5 Best Audiobook Subscription Services & Apps Test 2024
The Best Audiobook Service Subscription Plans, Apps & Pricing Compared
Extensive testing shows that the best AudioBook services are Audible, Blinkist, Audiobooks.com, and getAbstract. Audible provides the biggest library, and you get to own the books. In comparison, Blinkist offers high-quality Audiobook summaries at an incredibly low price.
Our unique survey of hundreds of audiobook users reveals how they use audiobooks to improve their work, life, and sleep routines. I have listened to over 380 audiobooks over the past twelve years and have personally tested, used, and had subscriptions to all the Audiobook services in this review.
Simply the Biggest & Best Audiobook Collection + The Lowest Subscription Costs per Book
Rating: ★★★★★
Audible: Best Audiobook Service Winner
Pros
★ You Own the Book for Life ★ The Biggest Library 220K+ Titles ★ Lowest Cost per Book ★ The Best Returns Policy ★ Compatible with All Devices ★ Syncs with Kindle ★ Works with Alexa
Cons
✘ Nothing, I am a 10-year Subscriber
Audible Review Summary
Audible is the leader in the audiobook industry, with by far the largest library of titles, with over 200,000 audiobooks.
New releases and bestsellers are inevitably released on Audible first as its market share and customer base make it irresistible to publishers.
For me, one of the most important elements of books or audiobooks is that you get to keep the books you pay for. I own over 350 titles valued at $2,800 and am pleased to hand them down to my children in the future. Some services, such as Scribd, offer an unlimited listening subscription, but you are just borrowing the book for the duration of your subscription. When you end the subscription, you have nothing. With Audible, you can still log in and use the app even after ending the subscription.
Audible Pricing Plans
With Audible, you need a subscription, which means you get to buy books at a tiny fraction of their retail value. Some believe that Audible is expensive, but the reality is that they are the cheapest way to buy audiobooks.
Audible Audiobooks App – Homescreen – Always has a Good Member Deal.
Audible subscription – $14.95 per month
The entry-level subscription with Audible is the best value because you will get one credit for any title and one free Audible Original title. You get two monthly books for $14.95, therefore $7.48 per book.
If you pay this subscription annually, you will pay $149.50, meaning you get two free months, and this brings the average cost per premium title book down to $12.45, the lowest cost in the industry.
You could also opt for $22.95 monthly for two audiobook credits and 1 Audible Original title, which costs $5.50 per book.
Whichever subscription you choose, you will get 30% off any other purchases. But the best news is that even if you run out of credits, Audible will allow you to buy additional credits at $5 to $7 per credit, depending on their offers.
Additionally, nearly every single week, you will receive special promotions for “2 books for 1 credit” or “Every book for $3”, which are excellent deals.
Finally, Audible has a massive selection of exclusive professional Podcasts they offer free to members. They will also send you Christmas stories for the family and children at Christmas, a really nice touch.
Customer Service & Returns Policy
One of the most important reasons Audible is the clear winner for me is that they have the industry’s best returns policy. If you do not like a book, for whatever reason, the narrator, the plot, or it is boring, you can return it within one year of purchase. You can go to Account -> Purchases -> Click Return Title, and your credit is immediately refunded.
The Excellent Audible App Library – Easy To Use.
There is nothing worse than paying for a book that you ultimately dislike. Audible resolves this problem with its “Great Listens to Guarantee.”
Finally, you can contact Audible via phone, chat, or email. I have used chat many times, and they are available instantly, 24/7, with no wait; that is a great service.
Audible Audiobook Apps
Play Store App Rating – 4.6 ☆ Excellent
Having used the Audible App for nine years, I can safely say it is rock solid, easy to use, and perfect.
The Audible App has the following key features:
Car Mode – Makes the App simple to use when driving with bigger buttons.
Books Sharing – Send a Book to a Friend or share your progress
Clips, Bookmarks & Notes – saving sound clips and making notes
Sleep Timer – useful for listening when you go to bed, so it does not play all night
Variable Speed Playback – great for slow narrators or digesting long books quicker
2. Blinkist: Highest Quality & Low-Cost Audiobook Summary Service
The Best Value Audiobook Summary Subscription Service
Rating: ★★★★★
Blinkist: Best Audiobook Summary Service Winner
Pros
★ Over 6,500 book summaries ★ Professionally Summarized & Narrated ★ Extremely low-cost subscription ★ Unlimited Access to Audiobooks ★ Free Users Get 1 Summary Free per Day ★ Android, Apple & Amazon Alexa Compatible
Cons
✘ Email-only support ✘ No Post Subscription Book Ownership
Blinkist and getAbstract are services that pay writers and narrators to summarize a non-fiction book. A typical book might take 4 to 10 hours to read or listen to. That is a long time to invest in learning a few key lessons. Book summary services distill the book’s key messages and takeaways and transform them into much shorter versions.
