community here, especially because ANN is an active anime news site. They seem to have the best moderated forums with rules expecting users to be polite, use a decent standard of spelling and grammar (with leniency towards those for whom English is a second language or those who have literacy difficulties), and create topics with a decent standard of conversation. It’s not perfect, but it seems to be miles ahead of other sites when it comes to what I seek in an online community.
Overall Thoughts: I don’t think this is a great place to track anime viewed, but I do think that it’s probably the nicest community setting, with a good mix of activity, interesting discussion generated from ANN’s regular news features, and a fairly positive forum culture. If I was wanting to get involved in an anime forum community, instead of just have a venue for tracking shows I have seen, this would be my top pick.

Anime Planet
Importing existing information: You can save an XML file and upload it onto the Anime Planet website. The import process was quite speedy compared to other sites where the XML import is required
Scoring: The site uses a 5 star system with half stars, equivalent to a 1-10 scale.
Tracking Options: You can create custom lists on the topics you like, and give reasons for why entries belong in a list. This actually feels like an appropriate venue for listicles. Anime Planet is also unique in having a ‘Won’t Watch’ category, I guess to indicate to other people that a show is absolutely outside of your area of interest. You can easily see the mean score for an anime as well as the score which you have given the show. Anime Planet also has badges/achievements for people who like collecting these. You can favourite characters, staff, and studios. There’s a weirdly detailed character search function, including things like the ability to search via hair colour.
List customisation: There’s no way to customise the appearance of your list, except for the general option to toggle between a cover view (with large cover images for each anime) and a list view.
UI: This was pretty middle of the road as far as the sites I’ve looked at. It was neither super dated or super modern. It would be nice to have a ‘dark mode’ as well as the light mode as I know some people prefer to browse with a black background. The site was perfectly functional on mobile.
User Interaction: You can comment on user profiles and follow other users. There doesn’t seem to be a private message function which I could find.
Database: This site doesn’t keep track of production staff, but they do have information on voice actors and characters. I’m yet to request any changes to their database, so I can’t comment on the speed of approval/edits.
Forums/Community: Outside of the episode discussion threads, which seem to be somewhat active, the other forum areas are pretty quiet. Anime Planet is linked to several legal streaming services which can make it a good place to find legal sources to watch shows, although these seem to be focused on US options.
Overall Thoughts: I do need to give a special mention to Anime Planet’s recommendations engine which I found to be surprisingly decent. You can load suggestions from your profile, and get 30 anime suggested at a time. I usually find my suggestions to be a mixture of slice-of-life, comedy, shorts, and some mid-2000s action series. While I cannot say that I’m interested in every series suggested, I’ve identified a number of titles I’d like to watch through this function, some which I had not heard of prior to finding them this way. It’s far better at picking things which I’d like than any other recommendations engine I’ve tried. Of course, I can only speak for my own experience, and I’m not sure how many anime you’d need to have watched for this to be effective. While not standing out in any general area, Anime Planet appears to be competent in every regard. It’s probably the most balanced anime tracking website. If nothing else, you may like to get an account just to test the recommendations engine if you often find yourself wondering what to watch.

Anisearch

Importing existing information: This can be done (from MAL only) with an XML file. The import process was fairly speedy.
Scoring: The site uses a 5 star system for overall scoring (including half-stars, this is effectively a 10 point system), but also allows you to add an additional ‘personalised rating’, and you can choose from a 1-10 point system, a 10.0 point system, or a 100 point rating system. This may be good for people who want more fine control over their ratings.
Tracking Options: Everything appears to be fairly default for a tracking site, and you can track titles you’ve watched, together with the dates you have watched them and scores for the titles (with a custom personal score as an optional feature). Anisearch also gives you the option to track some Asian live-action film titles. As I don’t really watch these, I can’t comment on the database’s accuracy or how comprehensive it is. It does seem to be a feature unique to this website.
UI: There’s a few different colour profiles which you can use for the site, with a mixture of lighter and darker options, and apparently premium users have a few more colour profiles. The overall site layout isn’t the most modern, but it is functional. The mobile version of the site is very good, with a proper mobile version and good responsive design.
User Interaction: You can add comments to user’s profiles, and also add them as friends or send them a private message.
Database: The site incentivises users making edits, with an achievement point system for people who make useful and accurate contributions. Apparently users who contribute enough to the site can even be gifted a premium membership. As such, information on most entries seems to be fairly up to date, and the data mods are also prompt to respond to user edits.
Forums/Community: The website and forums are originally German, but also have an English language option. However, the userbase is primarily German, and as a user who has their site language set to English, I only could view English language forum posts by default. There are very few of these. The German forums seem to be fairly active. 
Overall Thoughts: I’d think the real incentives for trying out this site if you were looking for a new/alternative site would be the live-action tracking aspect, or of course if you were a German-language user. I don’t know of any other non-English anime tracking sites, though I’d assume that there would be some out there. If you know of some, let me know! I’d be interested in testing them out!

