When you compared Audible vs Audiobooks com a few years ago, these two audiobook subscription services would have been basically the same. However, Audible has made significant changes, and these days, they offer very different membership perks!
Check out my short and to-the-point comparison below…
**The marked links and book covers on this page are affiliate links. If you use them to purchase something, I earn a fee at no additional cost for you. Disclosure**
The Price of Audible vs Audiobooks com
The standard membership for both Audible.com and Audiobooks.com is $14.95/month. You can cancel at any point and won’t be billed anymore.
Both services also offer plans with 2 credits per month and on-demand credit bundles.
If you are an Amazon customer, you don’t need to spend time signing up for Audible. You can simply log in with your Amazon email and password and use your Amazon payment method. Since Audible belongs to Amazon, they share a global log-in.
However, signing up to Audiobooks.com is also very quick and easy, and I appreciated that they accept PayPal as a payment method. You don’t need a credit card like on Amazon!
Both audiobook services offer a 30-day free trial, so you can test them out yourself risk-free. If you buy a book for your one free audiobook credit, it’s yours to keep with both Audible and Audiobooks.com, even if you cancel during the free trial.
Membership Benefits of Audible vs Audiobooks com
This is the part where Audible and Audiobooks com differ significantly in 2024!
Audible membership perks
As an Audible Premium Plus subscriber, you receive a free audiobook credit for one book that you can choose from the entire catalog, and that is yours to keep.
In addition to that, you get access to the Audible Plus catalog and can listen to as many of the over 10,000 included titles as you like.
These audiobooks are Audible Originals and Audible Studios productions, as well as books from popular authors who were invited to the program. So these are high-quality audiobooks and you get unlimited listening!
That’s a pretty solid perk, really.
Audible Plus is a form of digital library service, which means these books will be removed from your device if your membership runs out. But until then, you can listen to as many as you want without having to spend an Audible credit.
So, for your monthly fee, you get a premium audiobook of your choice and unlimited listening (from a limited catalog) on top of it.
Audiobooks.com membership perks
As an Audiobooks.com (ABC) member, you also receive a monthly audiobook credit for a premium title of your choice.
In addition to that, you can pick one audiobook from a monthly catalog of bestsellers, the VIP Selection. These are full-length novels, often bestsellers from traditional publishing houses. You won’t find these in Audible Plus!
These VIP audiobooks are only borrowed, similar to Audible Plus books. And once your subscription runs out, these titles disappear from your app.
However, as long as your membership is active, the VIP books stay in your library. You don’t need to listen to them right away. You only have to remember to pick one each month, and then you can enjoy it whenever you have time.
Check out the current VIP Selection**!
Audiobook Apps
There isn’t much difference in regard to the Audiobooks vs Audible app. Neither service lets you use your own choice of audiobook player. You have to use their product, and while they differ slightly in style and layout, they offer similar functions like sleep timer or narration speed.
By the way, if you want a “1 free audiobook per month” subscription that lets you download audiobooks as MP3s and play them in any Play Store app, you should check out LibroFM!
Customer Service and Returns Policy
While Audible’s return policy comes with its own set of problems for customers and audiobook creators, it is without a doubt comfortable to use when you want to return an audiobook that wasn’t right for you. You can simply give it back by clicking a button in your Purchase History. No questions asked.
My experiences with Audible customer support have always been excellent. They reply swiftly and are usually very helpful and focused on the best possible customer service.
Audiobooks.com doesn’t have a returns policy. If an audiobook doesn’t work well or has major issues, you have to contact customer service to check a possible refund with them.
You can’t simply give back a book that wasn’t quite right. On the one hand, it is important to protect authors and publishers from abuse of the exchange function (something that Audible doesn’t sufficiently do). On the other hand, not offering any returns makes customers more careful with taking chances on an audiobook.
Conclusion: Audible vs Audiobooks com
If you listen to one or two audiobooks a month, there really isn’t much of a difference for you between Audible vs Audiobooks com. Just pick one by gut feeling or decide whether you want to give your money to Amazon or an independent company.
Audiobooks.com was recently bought by Storytel, a Swedish company that focuses solely on audiobooks through different platforms.
If you are an avid listener, finishing one or more books every week, you will probably want to take a closer look at Audible Plus. Not everyone loves what this catalog has to offer. But it is an incredibly strong and unique membership perk.
ABC, on the other hand, gives you access to its VIP selection which often has popular books you might have on your To Be Read list.
I kind of want to say that it’s a bit of a “Quality vs Quantity” kind of situation. Audible Plus books have quality, too, of course. But they might not be quite comparable with, e.g., Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, which I once listened to through ABC’s VIP selection and other bestsellers of that caliber.
Either way, with free trials you can always only win as you get a free audiobook that you can listen to whenever you want.
So, get your free test month on Audiobooks.com and on Audible to try them out for yourself!
Try Audible 30 days free**
Try Audiobooks.com 30 days free**
If you aren’t sold on either of these two subscriptions, you might also want to take a look at my comparison of more Audible competitors!
Eline Blackman (pronouns: she/they) fell in love with books as a child – with being read to and reading herself. 10 years ago, she bought her first Audible book. It was love at first listen! An average of 250 audiobooks per year has become the new normal and you will rarely see Eline without a wireless earbud. Romance and Fantasy are the go-to genres for this audiobook fan.
Great summary here on the comparison of 2 audio book giants. I want to give extra props for striking a very well balanced comparison without showing personal favorites. This writing style and comparison articles is what I look for in each article I read and it is pretty easy pick up on favoritism for a product almost immediately.
Thx for the good info.
Thanks for these comparisons, exactly what I am looking for. Have been a member of Audible for many years and recently trying Audiobooks. However, as an older reader and one who is an avid reader I am not finding Audiobooks user friendly. Just my opinion!
Would you like to share a bit more about how you find it not user-friendly? It might help others who come here for a comparison 🙂
I’m not the original poster, but I’m feeling frustrated with Audiobooks.com at the moment. I have a promotion code for a free book, but I can’t find a way to create an account at Audiobooks.com without giving my credit card info and signing up for the monthly service, which I have no desire to do. Is this free book code a snare and a delusion, or is there some way to make use of it without giving my credit card info? Yes, I know I can cancel my monthly service if I sign up, but I really don’t want to get involved with that.
It’s been a while since I had a promo code for Audiobooks.com, so I don’t remember exactly how that went, sorry. But if you go to the sign-up form and fill in the “Have a gift or promo code?” line, does it still require you to add a credit card?
It definitely shouldn’t be just a snare!
Hi, just wanted to say thank you for this blog and information. I used to be a physical book lover but living a busy life I’ve started to love audio books. I still want to support my authors and read lot of different stories. So thank you for your insight.