Of course, a summary audiobook service will only work with educational, self-improvement, or business books; you could not summarize a Sherlock Holmes Crime Thriller into 15 minutes; the book would be ruined.
Blinkist Review Summary
About 18 months ago, I signed up for a free Blinkist trial to try out audiobook summaries. I liked the service so much. I purchased a yearly subscription.
As a passionate Audiobook listener, I was very excited at the opportunity to listen to an entire book in 15 minutes. Interestingly, there were books I thought had some great messages, and I learned from them.
Blinkist Audiobook Summary App- New York Times Best Seller List
I was very pleased there were also books I did not spend 10 hours reading to get that simple or unremarkable message.
For me, this service is great.
Blinkist is a very professional service; their narrators are first class, and the books are logically laid out and easy to follow. With every book summary, you get a high-quality 15-minute audiobook and a written summary of the book if you prefer to read it.
I particularly like the feature that allows you to listen to summaries of the New York Times Bestsellers List (see image right).
The single downside is that you can only access the books if you subscribe to the service. This is, however, understandable because the service is unlimited listening; you do not buy a book; you buy access to all the books.
Blinkist Pricing Plans
Blinkist Basic Plan – Free
Amazingly, Blinkist allows you to register for their free plan, in which you can access a free Blink (their name for a book summary) of their choice every day.
I assume the idea is that you will like the Blinks so much that you will later upgrade to the Premium service to get access to the whole library and choose what you would like to listen to. Of course, they are correct; this is exactly what I did.
Blinkist Premium – Unlimited Summaries
Blinkist has a single premium plan gives you access to as many books as you want. The key difference is in the pricing. Opting for a monthly subscription costs $12.99 in the USA, meaning $155.88 annually.
However, I recommend paying for the year in advance, a single payment of $79.99, which gives you 12 months of access for a 45% discount—a great deal.
Blinkist Audiobook Summary App – Library
getAbstract is also an excellent service that costs $299 per year, with access to 20,000 summaries, but in terms of value for money, Blinkist is a clear winner.
Customer Service & Returns Policy
Regarding returning books, I previously mentioned that you do not own the books; you access the service.; It is more like Netflix than buying a DVD. So, ultimately, there is nothing to return.
You can cancel your subscription anytime online with a few clicks, and the customer services teams are available via email or web form.
Blinkist Audiobook Apps
Playstore App Rating: 4.4 ☆ Excellent
The app itself is a breeze to use, simple and effective.
My library is well organized, and my saved and favorite books are easily accessible.
I particularly like highlighting text in a book via the App or Browser.
You can select the text and click highlight, which will be saved in your Highlight tab.
This is perfect for keeping track of those lightbulb moments or key inspiring messages in a book.
The app is highly rated in the App stores, and impressively, Blinkist is also compatible with Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker so that Alexa can read them to you.
I have been testing and using Audiobooks.com for over eight weeks now, and I have to say that the library is extensive, and the service works very well.
With access to over 150,000 audiobook titles and new releases arriving quickly, you will not notice any difference between the Audible service and Audiobooks.com.
Importantly, like Audible, you own the book, which means that even if you terminate your subscription, you should have access to your audiobooks; for me, this is vital.
Audiobooks.com is a Great App With Good Recommendations.
However, there are two drawbacks that I need to mention: the returns policy and the lack of smart-speaker support (see below).
Firstly, there is no easily discernible way to return a book you are unhappy with. Looking into the user agreement, it says: “Audiobooks.com grants refunds at our sole discretion. We do not offer refunds on any subscription charges”.
Secondly, there is no support for smart speakers like Alexa, Apple, or Google Now.
Audiobooks Pricing Plans
Free Trial
Audiobooks.com offers a free 30-day trial during which you can access one free credit for a full Audiobook and get access to a free VIP Book.
Monthly Membership
The monthly membership costs $14.95, which gets you one credit for a book you own and access to an additional VIP book from a selection they have curated.
This means the average cost per book is $7.48.
The only issue is that you do not own the VIP book. It will always be in your library, but if you end your subscription, you will only have access to the books you purchased with a Credit; all the VIP books will be removed as they were only loaned to you, not purchased by you.
Audiobooks.com Always has A Special 2-for-1 Deal.
This means the real cost per book should you end your subscription, which is $14.95.
On the positive side, they are always running 2-for-1 deals, which means that if you find books in the deal, you may bring your average cost per book back down to $7.50.
Customer Service & Returns Policy
As mentioned, the ability to return a book any time you do not like is a critical feature. Unlike Audible, with Audiobooks.com, there is no easily discernible way to return a book you are unhappy with.
Looking into the user agreement, it says: “Audiobooks.com grants refunds at our sole discretion. We do not offer refunds on any subscription charges”.
This could be an area where Audiobooks.com can improve and be clearer.
Audiobooks Apps
App Store Rating: 4.3 ☆ Good
The Audiobooks.com App is easy to use. I particularly like the recommendation engine and how the browsing screen is very visual (see the image above)
However, viewing your library in the app could be improved as the book thumbnails are large and difficult to navigate.