Kitsu (formerly known as Hummingbird)
Importing existing information: This is really easy as you could just enter your username from another database, and the import was done for you without any fuss. Kitsu also has an option to export your list to a My Anime List account.
Scoring: Kitsu uses a 10 star system with half stars, which is the equivalent of a 20 point system. You use a slider to input your score, which can be mildly frustrating at times, as I found it a little easy to overshoot and then have the wrong score save and have to start the process again.
Tracking Options: You can add comments to each entry. You can add your favourite shows or characters to a list. There’s also a reactions feature, where you can write a short reaction (140 characters, similar to a tweet) in response to an anime, and these can be seen by others. It’s a quick way to get an overview of a series, as the reactions vary from mini-reviews, to jokes, to reflections.
List customisation: There’s no way to customise the appearance of your list.
UI: At present things seem to be a bit messy, but the site gets regular updates in response to user feedback, and the staff have said they’re planning to make more updates. It seems modern, but it’s not especially intuitive as a newcomer, and it’s challenging to find information.
User Interaction: You can follow users and post on their pages, but there does not appear to be a method of privately messaging a user.
Database: While I don’t find Kitsu to have the most complete database, the data mods are exceedingly speedy at approving requests for changes. Any changes I’ve requested have been seen to within 48 hours.
Forums/Community: Kitsu is currently in a period of flux as they’re changing their look and functionality from the old Hummingbird site, but there’s an activity feed, not forum discussions. The feed seems to be fairly active with new posts and replies going up every few minutes.
Overall Thoughts: It’s a bit hard to get an overall feel for the direction that Kitsu is planning to go, but they seem to be the most modern site with the most short and medium-term planned changes. It’s not my favourite site to interact with the community, but I like the reactions feature, and I’m hopeful for more interesting and unique functionality from Kitsu in the future.

My Anime List

The list style has been customised via CSS

Importing existing information: You can only do this via external userscripts, there’s no official site support for importing lists from other websites.
Scoring: MAL uses a 1-10 scoring system. They do provide some suggested descriptors for what a show of that standard would be like, but I find that the general community tends to just go on what they think the numbers should represent.
Tracking Options: You can keep track of when you started and finished a show and manually edit these dates, which is something that I felt was missing on many other sites. How else would I know it took me nearly 4 years to watch Love Hina to completion? MAL has pages for anime and manga tracking. You can add favourite anime, manga, characters, and staff/voice actors to lists. It’s possible to add comments or tags to each entry. MAL can also be tied into Graph Anime Plus, which gives more detailed stats on your watching habits. Show titles default to romaji of the Japanese title on your list, which can be confusing at times, but you can search English titles.
List customisation: You can choose from a few default list looks or have full customisation using CSS. It’s fairly easy to find information regarding CSS customisation and there’s plenty of premade layouts and tutorials for beginners.
UI: The site design is a bit dated, seeming to have mostly kept its forum site framework from the site’s inception when forums were a lot more popular, but it’s easy to navigate. MAL has some issues with invasive advertising at times, making it not a great site to use on mobile.
User Interaction: You can add friends and see their recent list updates in a news feed. You can comment publicly on a user’s profile or send them messages privately.
Database: MAL is pretty reliant on other news sites for their info, but there’s a lot of contributors so entries seem to be fairly well-rounded. At the same time, there are problems with incorrect or misleading information being initially approved and changes not being approved later on. Some database requests I’ve made have been approved very quickly, but others seem to have not been acted on for extended periods of time.
Forums/Community: The forums are very active, and there’s usually multiple posts made every minute across the forums. MAL has by far the largest userbase of any anime tracking site.
Overall Thoughts: The main advantage of MAL is perhaps the large amount of users who utilise the site, making it more streamlined to interact with others and compare lists. I can’t say that it has any unique features which strongly appeal to me with the exception of allowing CSS edits to user lists.

Overall, don’t be a crazy person like me and sign up for all the anime list tracking websites! Anime tracking websites may have become a personal hobby for me, but one site is probably sufficient for most people. I think each site has its own pros and cons. Hopefully you can find information in here which will be helpful for deciding what may suit you when it comes to a site for anime and manga tracking. If there’s anything you’d like to share on anime sites you like or dislike, I’d love to hear your thoughts!