No doubt you have already heard about this tiny, little company called Amazon! Amazon owns Audible and the latter is a gold standard when it comes to audiobooks. From fiction to nonfiction, from biographies to documentaries and more, Audible is the market leader with more than 725 million listeners worldwide last year and the number is growing rapidly. Audible currently has 470,000 audio programs across entertainers, broadcasters, publishers, and even individuals.
Just think about a novel or book you want to listen to, Audible will give you the results instantly. But hey, it isn’t an audiobook company without any flaws. It has one of the most expensive monthly subscriptions at $14.95/mo whereas most of its alternatives are pretty much flat at $9.99/mo or even lower while some are totally free. Well, if you are looking for the best Audible alternatives, we got your back. Here’s a list of the 10 best Audible alternatives you should try.
10 Best Audible Alternatives in 2022
To find out the best alternatives of Audible, we decided to give a go to some of the best audiobook services out there. After trying numerous intriguing options, here we are with our picks on the top Audible alternatives out there.
1. Scribd
Scribd and Audible go hand in hand with millions of copies of books, reports, and more at your fingertip. It has one of the largest collections of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more from hundreds of sources. In fact, it has more than 60 million documents from study guides, medical reports, government reports, to fiction and non-fiction digital titles spread across categories such as politics, fantasy, biography, travel, entertainment, business, and many more.
Scribd offers a pretty user-interface that users interact with and offers untamed customizations like no others. You can customize the narration speeds based on the pace you can grasp. Listening to your favorite audiobook is a boon as you can set up sleep timers among others. Download audiobooks for an eventful offline listening experience. You can even customize type, font, background color, scrolling just to name a few.
Key Features:
- Set up a sleep timer
- Offline audiobook downloads & listening
- Millions of documents, audiobooks, and categories available
- Intuitive user experience
Price: 30-days free trial, $7.99 to $10.99/mo premium subscription
2. Kobo Books
Kobo Books is one of the most recommended alternatives to Audible. It packs in more than 5 million ebooks and audiobooks that you can listen to on its Android and iOS app. Kobo Books has a large collection of audiobooks in its library where you can sort it out based on categories or search manually. Get previews of the audiobooks before deciding to buy. The monthly subscription of Kobo Books is cheaper than that of Audible’s.
Next up, you get features like Sleep Timer which is great for a bedtime story as it will go silent after the alarm goes off. It has a night mode that puts your eyes at ease during nighttime listening and reading. The app has an easy-to-use player that ensures a wholesome listening experience with a bunch of customization options available on-board. If something interests you, check out its social media sharing feature that lets you post quotes and recommend books to others.
Key Features:
- Multi-language support
- Plug and play with CarPlay
- Auto-sync with other devices
- Night Mode
- Sleep Timer
Price: Free | Pay-Per-Book
3. Apple Books
Just like how you get Google Play Books with your Android phone, you get Apple Books for your iOS device. Embedded deep into the Apple ecosystem, the Apple Books app is a great escape for you to listen to unlimited audiobooks on the go. You get a pretty user-interface, easy to use, and a much simpler buying process. The app offers you trending books that might interest you in its “Top Charts”. You can search for the titles you want or check out the categories to see which one you would like to go for.
Since it is Apple Books, you can pair it and sync it with your iPad and Apple Watch as well. The application also has iCloud integration that saves all your audiobooks on the cloud without consuming much of the space on your device. Get your hands on limited-time offers, new releases, free samples, a greater customization control, and more with Apple Books. Overall, you get access to more than 1 million audiobooks at your fingertips.
Key Features:
- iCloud Integration
- Auto-Night Theme
- Syncs with all of your Apple devices
- Free samples before purchasing books
- Multi-language support
Price: Free | Pay-Per-Book
Download: iOS
4. Google Play Books
Google Play Books has more than 5 million audio programs as of 2013 available at your disposal and the number is increasing exponentially. Get access to audiobooks, ebooks, and more with Google Play Books which is one of the finest Audible alternatives out there. The app recommends you the best titles and tailors results henceforth based on your taste.
It syncs with Google Drive which means you can plug and play it on any other device as well. Unlike Apple Audiobooks, Google Play Books is available on both iOS and Android devices that offer it much more ground it can cover. It has a pay-per-book model and thus, you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription but just for what you subscribe for. It has features like offline downloads and listening, heavy discounts available round the clock, and so on.
Key Features:
- No subscription & pay-per-book model
- Easy to use
- Offline downloads and listening
- Heavy discounts round the clock
- Humongous library of audiobooks, ebooks
Price: Free | Pay-per-book
5. Storytel
Storytel has one of the largest catalogs of audiobooks with more than 500,000 titles on-board and more are being added every week. The app is available in 20 global markets offering a pure audiobook listening experience in English and a string of other languages. Get recommendations based on your searches and tastes. Get your hands on biographies to novels to documentaries and more with Storytel.
Use Storytel to download audiobooks well in advance to curb wasting battery and data on the go. You can switch between reading and listening on Storytel which is great since you can decide what to do. The app has a sleep timer that goes off and turns off the app or playback at the set time. The app has features like keeping notes and bookmarks as well. Adjust narration speed as per your choice of pace so that it is not too fast or not too slow based on how you like it to be narrated. Storytel offers you a plethora of content ranging from full-fledged novels to poems, serialized content, and short stories among others.
