A Follett Destiny alternative, sized for your school.
Destiny is built for districts with tens of thousands of users. If you are a small independent school, here is what changes when you switch to Lyra, and what Lyra leaves out.
Destiny is built for districts. Lyra is built for your school.
Follett Destiny is the biggest name in school libraries for a reason. It runs in tens of thousands of institutions, from single schools to district consortia, with a feature list to match.
The catch for a small independent school is that you pay for all of it. Cover art and enriched content are a paid add-on through TitlePeek. Pricing comes through a quote and a sales call, not a number you can read on the site. And a lot of what makes Destiny powerful (the district rollups, the large-scale rostering, the purchasing workflows) is built for libraries far larger than yours.
Lyra is the other shape. It is built for independent schools, not a district platform scaled down to fit one. The price is published. Cover images come included. You import your catalog and roster yourself, with no demo call. It does the things a school library does every day, and leaves out the enterprise machinery you would never switch on.
A focused, two-column look.
The same questions a librarian actually asks when evaluating a system. Where Lyra does something differently, we say so plainly, and where Destiny already covers the basics, we say that too.
Comparison reflects publicly available information about Follett Destiny as of June 2026, gathered for evaluation.
Follett and Destiny are trademarks of Follett Software, LLC. Lyra is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Follett.
Where Lyra does less than Destiny.
We would rather be straight with you than win you with a one-sided chart. Here is what Lyra leaves out that Destiny covers, so you can weigh whether any of it matters to you.
Digital lending
Destiny Discover puts ebooks, audiobooks, and databases beside your print collection. Lyra does not lend digital materials. If you use Sora, Lyra can list your OverDrive titles in its catalog from OverDrive's MARC records, and students open them in Sora. Other ebook providers aren't supported. Lyra can't show whether a copy is free or let students borrow from its catalog. If your school uses Sora and that would matter to you, tell us.
Purchasing in one place
Destiny ties ordering and acquisitions into the same system. Lyra does not.
Scale and track record
Destiny runs in tens of thousands of institutions with a large support organization behind it. Lyra is new.
Destiny is established. Lyra is new.
That is the trade, and for the right school it is also the opportunity: help shape the product, pay half price for your first term, and work directly with the people building it.
Read about founding partners
Questions schools ask.
Is Lyra a good alternative to Follett Destiny?
For a small independent or private K–12 school, yes. It covers the daily work (cataloging, circulation, holds, and an online catalog) with published pricing, included cover images, and self-serve setup. If your library leans on digital lending or built-in purchasing every day, those are the parts of Destiny worth weighing. Lyra focuses on the core cataloging and circulation work instead.
Does Follett Destiny charge extra for cover images?
Cover art and enriched content come through TitlePeek, a paid subscription. Lyra includes cover images at no extra charge.
How much does Follett Destiny cost?
Follett does not publish Destiny pricing; you request a quote. Lyra publishes its pricing on the site.
Can I move my catalog from Destiny to Lyra?
Yes. Lyra imports a standard MARC file, and also the Excel workbook Destiny exports. It will try to match that report’s column names to Lyra’s, though the import guide’s templates are the cleaner path. Rosters sync via OneRoster. To export your records from Destiny, follow Follett’s own documentation.
See how Lyra fits your library.
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