5 Cheaper Alternatives to Audible [#2 is my Favorite]

One of the disadvantages of audiobooks is that they can be expensive compared to physical books if purchased at the listed price.

This is because audiobook production is more like a movie than a printed book. It requires a team of professionals (including narrators, sound engineers, and producers) and state-of-the-art equipment to create a final flawless product.

Audible, being the audiobook market leader, offers premium content that comes at a cost. Their Premium Plus plans start at $14.95/month.

There are many reasons why Audible is expensive that I discussed earlier; this article brings you 5 cheaper alternatives to Audible where you can get inexpensive audiobooks through great sales and deals.

1. Spotify
2. Chirp
3. Everand
4. Kobo
5. AudiobooksNow

1. Spotify

The popular audio streaming service Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022 and has already become the second-largest audiobook platform behind Amazon’s Audible.

Spotify Premium members get 15 hours of free listening time every month from Spotify’s Subscriber Catalog of over 250,000 audiobooks.

You can add more listening time by topping up (10 hours for $12.99) once you have fully consumed your plan’s monthly allocated time.

The 15 hours of free time comes with the following subscription plans

Spotify Plan	Charges	Ideal For
Premium Individual	$11.99/ month	1 Person
Premium Family [Plan Manager only]	$19.99/ month	Couples
Premium Duo [Plan Manager only]	$16.99/ month	Family
Audiobooks Access Plan [US only]	$9.99/ month	Audiobook listeners

Note: Premium Student ($5.99/month) plan does not come with free audiobook listening time. The Audiobook Access plan does not include any other premium features

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to Audible, Spotify’s Audiobook Access Plan is the right choice for you.

If you join other Spotify Premium plans (Individual/ Duo/ Family), you can enjoy 15 hours of free listening time and other membership benefits including ad-free music listening.

Spotify also offers a catalog of over 375,000 titles to purchase in the Spotify Web Player. After you have unlocked (purchased) a title from Spotify Web Player, you can listen to it in the Spotify app.

Here are some of the Pros and Cons of Spotify audiobooks.

Pros

• One of the largest audiobook catalogs by any platform
• 15 hours of free listening time for Premium users
• User-friendly app with a smooth listening experience
• One-month free trial of Spotify Premium plans
• Spotify Individual plan is $11.99/ month and also offers an ad-free music listening experience

Cons

• Audiobook purchasing is only available through Spotify Web Player. Spotify app does not support audiobook purchases for now
• 15 hours of free audiobook listening is not available for the Premium Student plan, and only plan managers can have free listening time in the Premium Family and Due plans
• The Audiobook Access plan is currently only available for U.S
• The unused audiobook listening time expires on a monthly basis so any unused audiobook listening time from the previous month can no longer be used

Spotify’s free audiobook listening time is the icing on the cake for existing Spotify Premium members who use the service for music listening.

Spotify is one of the 5 best audiobooks subscription services that i recommend

Know more from Spotify’s audiobooks page

2. Chirp

Chirp is one of my favorite ways to get audiobooks cheap. It does not require any subscription or commitment to use, and purchasing the audiobooks is as straightforward as it can get.

Create your free account on the website or app, get new and personalized daily deals in your email inbox, and save up to 95% on these limited-time deals.

You can listen to Chirp audiobooks on your Android or Apple phones (recommended method) or listen on your computer (web player), car, tablet, or Alexa device and more.

Here are some of the important things about Chirp Books.

• All deals are limited-time deals so you need to act fast to grab an offer. Deals generally last for a few days and book listings show a countdown for how much longer the deal will last
• Deals include high-quality titles, but there are many ordinary audiobooks. The key is to select the categories that you listen to (during the setup) and you will receive personalized deals, from your preferred genre and categories, in your inbox.
• Deals are mostly under $5, and the discount prices range from $2.99 to $4.99
• Put the audiobooks you want to purchase on your Wish List by tapping on the heart button on the book listing, and you will get email alerts when your wish listen titles go on sale
• Chirp also offers a list of free audiobooks that has some great titles
• You can explore current running deals from All Deals and you can also browse less than $1 deals, less than $3 deals, and less than $7 deals or explore deals from different categories

Chirp is named the best budget app by Popular Science.

Here are the pros and cons of Chirp Books that you should now

Pros

• No membership commitment or subscription fee
• You own all purchased audiobooks forever
• Receive a curated and personalized list of audiobook deals in your inbox every day
• Email alerts when your Wish List audiobooks go on sale
• Follow your favorite authors and narrators
• Refund an audiobook you did not like

Cons

• Available only in the U.S. and Canada for now. You can keep a check on this page to know when the service will expand to your region
• All sales are for a limited time only so you have to act fast to grab your favorite books
• Deals have some great titles and many that are not well-known

I think all audiobook enthusiasts should make a free account on Chirp and explore deals according to their taste.

You have nothing to lose and all the possibility to find your favorite titles at huge discounts.

