Best Audiobooks
If you’re looking for a convenient way to fit more books into your busy life, try grabbing an audiobook. You can listen to it on the way to work, on vacation, or when trying to figure out how to while away the time during quarantine at home.
One of the best ways to get the most out of your listening experience is to subscribe to a service that gives you access to a ton of books at the same time, and we’ll provide you with the best audiobook subscription service, both paid and free, for your bibliophile needs.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at four of our favorite audiobook platforms and recall a few other services the internet is talking about because accessing more books is always better. Grab your headphones and get ready to listen to a good book.
Sound (paid)
Even if you may have concerns about Amazon , the parent company of Audible, there is no doubt that this audiobook service is one of the very best. It has many titles – hundreds of thousands, in fact – that you can buy, rent, stream and listen to offline using the official app for Android , iOS , Windows Phone and Amazon devices (of course). You can also play audiobooks through your Sonos speaker via the Audible or Sonos app.
Audible offers a free trial that gives you 30 days of membership and a free book. After that, the service will cost $ 15 a month for one credit (good for one audiobook), but you can keep all the purchased books if you ever cancel your subscription. Your audiobook progress is saved wherever you listen to it: for example, on the Internet, in the app, or in your car. And this is good; you don’t need a service that makes it difficult to pick up where you left off.
You don’t have to be an Audible member to buy their audiobooks, but if you do, you get a 30% discount on any purchases. These books are available to listen to anytime, even offline, and the service integrates with your Amazon account so your discount will also show up when you browse the books on Amazon.
Depending on how much you read, the selection system and assessment Audible makes it very valuable as described by Reddit u / mirrorshield84:
“I pay for 2 Audible credits per month at $ 22.95. So while it is more expensive, it is cheaper per book. If I really don’t have enough material to read about Libby, I try to keep my credits adding up to 2-for-1 sales. ”
(No, you won’t get a special bonus discount for buying a physical copy of the book and then purchasing an audiobook, but you will often save a little if you buy the Kindle version of the book first and add the Audible track – see picture.)
OverDrive / Libby (free)
Over 45,000 libraries support OverDrive , a service that makes it easy to check audiobooks and e-books – for free – right from your smartphone or tablet. All you need is your library card and a library in your area that supports this service. (You will most likely find at least one.)
Libby offers a similar setup, but is better if you only plan on visiting public libraries, whereas Overdrive is better for all other types of libraries like school libraries.
Both services are completely free if you have the library card for the library (or libraries) you want to use. Yes, your choices can vary by library, but the Overdrive website is great at showing you other places to find a book you might want to read (or listen to).
You can read e-books and listen to audiobooks offline in the Overdrive or Libby apps, and you can pick up where you left off no matter how you listen to your content. Your position, bookmarks and notes are synchronized between your devices. You can’t check unlimited audiobooks at the same time, but it’s easy to bring back the “books” and make space for more.
Plus, Libby syncs to Sonos so you can listen to your borrowed books on speaker (s) throughout your home.
Scribd (paid)
Scribd has always made a big difference when it comes to printed material – a great place to view raw documents of all kinds, from court documents to research papers, as well as tons of magazines and books. Scribd also has “ thousands of audiobooks ” for you to watch and stream, making the low monthly service fee ($ 9 with an initial 30-day free trial) even more beneficial. There is so much to explore!
Scribd apps for iOS , Android and Amazon devices make it easy to find, stream and download audiobooks for offline listening. And the sleep timer that Scribd inserts into its apps automatically mutes your audiobook after a set amount of time (so you don’t go to bed after reading before bed, uh, listening to it all).
In BookRiot, which covers everything to do with reading, Dana Lee writes :
“Scribd is a great value, and when combined with library apps like Libby and Hoopla, I usually check for titles here first before using credit or buying from menus in other apps.”
While Scribd’s audiobook offerings are not as comprehensive as Audible’s, you do get a wider selection of services for a lower monthly fee – ideal for those who also enjoy reading their favorite monthly magazines after listening to a book or two on their commute.
Hoopla (free)
We have already written about Hoopla , so by now you should be familiar with this service. If not, here’s a quick explanation: like OverDrive, Hoopla allows you to test different types of media from different libraries; the content list includes audiobooks, e-books and music, as well as TV shows and movies. You confirm your library membership by listing the number on the back of your card (digital or physical) that gives you access to your library’s electronic offerings.
You can view your content on the Hoopla website or through its app for iOS , Android and Amazon devices. As with Overdrive, you are allowed to check out a certain amount of content at the same time in different media categories, but you can easily check the material back when you finish listening / reading / watching it (or after the “borrowing” period. Like a real library!)
Hoopla is completely free, which is a great benefit, and its online e-book reader has all the settings you might be interested in: font sizes, background colors, text margins, line heights, etc. Its content is limited by what it offers. your library. which will give you the incentive to get in your car and grab a membership card to several local libraries the next time you have a free weekend.
Honorable mentions
There are dozens of places to access audiobooks, and your best bet is probably to combine free and paid subscription services to maximize your choice, especially if you don’t want to wait to check out popular bestsellers from your local library or dive deeper into a specific genre (e.g. novel or science fiction).
Here are a few more platforms to consider:
Libro.fm (paid)
If you want to support your local independent bookstore (especially in a pandemic), Libro.fm gives you access to over 150,000 book titles for $ 15 a month, some of which go to the bookstore of your choice.
Audiobooks.com (paid)
If you just can’t bring yourself to use Audible, there are over 150,000 audiobooks on Audiobooks.com plus tons (and tons) of podcasts for $ 15 a month. You can start with a 30-day free trial that gives you three free books.
Spotify (paid)
We also want to mark Spotify as a decent audiobook service. We suspect you are more concerned with his musical suggestions than anything else, but while you’re working, download a game or two (like the celebrity-spoken version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ) to balance all that noise. Plus, with Spotify, you can easily switch between your playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks in one app.
This story was originally published in March 2015, updated in June 2018 with additional reports from David Murphy, and updated again on May 17, 2020 by Emily Long to include the following: replaced screenshots, added and updated recommended information services, replaced user reviews and added resource links to other Lifehacker content.