When it comes to consuming books, I typically prefer listening to audiobooks rather than sitting down with a paperback or my kindle. I love that I can do other things while I'm listening to the book. I'm definitely a multi-tasker in that sense.
You'll often find me playing a video game with one airpod in, or working on a puzzle while I have an audiobook playing on speakerphone.
Listening to audiobooks rather than reading ebooks helps me consume more content, and at a faster rate than I would be able to otherwise.
How Much Do Audiobooks Cost
The cost of audiobooks can be limiting for some people, especially since audiobooks are often more expensive than the paperback version and a lot more expensive than a digital version like a kindle download.
As you can see below, the prices for “How Are You, Really”, by Jenna Kutcher has a price range of $14.99 to $22.66.
Kindle – $14.99
Hardcover – $18.30
Audiobook – $22.66
I actually own the audiobook version and the hardcover version of this book title. I'm not typically someone who listens to audiobooks more than once, so owning the audiobook has no future value to me.
But, I do love having a physical copy of books that I thoroughly enjoyed!
Depending on the genre that you listen to, the audiobooks may be much cheaper than $22.66.
Looking at the Amazon Best Sellers, the top 4 audible books right now are:
Spare at $21.83
Atomic Habits at $14.63
It Ends With Us at $13.49
Finding Me at $18.74
One of the ways I've gotten my audiobooks a little cheaper over the years is by having an Audible monthly subscription. Depending on the plan you have, your audible purchases are typically less expensive than buying the audio as a stand-alone. The basic plan is $14.95/month for 1 book credit. (I'll get into the actual pricing structure of Audible later in this post).
About 6 months ago I got really into listening to more fiction books, many of which have multiple in each series. Around that time, I caught an Audible sale and scooped up something like 40 titles at 80% off.
I figured, my library would last me for a while!
Because I bought so many books at once, I was really just throwing them into my cart and not listening to the previews like I normally would.
Unfortunately, as I started listening to the books in my library I realized I didn't love all of the books I bought and started to feel really disappointed that I had spent so much money on these books that I wouldn't even finish.
Even though Audible has a generous return policy, I hate to use it! Also, you have to be an active subscriber to return books.
One of the books I purchased during the 80% off sale was part of a series and I didn't realize it at the time. So, I only bought 1 of the 4. As soon as I finished the first one I had to get to the second one ASAP! Except I really didn't want to buy the other 3 at full price since I had just bought 80 books.
I figured there had to be a better way for an audiobook listener like me to download books at any time without breaking the bank.
Introducing Scribd – The ‘Unlimited' Audiobook Library
It was at that time that I discovered the unlimited listening service, Scribd. I'll be honest, I really thought it was too good to be true, but they had a 30-day free trial so I figured why not?
I double-checked that they had the other 3 books I was looking for and when I saw that they did, I figured I could at least finish the book series I had started on Audible, and it would save me $45ish.
Although my focus is audiobooks right now, I want to let you know that a monthly subscription to Scrid actually offers much more than just audiobooks.
Scribd offers a vast selection of books, audiobooks, and even magazine articles for users to read and listen to. In fact, they have over one million titles to choose from.
During my free Scribd trial, I was able to finish the other 3 books in the series I was listening to, so I decided to stay on as a monthly subscriber for at least another month.
Get FREE access to Scribds entire library of books, audiobooks, and more!
When you sign up for a free Scribd subscription trial, it's important to note that your monthly fee automatically renews after the trial period is over. So, if you don't want to continue past the free access you'll want to cancel your Scribd subscription prior to the next billing date.
Breaking Down The Scribd Price For Unlimited Access
One thing I love about the Scribd app is the pricing is simple and straightforward! I often felt frustrated with my Audible Plus subscription because even though they had a library of included audiobooks, they rarely had the ones I actually wanted to listen to.
With Scribd, the entire Scribd library is included in the subscription price.
Currently, Scribd costs $11.99 a month, which starts billing after your Scribd free trial period is over.
Typically the trial period is 30 days…But, I've got good news for you!
If you sign up for Scribd using my referral link, you'll actually get a full 60 days before your monthly subscription starts and you are billed $11.99. Yeah, that's 2 full months of unlimited listening and reading.
Get FREE access to Scribds entire library of books, audiobooks, and more!
Even if you decide to cancel your membership after the trial period is over, you'll probably still benefit from having the entire library available to you for those 2 months. I would be able to listen to at least 8 audiobooks in that time.
What's Included In the Scribd Cost Of $11.99/Month
As I mentioned earlier in this Scribd review, Scribd comes with much more than just audiobooks, so let's take a look at what else comes with Scribd membership.