3. Everand

Everand is another cheaper alternative to Audible that offers audiobooks, eBooks, magazines, podcasts, sheet music, and more under one subscription plan.

It works like Netflix, where you pay $9.99/ month and stream audiobooks, eBooks, and more for the month.

Everand subscription also includes unlimited access to SlideShare (presentations by experts) and Scribd (focused on documents).

Everand is a stream-only platform which means you do not own any of the audiobooks or eBooks and can listen to them as long as you are an active member.

You can listen to audiobooks on the web, iOS and android apps and download the titles for offline listening.

Although Everand bills itself as unlimited, there are monthly limits for some titles. According to Everand, “These limits are caused by each subscriber’s individual recent reading/listening activity”.

If you encounter a limit on a particular title, it will be inaccessible to you until your next billing cycle. You can explore other titles in the meantime.

You can cancel your subscription anytime by visiting Account Settings.

Here are some of the pros and cons of Everand

Pros

• Access millions of eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, sheet music and more under one subscription
• Includes access to Scribd and SlideShare
• Free 30-days trial

Cons

• Monthly listening limits on some titles
• You do not own any title. They are available as long as you are an active member

The app is highly functional and user-friendly. Everand offers a 30-day trial, which you should join because it’s free.

The membership costs you $9.99/month after the free trial. You can cancel the trial/ subscription at any time, no questions asked.

4. Kobo

Kobo’s standard subscription is $12.99, which gets you one credit to get any audiobook from Kobo’s catalog, regardless of its price.

The purchased titles (with credit or cash) are yours to keep forever, even after cancelling the subscription.

Kobo has a large library of over 150,000 audiobooks and you can purchase audiobooks with or without the subscription plan.

I like Kobo Plus, Kobo’s alternative to Audible’s Plus Catalog. It has 3 subscription models

• Kobo Plus Read: Access over 1.5 million eBooks for $7.99/month
• Kobo Plus Listen:  Access over 150,000 audiobooks for $7.99/month
• Kobo Plus Read & Listen: Access over 1.5 million eBooks and 150,000 audiobooks for $9.99/month

It is important to know that you can only stream eBooks and audiobooks in Kobo Plus and do not own them.

You can keep the Kobo Plus titles as long as you have an active membership, the same as Audible’s Plus Catalog.

The Kobo Plus subscription comes with unlimited access to Kobo Plus which means you can listen to as many audiobooks as you like.

If a title is in Plus, it will tell you on its page and in search results. The price will show as ‘$7.99 or free in Kobo Plus’.

The Kobo Plus catalog is limited and does not include many best sellers and popular titles. Kobo Plus offers a free 30-day trial that you can join to explore the catalog.

Here are some of the pros and cons of Kobo

Pros

• Kobo Plus Read & Listen has over 1.5 million eBooks and over 150,000 audiobooks
• Unlimited streaming with no monthly limits
• The regular Kobo plan costs $12.99 and comes with 1 free credit. This is inexpensive as compared to Audible’s Premium Plus – 1 Credit
• 30 days free trial

Cons

• Kobo’s catalog is not as large as Audible
• Kobo Plus titles are available as long as you are an active member

If you are into audiobooks and eBooks, Kobo is one of the best Audible alternatives for you. With 30 days free trial, you have nothing to lose.

5. AudiobooksNow

Audiobooks Now has over 330,000 titles in its catalog, including bestsellers and new releases. You can purchase titles from their Everyday Low Price deals without any subscription.

For avid audiobook listeners, I recommend signing up for AudiobookNow’s Club Pricing Plan for $4.99/month.

The Club Pricing benefits include

• 50% off your first audiobook purchase each month
• Discount on all other purchases (35% – 40%)
• Access to exclusive sales and content
• No commitment, cancel anytime

When you search for a title, you are shown the Club Pricing on the titles details page.

AudiobooksNow also has a Gift Center where you can gift individual titles, an annual club pricing plan [50% off any 12 audiobooks], or a gift certificate (starting from $10).

AudiobooksNow subscription is one of the cheapest, but it does not give you any free audiobooks. You can check their free audiobooks section for thousands of audiobooks that you can listen for free.

Here are some of the pros and cons of AudiobooksNow

Pros

• The Club Pricing plan is the cheapest subscription plan in the market
• Huge discounts and deals for members
• Free 30-days trial
• No commitment, cancel anytime
• Download audiobooks for offline listing

Cons

• The book collection is not as impressive as Audible. They don’t carry some of the most popular titles
• No monthly free audiobook. Subscribers only get more discounts than regular users

I recommend joining their free trial. You can browse/ search their catalog and if you find enough books that you are looking to purchase in the future, subscribe to the Club Pricing.

I hope you like 5 cheaper alternatives to Audible. Chirp is my favorite Audible alternative because of no commitment/ subscription and great sales and deals through email.

I love their emails as they are personalized based on my interests and include some great picks.