At The Free Audio Books App we believe that the written word is one of the most powerful means of communication in existence. There are few things better than being able to pick up a good book and lose yourself in another world. Unfortunately, not everyone has time to read all of the books they wish they could, but there is a solution: audiobooks!
Listening to a good audiobook can be a wonderful way to relax while still absorbing information and improving your mind. The best part? You can listen while you’re cooking, cleaning, or even working out!
Here at The Free Audio Books App, we’ve compiled a list of what we believe are the best apps for listening to free audio books on your mobile device. We hope that you find this list helpful for finding your next great listen!
Best Apps For Free Audio Books
- Libby
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Harry Potter audiobook on Libby’s player
Increase playback speed on Libby
Libby’s bookshelf interface
First up is Libby, which works by connecting your library card to access your local library’s digital collection of ebooks and audiobooks.
Libby offers a pleasant, intuitive interface with an audiobook player that resembles Audible’s. You can increase or decrease playback speed, set a sleep timer, skip a few seconds backward or forward, place a bookmark, and view chapters. Also like Audible, you can download books for offline listening.
There are a couple of caveats to Libby. First, you can only listen to audiobooks in your local library’s collection.
Second, Libby treats its audiobooks just like any other library item with borrows, holds, and renews. This means if there is only one “copy” of Where the Crawdads Sing, and it’s currently being borrowed by someone else, you can place the book on hold and Libby will estimate when it will be available to borrow.
Even so, Libby is basically free (technically you pay taxes for your library), so if you live in an area with a comprehensive local library and don’t mind waiting until books are available to borrow, it’s a great Audible alternative.
Download: Libby for iOS | Android (Free)
- Chirp Audiobooks
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The Chirp app homepage
Daily deals on Chirp
Chirp’s limited deals
Chirp Audiobooks provides daily deals on popular audiobooks. These deals aren’t just 5-10% cuts from original prices but often immense price drops. It’s not uncommon to find deals in the $3-6 range on Chirp for audiobooks that would otherwise retail for $20+. What’s more, the audiobooks are yours to keep.
Once you purchase a book from Chirp’s website, it will be downloaded to Chirp’s audiobook player app, which includes all the essentials: a playback speed adjuster, bookmarks, a sleep timer, downloading for offline listening, and more.
Despite its appeal, Chirp has a similar disadvantage as Libby. That is, you might not always be able to listen to what you want to listen to since the audiobook deals change daily. Still, Chirp will recommend books in your preferred genres, so if you like discovering new books at cheap prices, Chirp might be for you.
Download: Chirp Audiobooks for iOS | Android (Free, with in-app purchases)
- LibriVox Audio Books
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LibriVox audio player
LibriVox Catalog tab
LibriVox Lists tab
Unlike Libby and Chirp, LibriVox offers over 50,000 public domain audiobooks completely produced by volunteers, from reading and recording to editing and distributing. Of course, the wonderful advantage of volunteer production means that LibriVox is completely free.
The LibriVox app is a simple audiobook player with the basic features. You can search the collection by title, keyword, author, and even the narrator. LibriVox releases new audiobooks daily as well, ever expanding its immense collection.
However, since the audiobooks are in the public domain, older classics comprise most of the available collection. But, if you love the classics and don’t want to pay for audiobooks, LibriVox is a fantastic Audible alternative.
Download: LibriVox Audio Books for iOS | Android (Free)
- Loyal Books
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Loyal Books player
Loyal Books Discover tab
The Top Books tab on Loyal Books
Loyal Books is much like LibriVox in that its collection consists of free, public domain audiobooks. While Loyal Books’ audiobook collection is much less comprehensive than LibriVox’s, Loyal Book also offers thousands of ebooks.
You can stream or download audiobooks, add a sleep timer, skip forward and backward, and adjust the playback speed. Loyal Books also includes book reviews, which can be quite helpful in deciding which ones to listen to.
However, this app has a similar downside as LibriVox. Most of the books are classics, so don’t expect to find modern teen fiction or popular self-help books on Loyal Books.
Download: Loyal Books for iOS | Android (Free)
- Spotify
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The Great Gatsby audiobook on Spotify’s player
The Great Gatsby on Spotify
Jane Eyre Spotify original audiobook
That’s right. You can listen to audiobooks on Spotify.
Finding audiobooks on Spotify can be a bit of a challenge since there is no dedicated audiobook section like there is for podcasts and music. Even so, there are a few worthwhile ones buried in Spotify’s database if you don’t mind doing some searching. Also, Spotify offers its own audiobook originals.
There are a couple of obvious drawbacks to using Spotify for audiobooks. First, unless you already pay for Spotify, you’ll experience ads during your listening experience.
