When Crunchyroll folded the Funimation store into its own shop, the physical anime and manga listings vanished with it. Blu-rays, box sets, and printed volumes that fans had bookmarked for years were pulled overnight, and Crunchyroll’s app kept quietly reshuffling its streaming catalogue with each licensing round. If your collection lives inside somebody else’s storefront, you lose the record the moment they change their mind. That is why the best apps for tracking manga and anime move the library into a database you control, sync it across services, and export it when you need to leave. We tested seven Android apps against real collections of a few hundred titles each, checked which trackers they sync to, and confirmed which ones still ship updates in August 2026.
What to look for in a manga and anime tracker
The category has enough options that picking on features alone is easy. Five things matter more than the rest:
- Tracker sync. MyAnimeList and AniList have the biggest catalogues and the most third-party integrations. Kitsu was a solid third pick until its official Android app was pulled in April 2024, so betting on it now is riskier.
- Combined manga and anime. Some apps only track one side. If you read and watch, a single library is worth the trade-off of a less specialised interface.
- Offline library. Mobile data drops on trains and planes. A tracker that caches your list, chapter counts, and images offline saves you from staring at a spinner.
- Reader or player integration. Trackers that also read manga or launch episode data (Mihon, Aniyomi, Kotatsu) auto-increment progress instead of forcing manual entry.
- Backup and export. JSON or XML export means you can leave when the app dies, which happens often in this category.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Sync targets | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MoeList | Everyday MAL users | Full app, no ads | MyAnimeList | 4.8 / 5 |
| Mihon | Reading and tracking in one place | Full app, open source | AniList, MAL, Kitsu, Shikimori, MangaUpdates | 4.7 / 5 |
| AniList (official) | Modern community and clean lists | Full app, no ads | AniList | 4.4 / 5 |
| Kotatsu | Alternative manga reader with tracker sync | Full app, open source | Shikimori, AniList, MAL, Kitsu | 4.6 / 5 |
| MyAnimeList Official | Anyone tied to the MAL database | Free with ads | MyAnimeList | 3.0 / 5 |
| Shikimori | Deep metadata and community discussion | Full app | Shikimori | 4.5 / 5 |
| Simkl | One list for anime, TV, and movies | Free tier, ads | Simkl, MAL, AniList | 4.3 / 5 |
The apps
1. MoeList, best overall for MAL users
MoeList is the unofficial MyAnimeList client that most MAL power users end up on. Development moved fast through 2025 and 2026 under maintainer Axel Y., and the app now covers seasonal charts, ranked lists, ranking rewrites, and the full MAL edit dialog for both anime and manga. Login uses your MAL account, so every change writes straight back to the source list without a middle layer. Progress edits are one tap from the home screen.
Where it falls short: the community feed and forum threads that MAL runs on the web are not surfaced in the app. If you use MAL mostly to read discussion, MoeList feels quieter than the site.
Pricing:
- Free: full app, no ads, no paid tier
- Paid: none
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the app to install first if your list already lives on MyAnimeList. Skip it if you built your library on AniList or Kitsu.
2. Mihon, best for reading and tracking together
Mihon picked up where Tachiyomi left off after the original project shut down in early 2024. It reads manga from any source you install through the extension system, and its built-in tracker pushes chapter progress to MyAnimeList, AniList, Kitsu, Shikimori, MangaUpdates, Bangumi, or Hikka as you turn pages. Backups are a single tarball you can restore on any device, which is the closest thing this category has to owning your library.
Where it falls short: it does not include content itself. Every source is an extension you add, and the community keeps some sources online while others break, so setup takes a few minutes and needs occasional maintenance.
Pricing:
- Free: full app, open source, no ads
- Paid: none
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the pick if you want to read and log in one place, and you do not mind wiring up sources yourself. Skip it if you only track and never actually read on the phone.
3. AniList (official), best for the modern community
AniList shipped its first official Android app in 2026, closing the long gap where every AniList user had to pick between third-party clients. The app mirrors the site: seasonal charts, custom lists with your own tags, activity feed, and the score distributions that make AniList feel more honest than MAL’s rankings. Notifications for airing episodes and new chapters land within minutes of the site.
Where it falls short: the first release focuses on the core list workflow. Some site features (character voting, review editing, forum posting) still push you to the browser. Third-party clients like AniHyou remain slightly deeper for now.
Pricing:
- Free: full app, no ads
- Paid: none
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the right pick if you like AniList’s community, its scoring, or its cleaner data model. Not the pick for lifelong MAL users who do not want to migrate a list.
4. Kotatsu, best alternative manga reader
Kotatsu is the second serious manga reader on Android alongside Mihon, and it took a different route by shipping a curated list of parsers out of the box rather than an extension system. Setup is faster: install, sign in to Shikimori, AniList, MAL, or Kitsu, and your library imports on first sync. The reader has vertical and horizontal modes, a customisable colour filter, and a solid offline library manager that survives storage moves.
Where it falls short: because parsers ship inside the app, the source list is smaller than Mihon’s, and adding a new source means waiting for a release. Some niche titles that Mihon can find still miss on Kotatsu.
