HowLongToBeat alternatives worth a look
HowLongToBeat answers one question very well: how many hours a game takes. People looking for an alternative usually want one of two things, another source for completion times, or a real tracker that shows a time next to a journal, ratings and reviews. Tier, Backloggd, Grouvee and IGDB cover those two needs differently.
Last updated by the Tier team. We publish Tier, so read this as an interested but checkable opinion: every claim below can be verified on the site it describes.
The short list
| Service | Best at | Time to beat | Mobile apps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier | Tracking, grading and reviewing games, with prices and Battles in the same place. | Shown on the game page, from HowLongToBeat data where we have it and other public sources otherwise. | iOS and Android |
| HowLongToBeat | The reference dataset of completion times, submitted by players. | Main story, main plus extras, completionist, according to its website. | Not listed on its site as of September 2026 |
| Backloggd | The largest game logging community, dense pages of ratings and reviews. | Not the focus of the site. | Not listed on its site as of September 2026 |
| Grouvee | Quiet, long running shelves in the spirit of Goodreads. | Not the focus of the site. | Not listed on its site as of September 2026 |
| IGDB | An open game database with an API, more a source than a destination. | Publishes time to beat data, according to its website. | Web first |
What HowLongToBeat does better
Nothing on this page replaces it on its own ground. HowLongToBeat exists because players submitted their own completion times for years, and that accumulation is the product. The three way split between main story, main plus extras and completionist is the vocabulary the rest of the industry borrowed, and its numbers are the ones quoted everywhere, including here.
Its search is direct, it costs nothing, and it answers the question you actually had in about four seconds. If "do I have time to finish this before the weekend ends" is the whole reason you opened a browser, stay there. The alternatives below are about what happens after that question is answered.
Tier
Tier is a social network and game-tracking platform for video gamers: log and rate the games you play on an F-to-S grade scale, write reviews, build tier lists and follow other players. It runs on the web, iOS and Android, and it is free.
On the completion time question, Tier is a consumer rather than a source: each game page shows an estimated time to beat, taken from HowLongToBeat data where we have it and from other public sources otherwise. What it adds is context around that number. The same page carries the community grade, the rating distribution, written reviews, where to buy the game and, on a series page, the cumulated time to get through a whole saga.
The honest limit: our time estimates are second hand, so on a recent or obscure game HowLongToBeat will be more current than us, and our community is younger and smaller than the big logging sites.
Backloggd
Backloggd is the busiest game logging community of this list. Its game pages carry a deep wall of ratings and short reviews, and its five star scale is the one most people already know from Letterboxd. If what you wanted from HowLongToBeat was the backlog feature rather than the hours, this is the more complete version of that idea.
It is browser first, and completion times are not what the site is built around, so most people who care about both end up keeping two tabs open.
Grouvee
Grouvee organises games on shelves, in the spirit of Goodreads, and rates on a five point scale according to its website. It has been running for years and its users are loyal to a deliberately calm, low noise interface. Choose it if you want a private ledger more than a feed, and expect fewer new features than the more active projects here.
IGDB
IGDB is a game database with an open API rather than a place to keep a backlog, and according to its website it publishes time to beat data alongside the rest of its metadata. It is where a lot of apps, including parts of our own catalogue, get their structured game information. As a destination it is thin, as a source it is excellent, and it is worth knowing about if the reason you left HowLongToBeat was that you wanted the raw data.
Who should pick which
Stay on HowLongToBeat if hours are the question. Take Backloggd for the largest crowd and the densest game pages. Take Grouvee for a quiet shelf. Take IGDB if you want the data itself. Take Tier if you want the time to beat, a community grade, reviews and a price comparison on the same page, plus an app on your phone.
If you are mostly comparing the social trackers, we also wrote Backloggd alternatives and a head to head Tier vs Backloggd.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a HowLongToBeat app?
No official mobile app is listed on its site as of September 2026; it is used in a browser. Among the services on this page, Tier is the one shipping native iOS and Android apps, and it shows an estimated time to beat on each game page.
Where else can I find how long a game takes?
IGDB publishes time to beat data according to its website, and Tier displays an estimate on every game page, sourced from HowLongToBeat where available and from other public sources otherwise. For a recent release, the original submission based data is usually the most current.
Can I track my backlog on Tier?
Yes. A journal entry can be To play, Playing, Played or Abandoned, you can rate and review each game, and linking a Steam account turns your owned library into journal entries. All of it is free.
Are these alternatives free?
Tier is free on the web, iOS and Android and is funded by advertising. HowLongToBeat, Backloggd, Grouvee and IGDB are free to use as well. None of them requires a paid plan to look a game up.
Keep reading: Grouvee alternatives, ranked hubs or how Tier grades work. Version française : alternatives à HowLongToBeat.