When you are on the go, audiobooks can be a great substitute for ebook downloads. There is a plenty of options to
listen to a talking book when you’re online: iTunes, podcasts, apps. But
what to do when there’s no stable Internet connection? Happily, there are
numerous websites offering free & cheap audiobook downloads. Most of
them provide almost any possible book in the form of digital MP3, M4B (for
iOS) or OGG files. So you can easily download and transfer audiobooks you
want to your phone, tablet, cloud storage
and enjoy them at anytime. Let’s compare 15 best sites
with audiobooks downloads.
8 MOST
POPULAR WEBSITES TO DOWNLOAD AUDIOBOOKS
1.
Audiobooks.com is
the website with a wide selection of modern audiobooks. Apart from grouping by
genres, there are good selections for topical reading which can be
downloaded as well. You can preview, stream or download any book for free,
but only for 30 days. Note that your billing information is still
required during the signup. Once you’ve finished your free trial, you
can enjoy one audiobook every month for $14.95. If you want more than one
book monthly, you can buy additional credits.
Now Audiobooks.com subscription is only available in the
US and Canada. International users can listen to free books by downloading apps
for iOS and Android, no
account necessary.
I Library: over 60,000 audiobooks
Price: free 30 day trial, then $14.95/monthly
2. AUDIBLE
Audible.com is Amazon-owned audiobook service that
has the biggest choice of audiobooks in the universe: clasics, fiction, kid
books, poetry, etc. All the audiobooks are of high quality and available
for all mobile devices – iPhone/iPod, Android, Kindle Fire and Windows Phone.
The service offers 30 day free trial and $14.95 subscription for
one book per month thereafter.
Library: over 180,000 audiobooks
Price: free 30 day trial, then $14.95/monthly or from $20
per item.
3. YOUTUBE
You
might be surprised to see YouTube on the list of audiobook download sites,
still it’s a nice option to save money on monthly subscriptions. All you need
is to find the book you need, for example use the query [your book title] + audiobook.
Then copy the link of the page with the audiobook, insert it into Freemake YouTube to MP3 Boom and
click “Download”.
Some
books are split into chapters and united into one playlist (see how to download full YouTube playlists).
Other audiobooks have duration up to 20 hours, so it’s up to you to choose
which listening way you’re more comfortable with.
PRO TIP: Use Freemake Musicbox to
find and listen to YouTube audiobooks on iPhone or iPad. Wi-Fi or cellular data
connection is required.
Library: over 500,000 audiobooks
Price: free
4. SCRIBD
Scribd audiobooks section appeared not long ago, but
already made some passionate Audible users cancel their subscriptions. There
are two type of book titles on Scribd: books which require credits to be
added to the library (they are marked with “!” sign on the cover) and those
which don’t. As a premium Scribd member, you’ll automatically receive 1
credit per month which you can use to access any title in Scribd’s
audiobook catalog. Additional credits may also be purchased at any time for
$8.99 each.
Library: 100,000+ audiobooks
Price: 14 day trial, than $7.25 or $8.99/month
5. LIBRIVOX
Librivox is a public domain of free audiobooks
made by volunteers. There is a good choice of book titles of various genres.
You can download a whole audiobook as a ZIP file, torrent or subscribe via RSS
or iTunes. The website provides a lot of information about the audiobook:
dubbing cast, duration, archive file size, as well as related links to the
author’s biography, online text and other audiobook download options (e.g., in
M4B format).
Library: 9,000+ audiobooks
Price: free
6. LIBROPHILE
Librophile is
a really user-friendly audiobook website. It has a good navigation, so you can
easily sort books by genre, price, author, etc. All the books listed in the
catalogue go with a description, book cover, chapters preview,
and download link. There is an option to listen to audiobooks online and
save to your collection. If you want to get an audiobook from paid section,
you’re likely to be directed to Audible.
Library: 100,000+ audiobooks
Price: from free to $79.77
7. SIMPLY
AUDIOBOOKS
Simplyaudiobooks is a resource with thousands
of audiobooks on CDs which you can rent or buy. The site grants 15 day free
trial, after that you have to buy a monthly subscription for $19.98. It lets
you rent as many audiobooks as you wish during a month, you just need to return
the book (by mail!) in order to get a new one. Simplyaudiobooks takes care
of shipping, so you don’t need to pay any additional costs.
Library: more than 50,000
audiobooks
Price: free 15 day trial, then $19.98/$29.98/$39.98 monthly
8. LEARN OUT LOUD
Learn Out Loud offers a
selection of over 10,000 free educational audiobooks. No account or
subscription needed, you find an audiobook you want and download it. The
books are mostly about politics, religion, philosophy, science. The site
also has a great collection of lectures, sermons and interviews to
download.
