500000 free books Cool Sites to Get Audiobooks & Listen on the Go
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.
SEE ALSO:Top 5 Time-Tested Audio Players for Windows
SEE ALSO:5 Great MP3 Download Tools to Get Music Free
8 MOST POPULAR WEBSITES TO DOWNLOAD AUDIOBOOKS
1. AUDIOBOOKS.COM
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.
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 top 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.
Library: 10,000+ audiobooks
Price: free
7 AUDIOBOOK WEBSITES WITH SMALLER COLLECTIONS
9. PODIOBOOKS
PodioBooks library is also small as it contains serialized audiobooks delivered via RSS. You won’t see famous names among authors, most of them are just getting exposure for their work. To download an audiobook, go to the Comments section and switch to the Download Episodes tab. Then save chapters one by one with right-button menu option “Save as..”. If you loved the book, you may donate the author.
Library: 1000+ audiobooks
Price: free
10. STORYNORY
Storynory hosts free audiobooks for kids. Here you’ll download fairy tales, myths, stories, and classic books for children in the audio format. The download options are either MP3 files or iTunes podcasts.
Library: several hundreds of audiobooks
Price: free
11. OPEN CULTURE
Open Culture website has a section of Free Audiobooks which contains links to free audiobook downloads from different resources including Audible, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and some public domain sites. The library contains chiefly classics which is usually free on all resources. However, some book titles will require you to buy Audible subscription.
Library: 700 audiobooks
Price: from free to $14.95
12. THOUGHTAUDIO
ThoughtAudio is a tiny website which contains various audiobooks, mostly classics and fiction. You can download books by chapters (no full audiobook download), as well as PDFs with transcripts. Another drawback is that there is no search bar on the website, so that you need to browse the threes pages of audiobook downloads.
Library: 100 audiobooks
Price: free
13. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CLEARINGHOUSE
Educational Technology Clearinghouse collects audiobooks forstudents. The genres are: science, adventure, epic, fable, fantasy, history, mystery, philosophy, etc. Search for an audiobook, download it in MP3 or get a PDF transcript if necessary. for your ease, the books are split into parts.
Library: about 200 audiobooks
Price: free
14. FREE CLASSIC AUDIOBOOKS
Free Classic Audiobooks website has a bunch of popular classic books in English which you get using search box. The sites looks very outdated and has a lot of advertising banners, still the audiobook library is rich. You can find here such authors as O’Henry, Mark Twain, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, even Alexandre Pushkin. Download this audio content in MP3 and M4B formats.
Library: 100+ audiobooks
Price: free
15. PROJECT GUTENBERG
In contast to the above listed sites, Project Gutenberg offers computer-generated audiobooks. This open-source project doesn’t have a convenient search. It’s also hard to figure out what the numerous MP3 files for one and the same book are. However, there is a good list of audiobooks on more than 50 languages.
Library: 2000+ audiobooks
Price: free
Where do you download free audiobooks? Share your findings in the comments below.
SEE ALSO:Top 5 Time-Tested Audio Players for Windows
SEE ALSO:5 Great MP3 Download Tools to Get Music Free
8 MOST POPULAR WEBSITES TO DOWNLOAD AUDIOBOOKS
1. AUDIOBOOKS.COM
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.
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 top 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 audiobooksPrice: 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.
Library: 10,000+ audiobooks
Price: free
7 AUDIOBOOK WEBSITES WITH SMALLER COLLECTIONS
9. PODIOBOOKS
PodioBooks library is also small as it contains serialized audiobooks delivered via RSS. You won’t see famous names among authors, most of them are just getting exposure for their work. To download an audiobook, go to the Comments section and switch to the Download Episodes tab. Then save chapters one by one with right-button menu option “Save as..”. If you loved the book, you may donate the author.
Library: 1000+ audiobooks
Price: free
10. STORYNORY
Storynory hosts free audiobooks for kids. Here you’ll download fairy tales, myths, stories, and classic books for children in the audio format. The download options are either MP3 files or iTunes podcasts.
Library: several hundreds of audiobooks
Price: free
11. OPEN CULTURE
Open Culture website has a section of Free Audiobooks which contains links to free audiobook downloads from different resources including Audible, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and some public domain sites. The library contains chiefly classics which is usually free on all resources. However, some book titles will require you to buy Audible subscription.
Library: 700 audiobooks
Price: from free to $14.95
12. THOUGHTAUDIO
ThoughtAudio is a tiny website which contains various audiobooks, mostly classics and fiction. You can download books by chapters (no full audiobook download), as well as PDFs with transcripts. Another drawback is that there is no search bar on the website, so that you need to browse the threes pages of audiobook downloads.
Library: 100 audiobooks
Price: free
13. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY CLEARINGHOUSE
Educational Technology Clearinghouse collects audiobooks forstudents. The genres are: science, adventure, epic, fable, fantasy, history, mystery, philosophy, etc. Search for an audiobook, download it in MP3 or get a PDF transcript if necessary. for your ease, the books are split into parts.
Library: about 200 audiobooks
Price: free
14. FREE CLASSIC AUDIOBOOKS
Free Classic Audiobooks website has a bunch of popular classic books in English which you get using search box. The sites looks very outdated and has a lot of advertising banners, still the audiobook library is rich. You can find here such authors as O’Henry, Mark Twain, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, even Alexandre Pushkin. Download this audio content in MP3 and M4B formats.
Library: 100+ audiobooks
Price: free
15. PROJECT GUTENBERG
In contast to the above listed sites, Project Gutenberg offers computer-generated audiobooks. This open-source project doesn’t have a convenient search. It’s also hard to figure out what the numerous MP3 files for one and the same book are. However, there is a good list of audiobooks on more than 50 languages.
Library: 2000+ audiobooks
Price: free
Where do you download free audiobooks? Share your findings in the comments below.
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