The best audiobook apps for Android and iOS

Audiobooks provide a comforting alternative for those who find reading tedious, especially if you own a comfortable pair of true wireless earbuds. There are a variety of platforms, apps, and services to choose from, and many large ebook platforms now include audiobook support natively. If you’re having trouble choosing one, here are our recommendations for the best audiobook apps for Android and iOS.

The best audiobook apps for Android and iOS

Amazon Kindle

Price: Free / Book prices vary / $9.99 per month

Amazon Kindle is the world’s most popular ebook platform, and it has native support for audiobooks. However, Amazon also owns Audible, so most of Kindle’s audiobook experience ties in with Audible. In any case, you get the best of both worlds with this one. There are millions of audiobooks and millions of regular books as well. Additionally, you can subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for unlimited access to a million or so regular audiobook titles for $9.99 per month. It’s an excellent platform for audiobook fans.

Audible

Price: Free / Book prices vary / $9.99 per month

Audible is currently the most popular audio entertainment app, offering a vast collection of audiobooks, exclusive podcasts, and Audible Originals. Its extensive spoken-word library covers almost all the binge-worthy titles and top genres, making it easy to find audiobooks that speak to your preferences. The app’s features include offline listening, seamless switching between reading on Kindle and listening on Audible, Apple Watch and Carplay integration, as well as a sleep timer for bedtime listening. Users praise the platform for its selection and pricing, but the home page layout could use some work.

Audiobooks.com

Price: Free / Book prices vary / $14.95 per month

Audiobooks.com rivals Audible as one of the big dogs in the audiobook apps space. It works very similarly. You can sign up and buy books, subscribe, get some books for free every month, and get discounts on others. It boasts a large collection of audiobooks and over 700,000 podcasts for a surprisingly engaging 2-in-1 experience. It also supports downloading for offline listening, along with variable playback speed controls. It’s a solid overall option even if, like Audible, it’s a little bit expensive.

Barnes & Noble NOOK

Price: Free / Book costs vary

The Barnes & Noble NOOK App offers an expansive and user-friendly platform for iOS and Android users to enjoy various digital content. With access to a vast online library of over four million ebooks, graphic novels, comics, manga, magazines, and more than 300,000 audiobooks, the app promises a rich and immersive reading and listening experience.

The NOOK App enhances the reading experience by allowing users to customize their preferences, from font styles and line spacing to background color and narration speed. Features such as notes, bookmarks, and highlights enable readers to engage more deeply with their chosen books, with the option to share favorite passages with friends on social networks. Although most of the books you’d find on this app need to be purchased to be accessible, several free options are also available. 

Google Play Books

Price: Free / Book prices vary

Google Play Books offers a comprehensive and user-friendly platform to access a vast collection of ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play. One of the standout features of Google Play Books is its impressive selection of audiobooks without requiring a monthly subscription. Navigation within audiobooks is also made convenient with real chapter titles instead of track lists, making it easy to jump to specific parts of the story. This feature comes in handy, especially while going through longer audiobooks.

The app’s seamless synchronization across all devices is a game-changer. It ensures you can easily switch from your iPhone to your iPad or Android and pick up where you left off. Moreover, Google Play Books supports CarPlay, making it an excellent companion for listening while driving. 

Hoopla Digital

Price: Free / Content prices vary

Hoopla Digital is an all-in-one digital library app that offers a wide range of content, including over a million titles, from best-selling novels to niche and hard-to-find content. If you’re a US citizen, Hoopla would be the best audiobook option, as you can use your library card for free access to all sorts of content without ads. The app provides convenience with offline downloading and synchronization across various devices, ensuring you never lose your place while reading or listening to an audiobook. 

Additional features with the app include Kids Mode with a PIN option for parents to monitor content, compatibility with Apple Carplay, a Shuffle feature, and an immersive panel-by-panel guided reading experience for graphic novels/comics. 

Kobo Books

Price: Free / Book prices vary

The Kobo App is a must-have for book enthusiasts, offering a vast library of over six million titles, including ebooks and audiobooks. With its user-friendly interface, customization options, and seamless syncing across devices, reading and navigating audiobooks becomes a breeze. The app simplifies audiobook listening by offering personalized recommendations and tools like a timeline scrubber, playback speed configuration, and a snooze timer. However, one major downside of the app is that it does not offer free books or audiobooks. You can preview a sample, after which you’ll need to purchase it on the Kobo store before it becomes available for reading or listening.

LibriVox Audio Books

Price: Free / $1.99

LibriVox Audio Books is a small, but decent audiobook platform. It boasts a collection of 40,000 free audiobooks. Admittedly, it’s not the biggest collection, but the fact that they’re all free makes it a great place to score some cheap entertainment. You can search, find the books you want, and download them for offline use. The app also features a sleep timer, a bookmark feature so you never lose your spot, and Chromecast and Android Auto support. It ticks all of the boxes for a good audiobook app, and it doesn’t cost anything. There are ads in the free version, though, and you can pay to get rid of them if you want to.

OverDrive Libby

Price: Free

Libby is an excellent idea for those who want audiobooks on a budget. It’s a media platform that lets you rent various media from your local library over the internet. It has a few good advantages over an old-school library. It’s available 24/7, you can use it from home, and it doesn’t cost you anything. It lets you leverage that library card you haven’t used in years. It only works with participating libraries, and you need a valid library card, but this is an excellent source of audiobooks.

Scribd

Price: Free / $8.99 per month

Scribd is an ebook and audiobook platform with some decent upside. Its subscription cost is lower than most competitors, and you get more bang for your buck. Additionally, it boasts a collection of over one million titles and a reasonable amount of playback controls, such as a sleep timer. You also get the usual stuff like offline download support. Many of its features are for its ebook side, but the audiobook stuff works perfectly fine. Like Kobo, this is a decent alternative to Kindle and Google Play Books.

Storytel: Audiobooks & ebooks

Price: From $9.99 per month

Storytel stands out as a wide-ranging platform for captivating stories and exclusive content. One of the highlights of Storytel is its vast collection of stories available in multiple languages, making it accessible and appealing to a diverse audience.  The personalized audiobook recommendations are spot-on, and the app introduces you to new genres and authors that perfectly fit your taste. The app’s features, such as regular, sped-up or slowed-down listening, bookmarks, and sleep timer, cater to various listening preferences and needs. 

Additionally, Storytel offers a Kids Mode with a good collection of children’s stories. Parents can control the visibility of children’s books on their bookshelves and set their own pin codes for parental control. While the app receives praise for its extensive content selection and seamless functionality, there are areas for potential improvement. The app could benefit from a better UI design and interface for easier navigation.