15 Best Audiobook Listening Sites And Services

Books are a great way to pass time. They also are a great escape from all the hustle and bustle of the outside world. Traditional physical books may be the most preferred ones but audiobooks are more convenient when you go on a long road trip or when you need to multi-task. If you are in need of audiobooks to entertain you on your long road trip ahead, here are the 15 best audio book listening sites and services you can choose from.

1. Audible

Audible is the best audiobook service overall. The subscription plan of $14.95 per month may seem expensive to you, but the features of Audible are 100% worth your money. Its app is easy to use and is compatible with Android or iOS phones. You can find new release titles and popular ones on the website. You can also get to download a book per month, and even if you’ve canceled your subscription plan you still get to keep the audiobook.

2. Google Play Books

Google Play Books is the best audiobook listening service for android users. This app has no subscription plan, but you still are required to pay to use this service. Google Play Books is like a store for audiobooks. Pick your audiobook and pay for it. As simple as that. This is the most affordable audiobook service you can find and the downloaded audiobooks can be played across multiple devices. So, if your whole family loved listening to audiobooks, you can have their family library option so that your whole family can listen with just using a single purchase.

3. Scribd

Scribd offers unlimited listening to a wide range of audiobooks you like. Whether you want to read magazines, books, and papers or just listen to audiobooks, this service can let you do all these things. For a monthly fee of $8.99, you can already access thousands of free audiobooks. They also have an app that is user-friendly and easy to navigate. This app is available for both Android and iOS users. If you want a free trial, they offer free books for 30 days.

4. OverDrive

OverDrive not only offers free audiobooks but also encourages people to explore their public libraries. They have partnered with local schools and libraries to bring their audiobooks to people all over the world. OverDrive has 2 apps which are both available in your application store. The Libby app lets borrow audiobooks from public libraries near you with the use of a library card. The second app which is Sora is for students to access audiobooks from their school’s library. OverDrive is free, which means it has no subscription plan and no fees from listening to your chosen title.

5. Blinkist

Blinkist is the best audiobook for professionals and those that are always busy. If you are a fan of non-fiction books, self-improvement, or self-help books, then this app is for you. Blinkist allows you to easily understand the topic discussed from your chosen title by condensing or summarizing the book for you. If you want to learn about career, success, adulting, parenting, society, and such, Blinkist will only give you essential ideas from the book, so you don’t spend too much time finishing and learning from them.

6. LibriVox

Everything on LibriVox is free, but the site has fewer books to choose from as compared to other free audiobooks. If you are a fan of classics, you can get the most out of this site. In LibriVox, you don’t need to pay for a subscription plan or fees to listen to audiobooks because it’s totally free. You can also listen to audiobooks anywhere, anytime, because they are downloadable. Also, there are no advertisements to bother you in your reading time.

7. Hoopla

This site is much like OverDrive where you are required to have a library card to access audiobooks at a supporting library. This website is easy to use because the books can be sorted by genre, user rating, release date, date added, and language. You can also find children’s books here if you are looking for an audiobook for your kids. This website is totally free and only requires a valid library card.

8. Storynory

Storynory is the best audiobook service for kids. Whether you’re looking for fairy tales, classic stories, educational books, fantasy, or original stories for your kids, Storynory has something for your little ones. You can download and stream the audiobooks on their website or through their app. They released new titles often and texts are included with the audiobook.

9. Apple Books

If you are an iPhone user, then Apple Books is the best audiobook service for you. This app offers no free trial but it allows you to listen to your audiobooks even offline. This app has a wide selection of audiobooks you can choose from. It requires no subscription fee but you have to pay for the audiobook in order to listen to it.

10. Audiobooks.com

If you’re looking for something like Audible, then go to Audiobooks.com, For a monthly subscription of $14.95 you can get a great selection of books as well as podcasts. What makes Audiobooks.com so special is its Sleep Timer feature. This feature lets you set a time for your audiobook to stop reading. This is very helpful to those who usually fall asleep while listening to their audiobooks.

11. Downpour

If you don’t want to spend a lot on audiobooks that you’re not even sure if you can listen to, then you can go for Downpour. This service allows you to just rent the audiobooks so that you can save your money, but this audiobook is not for keeps. The only downside of this app is that it has a smaller selection of books as compared to other free audiobook services.

12. Kobo Audiobooks

Kobo offers a free trial of their service for 30 days, but after that, you have to pay a $12.99 subscription fee. This fee is affordable enough given the many features that come with this app. You can download Kobo on your play store whether you are an iPhone user or an Android user. The app has features such as sleep timers, reading statistics, highlighting tools, and many more.

13. Open Culture

Open Culture offers one thousand fiction and non-fiction books you can listen to and download all for free. Their books are also arranged in an alphabetical manner so it would be easy for you to search for a title you want to listen to.

14. Digitalbook.io

This site has over 100,000 items composed of both audiobooks and ebooks for you to choose from. What makes DIgitalbook.io stand out is that, it allows you to download the whole book or just the special chapters if you want to.

15. ThoughtAudio

ThoughtAudio provides PDF transcripts of audiobooks. If you are a fan of classic books, this site has lots of classics you can choose from. These audiobooks are free of download so you don’t have to worry of fees.