Key Features:
- Excellent user interface
- Variable narration speeds & sleep timer
- Supports English and other domestic languages
Price: Free | Premium starts at $3.49 to 13.49
6. Hoopla Digital
Now, Hoopla Digital isn’t a standalone alternative for Audible but it is one of the most recommended apps to use. It lets you borrow and rent audiobooks, ebooks, comics, and much more from other libraries. Hoopla Digital has more than 800,000 titles available at your fingertips right from fiction to non-fiction novels to best-selling ones and more. It is quite instant, lets you borrow an audiobook in a jiffy, download it for offline reading and listen to name a few.
It is also summoned as a cost-effective substitute for Audible so if you are planning to keep yourself entertained with audiobooks but on a budget, Hoopla Digital is the way to go. But you will have to compromise over a few things such as the fact that it isn’t as powerful as Audible and not as feature-rich as the same but worth a shot.
Key Features:
- Simple and user to use interface
- Cost-effective rental based model
- Offline listening
Price: Free
7. LibriVox
LibriVox is one of the best Audible alternatives out there. It offers you more than 50,000 audiobooks free of cost and that’s spread across all types of categories including literature, biography, poetry, novels, fiction, and non-fiction among others. LibriVox is available in more than 30 languages so you can listen to your favorite audiobooks in your language. The app offers you the feature to download audiobooks and listen offline if you aren’t expecting internet access or simply want to save on the battery.
LibriVox has a more appealing user interface than Audible although it doesn’t offer many ways to customize it. There are thousands of volunteers that work round the clock updating 1000 items a year so you always have something new to listen to. The app ensures high-quality audiobooks are unmatched by other apps.
Key Features:
- Download & listen offline
- Updates library every day
- Supports more than 30 languages
- 50,000+ audiobooks & counting
Price: Free | $0.49/mo and $2.49/yearly
8. eStories
With eStories, you get access to a library of more than 120,000 audiobooks spread across both fiction and non-fiction categories. The app has almost 10,000 free audiobooks available at your disposal that you can listen to free of cost. Search from the bestsellers and releases in genres like history, humor, fantasy, thrillers, self-help, and others. Set the narration speed as per your pace. You use the sleep timer that turns off the playback automatically when the alarm goes off. The app automatically syncs with 10 devices at the same time which is a great feature.
Search by genre, title and get recommendations based on your personalized taste. Get unlimited cloud storage that you can upload your audiobooks on and enjoy a seamless listening experience at any time and anyplace. Download the audiobooks for offline listening sessions to save on both battery life and data with eStories.
Key Features:
- 120,000+ audiobooks available
- Variable narration speeds
- Updates new releases every week
- Syncs with 10 devices simultaneously
Price: Free | Premium starts at $5.99 to $9.99 & more
Download: iOS
9. Libby
Libby is one of the best Audible alternatives available on your smartphone. It is instant, free, intuitive, and easy to use. It gives you access to new releases, classics, and titles from across the globe. Libby covers everything from magazines to audiobooks to ebooks and more. It automatically syncs with all your devices which is a boon. Plus, it has less waiting time to add newer titles than other apps. You can change narration speeds with its breathtaking audio player. It gives you features like skip, forward, backward, and notes, bookmarks, and so on.
The user interface is something you would love almost instantly. Unlike other audiobooks, Libby has more than 2 million ebooks and audiobooks. However, it is region-dependent and thus, you would get access to all the books available for your region that will be different from someone accessing Libby from the U.S. Search by the phrase, titles, or check out the various categories it offers on the go.
Key Features:
- Offline downloads & listening
- Less waiting time for incoming popular titles
- Excellent in-app audio player controls
- Sleep timer
- Highly customizable
Price: Free | Pay-Per-Book
10. Downpour
Downpour is an app that offers you access to more than 80,000 audiobooks on a single fingertip. Check out its huge catalog of classics to best-selling novels and books on the go from authors like Dan Brown, James Patterson, Karin Slaughter, and others. Downpour is also one of the many alternatives recommended by people in case you are bored of Audible or just don’t want to use it.
Search for titles by releases, genres, and more on Downpour. Change narration speeds as per your pace and never miss the thrill of listening to an audiobook at the same rate. You also get a built-in sleep timer that dozes the app once it goes off so that you don’t have to manually turn it off in case you are sleeping. Add notes on important parts, find the section where you left, add books to the wishlist, and more with Downpour. Although not as powerful as Audible, it does have its caliber to showcase.
Key Features:
- Setup narration speed
- Sleep timer
- Offline listening
- 80,000+ audiobooks available
Price: Free | From $5.99 to $29.99
Conclusion
And with that, we end our listicle on the best Audible alternatives this year! Of course, we had to leave a few ones either because the list is limited or some apps have ceased to exist at the time of writing it.
Audible is truly a great audiobook service and offers more than what most of the other impressive options offer but it does have its rivals and alternatives that you can pick in case you don’t want to use Audible due to any reason. Hope this list lets you pick one for the team and we would suggest giving several of the alternatives mentioned about a try.
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