The app has important features like a sleep timer, notes, bookmarks, and playback speed control. I like the ability to follow an author and be notified of future releases easily; this is something Audible does not have.
The only thing missing is car mode and compatibility with a smart speaker.
4. getAbstract: Best Audiobook Summaries for Business
Best & Biggest Audiobook Summary Collection, Perfect for Business
Rating: ★★★★★
Likes
★ Over 20,000 book summaries ★ Professionally Summarized & Narrated ★ Book Analysis Also Available ★ Unlimited Access to Audiobooks ★ Perfect for Businesses & Teams
Cons
✘ No Books Ownership ✘ No Smart Speak Support ✘ Priced for business, not Consumers
Blinkist and getAbstract are services that pay writers and narrators to summarize a non-fiction book. A typical book might take between 4 to 10 hours to read or listen to. That is a long time to invest in learning a few key lessons. Book summary services distill the book’s key messages and takeaways and transform them into much shorter versions.
The key differences between getAbstract and Blinkist are the size of the library and the target customers.
getAbstract is the largest book summary service, with over 20,000 book summaries in audio and written formats in 7 languages. They also analyze the book, not just summarize it, which can help you make sense of a topic’s meaning and ramifications.
In terms of target customers, you can see this is a solution geared for business, as they will also assist you in rolling out the learning solution to your organization. In fact, over 150 Fortune 500 companies have already deployed getAbstract to their companies.
getAbstract pricing
If you are a student, you get a really amazing deal: 5,000 books for free or the entire service for $99 per year. For regular individuals, $299 per year is $200 more than Blinkist, but the depth of topics is way ahead. Also, you can probably write these costs off against tax as part of your professional development investment.
Ultimately, getAbstract is the best book summary service available, so the pricing is invariably higher than Blinkist.
As an individual who wants access to a great selection of summaries at a low-cost look at Blinkist for power users and small to enterprise-scale businesses, getAbstract is the right choice.
Although on the surface, getAbstract looks like it is competing with Blinkist, its primary revenue source and business model is focused on the corporation. This is a good thing as it has the scale to integrate into corporate learning systems to help employees boost their careers and performance.
getAbstract is an excellent service for the enterprise. It is also perfect for individuals despite the large price tag.
5. Scribd: Unlimited Audiobook Access But Limited Titles
The Best Unlimited Audiobook Subscription Service But No Bestsellers
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Pros
★ Unlimited Audiobook Listening ★ $8.95 Flat Rate per Month ★ 100+ Magazines ★ Good Apps for Android & Apple ★ 1,000s of eBooks
Cons
✘ You do not own the books ✘ Severe Limitations on Accessing Popular Titles
Scribd Overview
There are a lot of fans of Scribd out there, especially avid readers and audiobook listeners. Scribd announced something new in the media world: a Flat Rate unlimited access to Audiobooks, eBooks, and Managzine Library. This essentially went viral because, before this announcement, everyone was forced to pay for audiobooks individually.
There is nothing official from Scribd, but I estimate the Audiobook library to contain about 30,000 to 40,000 titles; this is a lot lower than Audible or Audiobooks.com, but I also suspect that the publishers receive a lot less revenue from Scribd, so they are less inclined to release new and best-selling titles.
Scribd Netflix for Audiobooks: Not Really
Scribd is very similar to Netflix in its business model; it licenses content from publishers and pays them on a per-user basis. As consumers, we see only a low flat rate monthly subscription charge for a large amount of content.
Scribd App for Audiobooks – A Good User Experience
The monthly subscription is so low because you do not own the books; you can access them for the duration of your subscription.
Scribd Magazines
Scribd has 100 magazines, which you can access via browser or the app. I was very excited to see this, but after reading a few magazines, I realized the experience is not like reading a magazine. I do not mean the paper; I mean the layout and editing. The magazine articles are in simple HTML with simple images; some magazines, like T3, were poorly formatted.
Scribd Pricing Plans
The Scribd pricing is straightforward; it is $9.95 per month for unlimited access to their library of books, audiobooks, and 100+ magazines for the duration of your subscription.
If you stop the subscription, you lose access. For many, this is not a problem; if you listen to many audiobooks and are not interested in building up a library of books you own, then it is a great solution.
I have been with Audible for ten years. I have 350 audiobooks, which cost me approximately $2,800 over that period, but those books are mine for life and my children.
If I had been with Scribd for that period, it would have cost me $972, but I would own nothing. It is like the difference between renting and owning a house.
Customer Service & Returns Policy
I have seen many complaints online that Scribd is throttling heavy audiobook consumers as they consume too many books. Also, I have read that certain bestselling titles are restricted to one or two per user per month or not even visible to some users.
I have not experienced this, but I understand that it is a balancing act for Scribd to ensure they earn revenue from what they need to pay to publishers and that some do not abuse the system.
: ★★★★★
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