8 Cheaper Alternatives To Audible Every Audiobook Listener Should Try

Arguably, the biggest audiobook website out there is Audible, which has offered voice-narrated e-books and podcasts for more than 30 years. The Amazon-owned site is responsible for over half of all audiobook sales in the U.S., and it also offers four monthly subscription tiers for frequent listeners. However, if you're an audiobook listener looking for new material, it's worth considering all your options. Audible is a major site, but there are cheaper audiobook sources — some of them are even free, and we'll help you find which alternatives are worth considering.

Audible's Premium Plus service costs $14.95. It gets you one audiobook per month to keep (even if you cancel the service) as well as access to a wide catalog of thousands of titles. Many users will also be on the Plus tier, which omits the purchase credit and costs $7.95. However, Audible no longer offers this budget-friendly tier for new subscribers in the U.S. And now that Audible has brought ads to its audiobooks, there are even more reasons to avoid the platform.

If you listen to a single audiobook per month, Audible is a good deal, but prolific listeners can find cheaper alternatives to get their fix. You can find them below, organized into three sections: free picks, cheaper than Audible Plus, and a few that cost more than Plus but less than Premium Plus.

Starting things off with a free site, Librivox keeps things simple. Every item in its library is in the public domain, so they're completely free to download and enjoy without worry (though if you don't live in the U.S., make sure the titles aren't locked by copyright, as Librivox only confirms it for its home region). This means you're getting classic works from authors like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Alexandre Dumas, perfect for catching up with the literary canon. Its library is over 20,000 titles strong, spans nearly 50 languages, and receives a steady stream of new uploads.

Another neat feature of Librivox is that the audiobook recordings are provided by volunteers. You're hearing real fans of the work read the story, instead of some high-paid celebrity — and if you're so inclined, you can volunteer your own voice to help expand the library.

The lack of professional readers also has a downside: The amateur nature may lack the qualities of top-tier narration and storytelling flair we're used to with mainstream audiobook apps. However, if you don't like your chosen audiobook, you can just stop listening, as there's no risk or cost since you can test them out for free. With Librivox, you can listen online or download the files to listen as you prefer.

You'll need a library card to use the next entry on this list, but if you have one, you'll have access to one of the best apps for free books and audiobooks. This is Libby, a digital library service which is sometimes also called Libby by OverDrive, after the company that created it.

Libby lets you sign up with your library card, and there are plenty of compatible libraries across the U.S. (and abroad, with options in the U.K.). Once you sign up, you can access in-app books and audiobooks at the press of a button. It'll save you the trip to your physical library to pick up the discs, though the library picks which titles from its catalog are available digitally.

Like an actual library, you don't get to keep the audiobooks you access from Libby. Instead, you can listen to it for a term laid out by your library, though you can renew a book if you don't get through it in that time — it is essentially the same as a digital library. While Libby exists as a website, it also has an iOS and Android app, which will let you store your borrowed audiobooks and eBooks to listen offline.

Keep your library card handy, because our next entry will also require it. Hoopla has a lot in common with Libby, and when it comes to audiobooks, it won't present many differences. However, it has one unique benefit that separates it from the other apps on this list: Hoopla is also one of the best apps to stream free movies and TV shows, eBooks, and audiobooks. 

Your library card doesn't just cover the written word on Hoopla, but also the recorded word, with a variety of popular and contemporary titles in its streaming library. Because of this, multimedia fans may prefer it to Libby (not that you need to pick just one).

In terms of audiobooks, Hoopla works just like Libby. You can download titles on its app or on your computer from your local public library, with each institution paying for a set amount of daily downloads shared between all its users. Hoopla's library tends to differ from what Libby offers, so it may be worth getting access to both, in case a specific title you want is only on one. Just a note: Hoopla is currently only available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Our final free audiobook service does things a little differently than the others, but its uniqueness makes it a vital resource for people looking for free movies, eBooks, and audiobooks to fill up their phone. Book Search Party is an aggregation service that lets you find various recordings of your chosen audiobook on the web. For example, if you search "Wuthering Heights," its listing will show you sites and retailers that offer the title, including paid options on Audible and Amazon, as well as free options on several sites.

This makes Book Search Party a great one-stop shop for audiobook listeners who already know exactly which titles they want to listen to. It's not ideal for people who'd prefer just one platform, as it'll require you to check out different services to find the best way to listen. At the time of writing, the Book Search Library has just shy of 200,000 options, and it's constantly growing in terms of books and sources within each title.

