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13 Best Places to Get and Listen to Audiobooks (FREE & Paid) in 2024

13 Best Places to Get and Listen to Audiobooks (FREE & Paid) in 2024

    Our lives are busy, and it can be hard to make time to read books. Audiobooks are recorded voices of a book or textbook that is listened to instead of reading. They make “reading” so convenient. If you want to absorb stories while you walk, drive, exercise, do your chores, or lie down with your eyes closed, audiobooks are your portable friends. Nowadays, there are many fantastic audiobook site and Apps on the market, do you know which website has a better variety and quality of audiobooks? In this post, I have collected 13 best places to get and listen to audiobooks. Some require you to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee, whereas others allow you to pay a simple one-time charge for each audiobook you download. Some even offer a great selection of fantastic audiobooks for no cost at all.

Cover Photo: Lena Kudryavtseva on unsplash.com

1. Audible

Official Site:https://www.audible.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price:it offers 30-day free trial and various subscription plans:

Audible Plus ($7.95/month):  the cheapest option but comes with no included credits.

Audible Premium Plus ($14.95/month): the most popular subscription available which entitles you to 1 credit per month.

Audible Premium Plus with Double Credit ($22.95/month): which entitles you to 2 credits per month.

Audible Premium Plus Annual ($149.50/year): which works out cheaper overall. You'll pay for theentire year upfront and receive 12 credits per year.

Audible Premium Plus Annual 24 ($229.50/year): which is the most expensive package upfront, but it entitles you to 24 credits per year.

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Source:audible.com

Audible is by far the biggest and most well known audiobook service around today. Now owned by Amazon, it’s the big daddy of the audiobook world thanks to its absolutely huge selection of titles.Audible in content produced over 200,000 audio programs through current audio book publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazines and newspaper publishers, and business books. There are exclusive Audible Originals to keep fresh content coming your way. Plus, there are also many titles that are Audible-exclusives, so they can't be found on any other app.

Users can choose to purchase audiobooks individually or subscribe to receive monthly credits that they can use to purchase audiobooks. With a subscription, you also get access to a selection of audiobooks that you can listen to without spending any credits.  The credits worth one title each, toward the premium library. Since Audible is also owned by Amazon, there are some great incentives to join if you’re already an Amazon Prime member. There are often deals that entitle you to free books if you sign up through your Prime membership, and they regularly run discounted membership deals. Audible offers all the playback features you need, from adjustable speed to bookmarks, easy chapter navigation, a sleep timer, and multitasking support for background playback and offline downloads. It also provides the unique Whispersync feature that allows you to switch seamlessly between audiobook and Kindle books.

2. Audiobooks.com

Official Site:https://www.audiobooks.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free 30 days trial and a pretty tempting introductory offer: get your first book free and 2 bonus books from our VIP selection
At the end of your free trial, your subscription will automatically renew for $14.95 per month allowing you to download 1 premium audiobook per month.

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Source:audiobooks.com

Similar to Audible.com, Audiobooks.com is a feature-rich audiobook app that offers ten thousand free audiobooks and a vast catalog featuring over 250,000 others. It includes everything from kids’ content to latest releases, Bible readings, and bestselling non-fiction titles. This app also offers a ton of podcasts that make for a nice variation in content. Their professional-quality audiobooks are narrated by experienced voice actors, so it’s hard to go wrong no matter what you select.You can browse bestselling audiobooks, download titles for offline listening, and use sleep timers for bedtime reading.

Audiobooks.com starts off strong, giving you a 30-day free trial with three free audiobooks and unlimited audio entertainment. You also receive access to the exclusive VIP library, where you are able to choose two audiobooks to enjoy.  Audiobooks’ unique smart recommendations feature shows you a curated list of books based on your tastes and reading habits. Your subscription brings you one credit per account each month. If you want to get the most out of the monthly credits you get from your subscription, All You Can Listen Book Clubs lets you use your credits to read thousands of bestselling and classic audiobooks instead of limiting you to just one title.

3. Scribd

Official Site:https://www.scribd.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free 30-day trial which gives you premium access to all audiobooks, e-books, magazines, and sheet music from their library.

The monthly fee is just $11.99 per month after a 30-day trial.  You get unlimited access to all audiobooks, e-books, magazines, and sheet music.

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Source:scribd.com

Scribd is a popular and feature-rich audiobook and e-book app that stands out thanks to its unique content offerings, including sheet music for a variety of genres, magazines, study guides, government reports, podcasts, medical reports, and more. It cooperates with over 1000 different publishing houses including the so-called big 5 (Simon and Schuster, Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Macmillan). Scribd also has the awesome 30-day free trial, For just $11.99 a month thenafter. But works in quite a different way to Audible. Rather than a credits based system, once you subscribe to Scribd, you can access their entire library and consume as much material as you like.For audiobooks, you can adjust the narration speed, set sleep timers, download audiobooks for offline listening.