Second, Spotify is short of a comprehensive collection. Like LibriVox and Loyal Books, most audiobooks on Spotify are in the public domain and are therefore often classics and not contemporary bestsellers.
Still, if you already pay for Spotify you might as well give it a search for an audiobook to see if it’s available before spending money on one from Audible or another paid app.
free audiobook apps
- Audible
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Audible is the most used audiobook app available. The app is owned by Amazon, so it has all compatible books available in the Amazon Kindle store.
This app features books of different categories including business, thriller, horror, romance, religion, fantasy, and science fiction amongst others. You’re sure to find what you’re looking for and notably, it features all Amazon best sellers.
With Audible, you can play and listen to books anywhere you are and from any device. It doesn’t matter if you download a book from your mobile phone or PC, your library is automatically synced on all your devices.
The audio being read on this app is professionally performed. It makes a story come alive like you’re watching it on TV. The app has speed up and slow down features and either can be adjusted to 3x the normal speed.
There’s the skip or back by 30 seconds feature which makes navigation a lot easier. Furthermore, the app has a sleep timer.
Audible has premium plans, but there’s a collection of free audiobooks that you can download and listen to. These free books include new releases, classics, and bestsellers.
Also Read: Best Note-Taking Apps For iPad
- Hoopla
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Hoopla is another free audiobook app on our list. Not only can you stream audiobooks with the app, but you can also stream music and videos. The app is completely free to use and signing up is hassle-free too.
This app features a public library with hundreds of thousands of audiobooks and other content. New content is added daily so there’s always more to stream. Plus, you can download audiobooks to play them later.
The Hoopla library works in the form of a lending platform. You’re borrowing the audiobooks you download or stream and once you’re done listening, the content will be automatically removed.
Nevertheless, with Hoopla, you’re not limited to just audiobooks on the app. You can also load your own content from your mobile phone, PC, or smart TV to play as well.
You can download the Hoopla app on your smartphones. It’s available on their respective app stores. It’s also available on Amazon and Chromecast.
A con of this free audiobook app is that most of the content in the library is licensed to Canada and the United States only.
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- Loyal Books
Owned by Twist Idea LLC, this is a free audiobook app with a very simple user interface. It was developed to make reading fun for users and the developers believe books should be free.
The app allows you to create a local reading library on your device from thousands of free audiobooks. Loyal Books features fiction, mysteries, and kids books, amongst others.
Notably, there are over 7,000 free audiobooks available in this app. You have the option of streaming the audiobooks directly or downloading them to play offline.
Each book features reviews and ratings so you’ll know the quality ones. Featured books are displayed on your dashboard to show you the ideal content you should read. Similarly, the app features a top charts section where you can view the trending books globally or in individual categories.
For convenience, the Loyal Books app has an adjustable playback speed. Also, the book featured in the library can be translated into 25 different languages.
This app can be downloaded on iPhones, Android, iPads, and Tablets. The only con is that the app features ads, but you can pay to remove them.
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- LibriVox
LibriVox is described as a platform with free domain audiobooks. These books were written by authors from different parts of the world and they are free for anyone, anywhere to listen to.
The app is a very interesting one. Authors can publish books for readers to help proofread/listen. Also, anyone can design the book covers or create audio m4b files for ebooks.
Generally, anyone can contribute which makes the app one of the best for engagement. There’s an online forum where readers and authors can communicate via posts and comments.
This free audiobook app has more than 15,000 audiobooks. Out of the lot, about 8,000 are novels, non-fiction stories, and poetry. Furthermore, the app has recorded over 11,000 readers since it was first launched.
LibriVox features close to 2,000 non-English content. Likewise, the majority of audiobooks in the library can be converted to 45 different languages.
As a reader, you can sort the audiobooks library by author, genre, language, or title. Also, you can simply search for any audiobook by entering a keyword. LibriVox is free but there’s also a pro version of the app.
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- OverDrive
This app lets you read, listen, and enjoy audiobooks all for free. Apart from audiobooks, the app also features movies and TV shows.
OverDrive features best-selling books, classics, new releases, and more. The audio player has easy navigation features for easy use. This includes fast forward or rewind by 15 seconds, previous, next, etc.
Also, you can adjust the speed settings of the audiobooks. It can be adjusted to 2x or 5x of the normal playback speed. There’s a quick menu from which you can easily access all the app features like the bookshelf and bookmarks.
You can customize the app’s appearance including the font, contrast, and margins. Also, you can switch the app display between light and dark modes from the playing screen.
The mobile app can be downloaded on Android and iOS devices and all audiobooks you download sync across all your devices.
Also, OverDrive features a desktop app that you can use for free as well. Notably, you can use the desktop app to burn audiobooks to CDs or any other device.
Conclusion
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