Moving on to the paid audiobook options, Chirp Books is unique on this list because it doesn't require you to subscribe to anything. If you hate how everything nowadays requires a monthly fee, Chirp is the option for you, as you'll only pay for what you listen to. Chirp only lets you buy audiobooks; however, it relies on one important selling point: It's constantly running discounts and deals, which means it's easy to find audiobooks on the site for prices lower than those of rival retailers.

These deals aren't just on small or lesser-listened-to audiobooks. You can often find massive discounts on popular current and classic titles, so it's definitely worth creating an account to peruse the savings. Chirp also offers bundle deals that offer you the entire series at a discounted rate.

When you buy a title on Chirp Books, you can listen via its website or iOS and Android apps, with offline listening available in the app. Like other options on this list, Chirp isn't available globally, and only audiobook fans in the U.S. and Canada can use it.

You may know the name Kobo already, since the company produces some of the best E Ink Tablets you can get. But the Canadian company also has an eBook and audiobook platform that you can use to populate your reading device. Like Chirp, Kobo offers frequently discounted titles, but it also has a subscription service for audiobooks called Kobo Plus Listen, which costs $7.99 per month. It also has a 14-day free trial for new subscribers.

Kobo Plus Listen lets you have unlimited access to a large library of audiobooks, with 150,000 titles available through the service. That's a large selection, and more are being added all the time. Kobo has about 1.5 million titles, with about 150,000 clearly marked as an audio format.

You can sign up for Kobo Plus Read & Listen for $9.99 per month. This combines the audiobook service with the eBook services ($7.99 each on their own), offering a wide array of audiobooks and access to over 1.5 million eBooks. This is possibly the best deal on this list that combines the written and spoken word.

Scribd was the first-ever subscription service for unlimited audiobooks, and it's gone through some changes in the last decade — including being relaunched as Everand. But, at its core, this is still one of the most essential apps for avid readers. Everand is similar to some Audible alternatives on this list. A subscription gives users unlimited access to a select catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, and podcasts, plus you get a certain number of premium unlocks each month. On the $11.99-per-month Standard option, you get one audiobook unlock per month, and the $16.99 Plus monthly option allows three, while the U.S.-only Deluxe plan costs $28.99 and allows five titles per month.

Standard subscribers, then, get a similar package to Audible Premium Plus at a lower price. And if you want to listen to multiple premium audiobooks each month, Everand will be more cost-effective than buying them individually. Just a note: Your number of unlocks resets each month, so if you don't use them, they're gone — but if you use them to get an audiobook, you retain access for as long as you're subscribed.

If you live outside the U.S., then you'll be glad to know that Everand is available in most countries, though specific title availability may differ by region. It also has a burgeoning library of Everand Originals, with audiobooks and eBooks not available elsewhere.

Spotify has been attempting to unseat Audible with free audiobooks for members – that's right, the biggest name in music streaming doesn't just stick to tunes, but tales, too. For a few years now, the Swedish streaming giant has been dabbling in audiobooks, mostly for subscribers to its $12.99-per-month Premium service.

At the moment, a Spotify Premium subscription includes 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, with over 500,000 titles in its official library. This quota can be split across multiple audiobooks or spent on just one, and it replenishes each month. For prolific audiobook listeners, 15 hours may not be enough — many books are longer than that — but you can add an Audiobooks+ subscription for an extra 15 hours of listening per month at $12. If you'd rather, $13 will get you 10 additional hours. 

These prices are in addition to your usual subscription. Not keen on the price or limits? Spotify has plenty of spoken-word stories which aren't tagged as such, both in its podcast library and in its standard music collection, so if you search around, you might find something you'd like without the cost. This is especially true of audiobooks, reading royalty-free works, or authors narrating their own works under the guise of podcasts.

The options you've just read about were found by examining major retailers and streaming platforms that offer audiobooks. Not every audiobook service is included, because the list has been kept to options that undercut or compare to Audible's subscription cost. 

Many of the above options were chosen as they offer features distinct from Audible's style, which may suit different listeners. For example, some are lending libraries, and others don't have bespoke apps but let you download the audiobooks as files.

Many options on the list undercut both of Audible's tiers, especially the free ones. A select few were included only because they undercut Premium Plus, and these were included because they were more affordable for prolific listeners. The exact cost of your audiobook habit will depend on how many premium titles you listen to and choose to buy, but for most listeners, these are all affordable options.