The big advantage that Scribd has over other competitor is its extensive collection of articles from the world’s leading newspapers. Whereas regular web users have to log in to an account and pay a subscription for many articles from leading papers like the Guardian, The Independent, and the New York Times, Scribd gives you access to a huge collection of articles, all included in their monthly fee. Scribd potential downside is that you won’t get to keep your audiobooks once your subscription ends. You are effectively renting each audiobook rather than purchasing it outright.

4. Kobo Audiobooks

Official Site:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobooks

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price:  30-day free trial for newcomers and get one credit. $9.99 a month after 30 days, but you can get up to 10% cashback from Extrabux!

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Source:kobo.com

Rakuten Kobo is mainly owned by a Canadian company known as Indigo books and music and other subsidiary owners (Borders Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, and REDgroup Retail). It  is most famous for it’s e-readers, ebooks, and now it’s tablets. But in the last few years, Kobo has also entered the audiobook world, and it’s already making waves. Kobo Books has an enormous selection of more than five million titles, covering both eBooks and audiobooks to offer you a diverse selection of more than 1.5 million titles.
Like other audiobook selling platforms, you can buy standalone titles from the store, or use the Kobo subscription service. With Kobo’s subscription, you can get a credit for a single audiobook per month. Newcomers can take advantage of the 30-day free trial and get one credit. Kobo is simple to use, and you can adjust the display to suit your preferences. The homepage reminds you of everything you’ve been listening to recently, making it easier to listen to multiple books at once. Plus, the extensive sort options help you quickly find what you’re looking for. And while you can find most audiobooks from mainstream publishers in the Kobo store, the service has no original content and no audiobooks exclusive to the service.

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5. Libby by OverDrive

Official Site:https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:overdrive.com

Say goodbye to buying audiobooks and borrow them instead on Libby.With OverDrive’s new app, Libby, you can access free audiobooks, along with ebooks and magazines from your local public library. Libby collects their audiobooks from libraries across a large network of cities in 78 countries, there’s no exact figure on the number of books available to download, but it’s safe to say it’s pretty extensive. Its built-in audio player is also particularly feature-rich, as it allows you to slow down or speed up audio, set a sleep timer, and add bookmarks, notes, and highlights.

All you need to get started with Libby is a library card. It’s essentially a free Audiobook rental service that operates through your very own local library. Since it’s free, there’s obviously no subscription charge or any other fees, and the app is also completely free to download. And since you’re technically borrowing every book, you only have 14 days to finish them before the app automatically returns them. Plus, you may have to wait in line for popular audiobooks. Wait times can be just a couple of days, or last several months, depending on how many people are waiting for a title.

6. LibriVox

Official Site:https://librivox.org/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:librivox.org

LibriVox is a large database of audiobooks which are completely free and in the public domain. The site's books are read by voice actor volunteers from around the world and there are more than 16,000 titles available to download. Children’s books, novels, plays, poetry, erotica, history, philosophy, science, and self-help are all available.  Different from the paid audiobook subscription service, this website also features many classic audiobooks and lasks many modern titles. You can find such classic works here as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” and L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables.”

On this website, you will find audiobooks in 46 different languages – preponderantly French, German, Italian, and Spanish. There are over 2,000 non-English audiobooks, in total. And hey, if you’re feeling grateful, you can even volunteer to read a book yourself! To find audio books, users can search by title, subject, language, or author. Users can browse all the titles, look up the most recent additions, and sign up for new audio books as podcasts. Downloading all the audio books can be done directly on LibriVox on a Zip file. Some are obtainable via an M4B file and a torrent.

7. Free Classic Audiobooks

Official Site:https://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:freeclassicaudiobooks.com

Free Classic Audiobooks is a straightforward website that’s just what it says on the tin: it allows you to download MP3 or M4B files of classic works.  Its collection is much smaller than LibriVox’s. What’s different about this site is that it showcases only classic literature. Here, you will find narrations of books from the 21st century.The most popular downloads on the site include the King James Bible, Jane Austen’s “Emma,” and Nellie Bly’s “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” The site also hosts short stories and audio language courses.
This free audiobook site resembles a classic online directory. The interface is simple – you can see the book to the left and the available download format to the right. Most of the audiobooks come in MP3 format, but some of them also provide an alternative for iPod (M4B extension). Although the entire site is free, you can support Free Classics Audiobooks by purchasing a collection of its recordings. You can choose a single USB stick with 200 classic audiobooks, one with 600 short stories, or a collection of seven language courses in MP3 format for  $9.95.

8. Loyal Books

Official Site:http://www.loyalbooks.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:loyalbooks.com

Loyal Books is another great resource for finding free public domain audiobooks as well as e-books. You can access over 7,000 free e-books and audiobooks. Most audiobooks on this site are LibriVox recordings of works in the public domain, but there are also some original works submitted by their creators, such as Eric L. Busby’s “Star Trek: Lost Frontier." The Loyal Books website is open to everyone. It’s free to consume the content and also contribute to it with new audiobooks.

