Cheap Audible Alternatives – Review
You came here searching for cheap Audible alternatives but must know what Audible is and why it is essential. If you don’t know, Audible is one of the biggest audiobooks platforms all over the world. Before we move to its alternatives I will summarize what Audible has to offer for the price tag.
The very popular and top-rated Audible subscription costs $15/month for 1-credit/month. The 1 credit that you get every month can be used to purchase any 1 Audiobook. Also, you can get membership advantages such as 30% discounts on all audiobooks. But we all know that Audible is a very expensive service, especially when you are from a developing country where buying parity is low as compare to the west.
If are searching for cheap Audible alternatives then you are in the right place.
Contents
List Of Cheap Audible Alternatives:
Audiobooks Now
It is one of the powerful audible alternatives, with a vast collection of more than 85000 titles. Also, it contains apps that are available for both Android or iOS platforms. Another amazing feature is that not all audiobooks are protected by DRM.
Price: It offers Club Pricing Plan for $4.99, which provides you 50% off your first audiobook each month and 35-40% off on all things. However, membership is priced at $4.99 which is very low when we compare to Audible.
For comparison purposes, the book ‘Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill’ is also available on Audible for 1 credit or $15. On Audiobook now, the same book is sold for $9.97 once you pay $4.99 for the club pricing plan. Well, the pricing is quite similar on both Audiobooks now or Audible, if you purchase one book per month.
However, if you like to buy another book then it’s going to cost $17 additional charges on Audible and just $12 extra on Audiobooks now. It means, Audiobooks now get cheaper as you buy lots of books.
Summary: I love the membership plan. The entry barrier is cheap and not all audiobooks are protected by DRM. It works on lots of browsers or devices and features a huge collection of free titles as well.
Nook Audiobooks
Nook Audiobooks comes with a massive collection of over 60,000 titles available on all platforms. You don’t need any monthly subscription plan and you need to pay for what you read. If we talk about its interface then its UI is clean or smooth as you would expect from a company like B&N.
Price: The audiobook Think and Grow Rich is available for $16.49 which expensive than Audiobooks Now and Audible in general.
Summary: Nook Audiobooks offers no membership but it offers a pay-as-you-go version which is best if you read occasionally.
Also See: Best Free Apple TV Games You Can Play Right Now
Downpour
Downpour is another popular or top-rated among the fans for giving DRM free content. Also, it offers Audiobook rentals it means you don’t own the Audiobook for life just like you did with Audible. Rather than you just rent an Audiobook like you rent a movie. This will also enable you to free space on your mobile as you can “return” the Audiobook and download or install another one.
Pricing: Downpour claims that you can save up to 70% on the retail price. The price of membership is $12.99.
Summarize: I love downpour due to its rental feature. This feature makes it the best choice for those who don’t repeat their audiobook when they did listening once.
Scribd
Scribd is another best Audible choice out there. In fact, I think it is better than Audible. Sure Amazon has a team of directors or editors in its studio, but so does Scribd. You will also find a huge collection of 150,000 ebooks plus audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, and guides on the platform.
Price: The membership plan range at $8.99 that gets you everything given above plus every month, as a member, you’ll get 1 Audiobook credit or 3 book credits. They add credit because audiobooks and many other premium ebooks are not added to the plan. However, it brings Scribd on par with many other services, but at a cheap rate. You can also get access to renowned newspapers or magazines such as NYT, Times, WSJ, and much more.
Think and Grow Rich is also available for free whenever you get 1 monthly credit free. You just need to subscribe.
Summarize: I love Scribd for its cheap price, vast library, and extra media content such as blogs, news, and magazines. Scribd is the best Audible alternative.
Audiobooks
Audiobooks execute on a credit system similar to Audible.
Price: You pay $15 per month to get 1 credit that will let you listen to one audiobook per month from a library of more than 50,000 titles. You can also purchase extra credits if need be. Well, it is expensive when we compare it with services such as Scribd.
Think and Grow Rich also costs you $15 as 1 credit equals one book that makes it costly, such as Audible.
Summarize: However the library is good enough, it is costly when we compare to other Audible alternatives because of the credit system.
Playster
Playster offers many different types of media such as movies, music, audiobooks, and ebooks. There is no limit to any number of audiobooks you can listen to, but whenever you cancel the membership, you don’t need to own books. The collection is very small when we compare it with others reviewed above, but it doesn’t execute on a credit system. Playster is a cheaper option.
Price: There are many plans that are available based on what you are searching for. An all-access plan will cost you $24.99.
There is no extra cost except for what you pay on a monthly basis
Summarize: I liked Playster for the many types of media content they need to offer, and their all-access plan is a deal I would suggest you consider.
Serial Box
Serial Box is not your regular Audible alternatives. Rather than licensing audiobooks from top-rated publishers, the serial box offers a team of in-house writers who generate their own short fiction. Each story is split down into smaller episodes. Similar to Amazon, episodes on Serial box are available in both audio or text formats.
Price: Many of the serial’s first episodes are free. Also, it is followed by a few dollars for each episode. If you subscribe to the whole seasons, you can then get a good discount
Summarize: If all you need from audiobooks is short fiction like fantasy, mysteries, sci-fi, thrillers, horror, etc then you must give it a try.
Also See: Best Alternatives of Goodnotes for Android
eStories
eStories is another best audiobook service provider with many famous titles such as The Whitler by John Grisham or George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.
eStories also claims to feature more than 120,000 audiobook titles in their library that features some of the famous and recent books as I mentioned above. However, the price is very higher, you should consider it if you are searching for a title that is unavailable on other platforms. You can also get 30 days to return a book and some additional credits after joining.
Price: They offer 3 different plans initiating from $9.99. Also, the credits can be rolled over for 6 months. They have a promotion executing where you get the first 3 months for $5.99.
Summarize: They offer a huge collection but the price is quite higher than the competition.
Google Play Audiobooks
Well, Google also started selling audiobooks on Google Play Store. However, now they offer 50% off when you buy your first audiobook and unlike Audible, buy audiobooks without a subscription.
Similarly, you can also listen to your Audible audiobooks via Amazon echo. Well, if you buy audiobooks from the Google play store, you can also listen to it on Google assistant cable devices or Google home.
If we talk about its features then it includes a sleep timer, listen up to 2x speed, sync across various devices is there. We don’t know about the titles but the audiobooks are available in 45 countries and in 9 different languages.
Price: Well, there is no subscription version so there is no fixed price. All audiobook rages a different price.
Cheap Audible Alternatives Download: Google Play Audiobooks
Apple Audiobooks
Similar to Google, Apple also sells Audiobooks on iTunes. Simply launch the iTunes store on Mac. Then use the drop-down list located at the top to choose audiobooks. Then, you can check out different audiobooks or look for the one you like to listen to.
Price: Similar to Google Audiobooks, it doesn’t have any subscription version. You can purchase any available audiobook from the catalog and keep it forever.
Download: Apple Audiobooks
Conclusion:
Here’s all about ‘cheap audible alternatives’. However, Audible is no doubt the popular and best audiobook platforms available, I love Scribd better simply as it offers more for less. The audiobook collection matches Audible. Also, it offers other forms of content such as magazines, eBooks, and news as well. However, many other alternatives are good, Scribd’s pricing makes it the best choice. If your budget is high then Audible is still the best.
I love Downpour for its vast library and rent version which allows me to move slowly and listen to audiobooks. Which one did you really like? Let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below!
Also Read: