Want to start listening to audiobooks but not sure where to start? Want to listen to a particular audiobook and not sure where to look for it—or what’s the most affordable? Diving into the world of audiobooks can be intimidating, and I’ve been listening to audiobooks for years, trying out something like a dozen different platforms. Here’s a quick guide to the seven best apps for audiobook listening.
1. AUDIBLE
The most popular app for audio listeners, audible is your best bet if you’re looking for a specific audiobook and you can’t find it on other platforms. In my experience it’s not worth subscribing to, since there are other unlimited subscription apps, and audible limits you to 1 credit (aka 1 audiobook) per month.
They also have a history of hoarding exclusive rights to audiobooks so that other apps and companies can’t also put audiobooks on their platform. This isn’t done anywhere else in publishing—Barnes & Noble doesn’t have a monopoly on Stephen King books—and it feels like Amazon just throwing their weight around.
2. LIBBY
If you don’t want to pay anything, try checking out your audiobook from the library! Libby is the library app for most of the US and UK and has tons of free audiobooks. I’m a huge fan of the user experience, but beware—popular audiobooks sometimes have months-long wait times.
3. BOOKBEAT
I’m torn with this app. It has my favourite audio UX and a huge library of amazing audiobooks. But what really makes Bookbeat unique is its payment scheme. For around £6 per month, you get 20 hours of listening per month. An audiobook can be anywhere from 6 hours to 15 hours, so realistically this probably limits you to 2 books per month. On a binge, I upgraded to their standard model, which gives you 50 hours for £10. That’s a lot of audiobook listening, and I doubt most people are likely to need more than that.
You can also upgrade to 100 hours per month for five more pounds. I think I like this model—it encourages discovery, allows for consequence-free DNF’ing, and doesn’t exactly penalise you for listening a lot. But as you’ll see in a moment, it’s hard for me to justify it next to Scribd.
4. SCRIBD
Scribd is my homeboy, my rotten soldier. It’s my sweet cheese. My good-time boy. Let me tell you why.
Scribd has always reminded me of Spotify—truly unlimited for a monthly subscription. Scribd has a massive library of ebooks, audiobooks, sheet music, and other random documents. It’s way more chaotic than the other choices so far. The UX is occasionally glitchy. But for £11 per month, you can read it all.
That is so absurdly worth it to me. Does Scribd tend to lack some of the super popular titles—some of the newest hot young things coming off the shelf? Absolutely. But if you’re a big reader—in terms of hours listened, pages read, content consumed—then Scribd is for you. And I’d really encourage any big readers to at least check it out, because the odds of you getting your money’s worth are very, very high.
5. STORYTEL
Every time I look into this app, it doesn’t have a version for any English-speaking country. I would definitely use this for non-English UX and audiobooks, since the UX looks excellent and not unlike BookBeat. The payment scheme is similar to Scribd or BookBeat—around £8 per month for unlimited audiobook listening.
6. XIGXAG
XigXag is one of the most fun audiobook apps I’ve used. They’ve patented the X-book, which combines the audiobook and the ebook for a great combined experience that kind of resembles the syncing feature Amazon has between Audible and Kindle. I would argue the X-book is more creative and the UX is much more intuitive and fun. It strikes me as a great choice for neurodivergent readers who benefit from reading while listening, or people who like easily and frequently switching back and forth between audio and reading.
I also really like XigXag’s payment model—they encourage bingeing, so that your first purchase is the most expensive, and it gets cheaper the more you read. They also have regular promotions, often with audiobooks as cheap as £4 (compared to a normal Audible price of, like, £34.)
You’d be surprised how many bestsellers XigXag has, too: while its library is smaller than the other apps on this list, the app also feels more curated, like a secret little audio/ebook community.
7. SPIRACLE
If you want a super curated, community feeling, you want Spiracle. Spiracle has a very small library, and using its website feels as close to entering an actual bookshop as a website can. Spiracle is great for carefully chosen literary fiction, books in translation, and literary podcasts. You can buy (very affordable) audiobooks one by one from Spiracle, or you can subscribe monthly or yearly.
…And what do I really use?
Scribd.
I use Scribd.
Ever since my mom got it for me for my birthday a few years ago, Scribd is the first app I check when I’m looking for a specific audiobook or ebook. It’s still not the absolute best for discovering new books, so sometimes it takes me a while to settle on something, but isn’t that how it always is, deciding what to read next?
My caveats:
- I usually try to check XigXag to see if they have the book I want to read as an X-book, since that’s my favourite way to read/listen ever.
- If Scribd doesn’t have it, I look in the library! If I didn’t have Scribd, the library would be my first stop. Support your local library!!
- If I’m bingeing, I go for BookBeat. I recently re-listened to all 9 books in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, and Scribd didn’t have all of them, so BookBeat saved my butt.
- Every once in a while, there’s a book I want to listen to really badly, and none of the apps have it. That is the only time you will catch me going to trusty old Audible.
- Audible is also the best place to sample audiobooks and read audiobook reviews, since it’s still the most-used audiobook site out there. They also make cool originals with those deep pockets of theirs, so if you’re into ensemble performances and fantastic production, check those out.
ejbookblog 
I am surprised at how many of these I had not heard of before! I love libby, both because it’s free and because I love their ux. I have used scribd, but I don’t like their ux that much, and the fact that they don’t have the most popular books is a big downside for me. However, xigxag and spiracle look really cool, and I will definitely be checking them out! I might have to look into bookbeat too, but I definitely listen to over 20 hours a month
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I honestly think BookBeat was really worth it even when I was listening to ~50 hours a month. I hear you with Scribd – and it’s glitchy sometimes! It honestly makes me so happy that Libby is such a high quality experience – long live libraries 🙂
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