It's easy to use Loyal Books (previously called Books Should Be Free) to download free audiobooks. You can view the audiobooks by the language, the Loyal Books top 100, and by genre like Children, Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, and more than a dozen others. After you find a title you’re interested in, you can click on it for more information. You’ll see the original author, a summary of the text, related links, a streaming widget, available audiobook downloads and available e-book downloads. You can click play to start listening immediately or download the files to listen offline. Audiobooks are available in various formats, including MP3, M4B, and iTunes podcasts.

9. Hoopla Digital

Official Site:https://www.hoopladigital.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:hoopladigital.com

Hoopla is the digital service of Midwest Tape, which is a leading provider of entertainment and media to public libraries across North America. You’ll find free audiobooks, e-books, movies, TV shows and more available from more than 8,500 libraries — from best-selling novels and blockbuster movies to niche, hard-to-find content. Much like Libby by OverDrive , hoopla has free audiobook downloads, but only if you have a library card at a supporting library.  It allows you to instantly borrow somewhere between 10-20 titles a month, depending on your library.

In searching for audio books at hoopla, users can arrange the results in average rating, new arrivals, title, popularity. It can also be filtered by titles and languages for adults and kids. Once you’ve found a title that interests you, you can click on it for more information. Below the cover image, you’ll see the “borrow” button that you can click to stream and/or download the title.

10. Internet Archive

Official Site:https://archive.org/details/audio_bookspoetry

Price: Free to download and listening.

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Source:archive.org

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library that has curated and cataloged millions of books, music, software, websites, and other online media. It has an entire section dedicated to audiobooks and poetry. There are 64,573 titles included in the collection. Some of the audiobooks on the site are recordings made and contributed by its users. Others are from collections of free audiobooks on sites like LibriVox and Project Gutenberg includeing The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, The Swiss Family Robinson, Moby Dick, The Art of War, and Dracula.

You can browse through by subject, keywords, or using the search box.After you find a title that you’d be interested in listening to, you can click on it for more information. You’ll see the streaming player across the top of the screen ready to play the selected title. You can also scroll down to see the download options along the right-hand side of the screen.

11. Downpour

Official Site:https://www.downpour.com/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: No free trial, monthly subscription for $12.99.

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Source:downpour.com

Downpour is a subsidiary company of Blackstone Audio, which has been in operation since 2012. It is also a great audiobook site providing great audiobook service.  It has a good offering from lots of genres.  You can buy and download individual titles one at a time, or you can sign up for a monthly subscription. Unlike Audible, Downpour doesn’t offer a free trial. A $12.99 monthly subscription gets you one credit per month, which is good for nearly any book on the site. Since some books are more expensive than others, it can be up to 70% cheaper than buying the audiobooks individually.
Another great feature is that you can rent audiobooks instead of buying them on this website.  So if you don’t want to purchase the title outright, just rent it with cheaper price. Downpour offers audiobooks on physical CDs as well as downloads in MP3 or M4B format.

12. Google Play Books

Official Site:https://play.google.com/store/books/category/audiobooks

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: priced individually, ranging from approximately $1.99 to $40 each.

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Source:play.google.com

Google Play Books is a free app available on iOS and Android that lets users browse and purchase audiobooks, books, and comic books. The catalog is not as extensive asAudible, but it mainly lacks the more niche titles rather than the bestsellers.Even better, membership is free, and there are no subscriptions you need to buy. Instead, tap on the preview to check out each title in-depth and then purchase the titles you want.

For many users, Google Play Books is actually pretty great value compared with subscription services like Audible or Audiobooks.com. If you like to take your time with audiobooks and only listen a few times a year, it offers much more freedom and flexibility and can end up costing quite a lot less. They also frequently run sales on popular titles, so watch out for great discounts hitting your inbox. Also, once you’ve downloaded an audiobook, you can play it across multiple devices, and it’s yours to keep forever.

13. Apple Books

Official Site:https://www.apple.com/apple-books/

》》App Store

》》Google Play

Price: no monthly subscription plans, pay-per-book.

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Source:apple.com

If you are looking for the audiobook websites for iPhone users, I should mention Apple audiobooks. The selection on Apple books is vast, you can explore millions of audiobooks and ebooks from every category, including fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, romance, mysteries, kids’ books, comics, and more, but still its selection is more limited than other Audiobook producer, like Audible. However, it has a great selection of high-quality and hard-to-find audiobooks.

Different from audiobook giant – Audible, Apple audiobook doesn’t offer a subscription service, but just selling audiobooks individually. It’s basically one big online store, so you can pay as you go. If you like, you can switch between regular listening and reading. There are also comprehensive free previews of each book, so you can test the waters to see if it’s right for you before you make a purchase.You can easily listen on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple Watch, and Mac. Further, Family Sharing lets you share your books and audiobooks purchases with up to five family members. Best of all, there are plenty of special offers and free books to enjoy.

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2022-12-02 00:09276