Pricing:
- Free: full app, open source, no ads
- Paid: none
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the faster setup if Mihon’s extension flow feels like work. Skip it if you need obscure sources that only Mihon parses.
5. MyAnimeList Official, best if you already live inside MAL
The MyAnimeList Official app is the direct client from the site owners. It exposes the seasonal charts, top rankings, and forum feed that MAL is known for, and every change writes to the database that every other app on this list also reads from. If you have a decade-old list on MAL, this is the shortest path to keeping it up to date.
Where it falls short: the app has been stuck around a 3.0 rating on the Play Store for years, thanks to slow updates, occasional crashes, and ads on the free tier. Most heavy MAL users still prefer MoeList as a daily driver and keep this app installed only for the forums.
Pricing:
- Free: ad-supported
- Paid: MAL Supporter tiers on the site, from a few dollars per month, remove ads and add profile features
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: keep it around for the forums and the definitive database. Do not use it as your day-to-day tracker.
6. Shikimori, best for deep metadata and community
Shikimori is a Russian-community tracker that grew into one of the most detailed metadata sources on the web. The Android client, backed by the same account you use on shikimori.one, adds a browsing layer over rankings, franchise trees, staff pages, and forum threads that MAL and AniList summarise less thoroughly. Cross-sync means titles you edit here can push back to MAL or AniList through third-party bridges.
Where it falls short: the community and a chunk of the discussion is in Russian. The English UI works well, but the discovery feed leans toward what the Shikimori community rates highly, which does not always match Western tastes.
Pricing:
- Free: full app
- Paid: none
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the pick if you want franchise-level metadata that other trackers gloss over. Skip it if you want a Western-first community.
7. Simkl, best for one list across anime, TV, and movies
Simkl is the wild card on this list. It tracks anime alongside TV shows, movies, and even sports schedules, and it auto-scrobbles from Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, and a handful of streaming apps, so an episode you watched in Crunchyroll or Netflix updates the list on its own. If you also keep a TV watchlist, one app covers both.
Where it falls short: anime-only features are shallower than MoeList or AniList. Seasonal charts exist but feel bolted on, and the community side of the anime experience is thin.
Pricing:
- Free: full tracking, ads on the site and app
- Paid: Simkl VIP at a few dollars per month removes ads, adds calendar exports and unlimited connections
Platforms: Android
Bottom line: the right pick if anime shares a list with the rest of your watching. Skip it if you want an anime-only home.
How to pick the right one
If your list already lives on MyAnimeList, install MoeList and keep the official MAL app around for forum access. If you started on AniList or want the cleaner data model, the new official AniList app is the shortest path. If you want to read manga and log chapters in the same place, Mihon is the pick, and Kotatsu is the faster-to-set-up alternative that skips the extension juggling.
If your collection spans anime and live-action TV, Simkl consolidates the two into one queue, which is more useful than any single-purpose tracker if you watch both. If you liked Kitsu before its Android app was pulled, Kotatsu’s built-in Kitsu sync is the closest ongoing option. If you tried the MyAnimeList Official app and hated the ads or the 3.0 rating pattern of bugs, MoeList is the drop-in replacement, and it is what most heavy MAL users we spoke to have already switched to.
If you care about backup and export more than any specific feature, Mihon and Kotatsu both write full local backups that survive a factory reset. That matters in a category where apps quietly disappear (as Kitsu’s Android client did in April 2024) and licences shift without warning.
FAQ
What is the best app to track anime on Android?
For most people, MoeList if your list is on MyAnimeList and the official AniList app if it is on AniList. Both are free, both push changes straight to the source tracker, and both stay actively maintained in 2026. If you also read manga, Mihon does tracking and reading in one place.
Is the MyAnimeList app worth using in 2026?
The official MyAnimeList app is worth keeping installed for the forums and the definitive database, but not as a daily tracker. It sits around a 3.0 rating on Google Play, ships ads on the free tier, and updates slowly. MoeList runs on the same MAL account and is the client most active MAL users have moved to.
Can I track manga and anime in one app?
Yes. MoeList, the official AniList app, MyAnimeList Official, and Shikimori all track both. Mihon and Kotatsu focus on manga but include anime tracker sync targets, so your MAL or AniList anime list stays visible alongside your manga library.
Is Mihon safe and free?
Mihon is free, open source, and does not ship ads or telemetry. The app itself is safe. The sources you install through the extension system come from third parties, so read the extension description before adding one and stick to the community-maintained repository if you want a lower-risk setup.
What replaced Tachiyomi?
Mihon is the direct successor, built by members of the original Tachiyomi team after the project shut down in early 2024. It inherits the same reader design and extension system, and existing Tachiyomi backups import cleanly. Aniyomi is a related fork that adds anime streaming to the same base.
Does AniList have an official Android app?
Yes, as of 2026. The AniList team shipped an official Android client that covers the core list, seasonal charts, activity feed, and airing notifications. Some deeper features (character voting, review editing) still push you to the site, and third-party clients like AniHyou or Otraku remain slightly more complete for power users.
