Films · Books · Trips
Everything you love, ranked by you.
Crestora is a free iPhone app for the films you’ve watched, the books you’ve read and the places you’ve been. Pick between two at a time, and your real favourites rise to the top.
Free on iPhone.
Crestora in 30 seconds
See what it actually does.
Someone asks for your favourite film and your mind goes blank. Crestora keeps the answer ready, for films, books and trips alike.
- Add what you love. Films, books and trips, all in one place.
- Pick between two. Your call, every time. Your order takes shape.
- Know your favourites. A real top ten, and tiers from Divine masterpiece to Burn with fire.
Film credits
Music: ‘Firefly’ by Scott Buckley, CC BY 4.0. Example collection; screens rebuilt from the current app.
- Gyeongbokgung Palace: 경복궁 경회루 2011년 11월 대한민국 서울특별시 명소 (Seoul best attractions) 11.jpg by 서울특별시 소방재난본부(Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters), CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped.
- Bukchon Hanok Village: Bukchon-ro 11-gil street with hanok houses at blue hour in Bukchon Hanok Village Seoul.jpg by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped.
- Gwangjang Market: Dongdaemun Shopping Complex, Seoul 4.jpg by kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped.
- Kyoto: 20181110 Fushimi Inari Torii 12.jpg by Balon Greyjoy, CC0; cropped.
- Tokyo: Tokyo Shibuya Scramble Crossing 2018-10-09.jpg by Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0; cropped.
- Taipei: Taipei Taiwan Taipei-101-Tower-01.jpg by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0; cropped.
- Bangkok: Templo Wat Arun, Bangkok, Tailandia, 2013-08-22, DD 30.jpg by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0; cropped.
- Lisbon: No 28 Tram (45684287331).jpg by Neil, CC BY 2.0; cropped.
Three collections
Where do you want to start?
Start with whichever you love most. Each collection has its own home in the app, and they all rank the same way.
Films
Every film you’ve seen, in your order. Bring your Letterboxd, settle the five-star ties, and find your real No. 1.Explore filmsBooks
The books you’ve finished, by the year you read them, and ranked by the ones that stayed with you.Explore booksTrips
Crestora finds the cities in your photo library and turns them into trips, on a globe and in a top ten.Explore trips
How it works
Three steps to your top ten.
No spreadsheets and no agonising over half stars. Crestora asks one easy question at a time.
Add what you love.
Bring in the films you’ve watched (straight from Letterboxd if you use it), the books you’ve finished and the cities in your photos. Everything lands in its own collection.
Pick between two.
Crestora shows you two at a time and asks which you prefer. Too close to call? Call it a draw. Can’t remember one? Skip it. Every choice moves your ranking.
Watch your favourites rise.
Your real top ten appears, with a podium for the top three, and everything else falls into tiers. Come back after a new favourite and it finds its place.
- SSEssential reading
- SExtraordinary
- A+Outstanding
- AExcellent
- BStrong
- CSolid
- DUneven
- EWeak
- FNot for me
The tiers for books. Trips share them with Unforgettable at the top; films get their own, from Divine masterpiece to Burn with fire. Why two at a time
Five stars each? Only one can be your No. 1.
Star ratings pile up: after a few years, dozens of films and books share the same five stars and tell you nothing about which you’d keep. Choosing between two is easier and more honest. Crestora turns those small choices into scores, the way chess ratings work, so a surprise win moves things further than an expected one. The result is a top ten you actually agree with, and nine tiers for everything else.
How pairwise ranking works
Made for
The answer, always ready.
01 · Film night“What’s your favourite film?” The question that empties every mind. With Crestora your top three is one tap away, and you’ll know why it’s in that order.
02 · Book clubA shelf of five-star books. Rank everything you finished this year and the one you’d press into a friend’s hands rises to the top.
03 · Somewhere newA camera roll that’s really a map. Your photos already know where you’ve been. Crestora turns them into trips, then helps you pick the best one.
Guides
A little help getting started.
Practical, free guides to keeping a film log, a reading log or a travel map, and to ranking what you love. They work with a notebook just as well as with Crestora.
- Films · Guide
How to keep a film log
Remember the films you watch and the evenings around them. Choose a movie logger, learn what to record, and start with a free spreadsheet template.Read the guide - Films · Guide
How to rank your favourite movies
Five stars each? Work through a personal top ten with comparisons, a four-film example, and room for ties and changing taste.Read the guide - Films · Guide
How to make a movie tier list
Define tiers that mean something, choose how many you need, and place borderline films. Includes one viewer’s ten-film example.Read the guide - Ranking · Guide
What is pairwise ranking? Why choosing between two beats star ratings
How “this or that” choices become an order, how Elo-style scores move, and where comparison-based ranking falls short.Read the guide - Books · Guide
How to keep a reading log
Keep track of books you have read. Choose a few useful fields, borrow a worked example, and start a record you will want to revisit.Read the guide - Books · Guide
How to rank the books you’ve read
Compare across genres, handle series, rereads and unfinished books, and turn a six-book example into tiers.Read the guide - Trips · Guide
How to map places you’ve visited from your photos
Use saved photo locations to start a travel map, check missing cities, and keep the small details that bring a trip back.Read the guide
Questions
Good questions.
What is Crestora?
Crestora is an iPhone app for keeping and ranking the things you love: the films you’ve watched, the books you’ve read and the places you’ve travelled. Instead of giving everything stars, you pick between two at a time, and those choices build your personal ranking.
Is Crestora free?
Yes. Crestora is free to download on the App Store for iPhone.
How does ranking two at a time work?
Crestora shows you two things from the same collection and asks which you prefer. Each choice nudges their scores up or down, in the style of the Elo ratings used for chess players. If they feel equal you can call it a draw, and if you can’t remember one you can skip it. After enough choices, your top ten settles and everything sorts into tiers.
Can I bring my films over from Letterboxd?
Yes. Add your Letterboxd username and your films come over to Crestora with their star ratings, ready to rank. Crestora isn’t affiliated with Letterboxd.
Do my photos leave my phone when Crestora finds my trips?
To find the cities you’ve visited, Crestora reads the location details of photos you give it access to. The photo scan doesn’t upload the image files themselves, and you choose which cities to keep.
What’s the difference between a rating and a ranking?
A rating scores each thing on its own, so many favourites end up with the same five stars. A ranking puts them in order, so only one can be first. Crestora gives you both: an ordered top ten, and tiers that group things you love about equally.
Your next favourite starts here
Your favourites are waiting.
Free on iPhone.
Or scan with your iPhone camera