You get access to the entire Scribd library of:
Books – Over 1,000,000 ebooks
Audiobooks – Over 200,000
Magazines – Over 1,000,000 magazine and news articles
Podcasts
Sheet Music
Documents
Since I already feel like the Scribd membership is worth the monthly fee, for just the audiobook access, getting access to all of the other unlimited books and magazine articles is just icing on the cake for me.
Personally, I listen to podcasts using the Apple Podcast Player and they are typically free anyways so that feature doesn't add much value for me.
The same with the Sheet Music and Documents. Although I wish and try to play the piano, I still have no need for the sheet music library and I haven't actually explored the document library at all. So, if you do, make sure to let me know what you think about it.
Ready to get access to Scribd's digital library and start listening today?
Sign up here for your extended free trial and get 60 days free instead of the normal 30 days.
Get FREE access to Scribds entire library of books, audiobooks, and more!
How To Access The Scribd Library
What good is unlimited content if it's hard to access? No worries about that with your Scribd membership!
There are two main ways that you can access Scribd's massive library.
- The free Scribd app is available for iOS and Android devices.
- By using the Scribd website from any supported web browser.
Scribd also has listen offline features that allow you to download content like ebooks and audiobooks to your phone so that you can access them when you don't have internet available (like when you are flying or in a bad reception area).
Another feature I like is that you can log in to your Scribd account across multiple devices so you can easily pick up where you left off. So, I can start listening on my computer while I'm working and then switch to my phone and start listening right where I was previously.
Scribd Audiobook Player
The Scribd audiobook player is very similar to what I was already used to with my Audible subscription and Audible app.
Some features I like about the Audio Player are:
Sleep Timer – if you are someone who typically falls asleep while listening to audiobooks, you'll love this feature! You can set a sleep timer for any amount of time that you would like and the app will automatically stop playing once you get to that point. You could do 5 minutes, an hour, or even at the end of the chapter.
Bookmark – Do you ever hear something in an audiobook that you want to make sure and remember later? Me too! With the bookmarks feature you can click the bookmark button and Scribd will automatically bookmark the last like 30 seconds that you heard.
Playback Speed – Scribd lets you change the playback speed on the audiobooks that you are listening to. This is a big thing for a lot of listeners. Personally, I can't turn the speed up too much and find a good balance between 1x and 1.2x. I've heard people on TikTok recently talking about how they to listen with a playback speed of at least 1.5-2x! Whoa.
Rewind – The audio player also has 2 types of rewind and fast-forward options. You can go back to the beginning of a chapter, or you can just go back 30 seconds. So, if you missed something and want to listen again you can just click the one button and be right where you want to be.
What Does Scribd Unlimited Actually Mean
Ok, so now to make this a truly unbiased and detailed review I have to talk about what I consider the biggest “con” of Scribd.
They no longer call themselves an unlimited platform and instead say “limitless entertainment”.
If you are someone who can really binge ebooks or audiobooks, you may find yourself in a situation where you can't start a new book or audiobook until your next billing date comes.
Scribd is actually pretty vague when it comes to the actual reasoning behind the throttle or how they determine which titles are not available right now.
Here's what they say:
“When you have a subscription with Scribd, the breadth of our vast library is open to you for reading fun! Scribd is a digital reading subscription that brings you monthly access to the best books, audiobooks, news, and magazines. Many of our members use our website and app to read everything from bestsellers and old classics to legal documentation and instruction manuals. We also carry a wide variety of sheet music and news articles along with thousands of audiobooks. It's all available to you each and every day, anywhere you go!
Read to your heart's content, book lovers — there are new titles added all the time! Dive into an adventure, puzzle over a mystery, get swept off your feet by a knight in shining armor, and know that there's plenty more where that came from.
We strive to provide the most comprehensive catalog to all of our members, but can’t guarantee the immediate availability of specific titles. Occasionally, some particular titles may be temporarily unavailable to you depending on your recent reading activity. If you're only seeing a preview of a specific title, you should also see a notification indicating when that book or audiobook will be fully available to you.
Please be aware that we do also have an automated system to help protect the service from individuals out to abuse the site. If you unexpectedly encounter a warning saying that your access has been restricted due to unusual activity, contact Scribd support and we'll look into it for you.
Never stop reading!” (from Scribd Help Center)
Basically, if you enjoy a wide variety of content you will not be restricted. But, once you start to binge on a very specific niche or author, you may find that you have to wait until next month before you can continue the binge.
I can usually do 4 long audiobooks a month from one author or in a series before I get ‘cut off'. After that, I find that I can switch authors or genres and I'm ok.
I'll be honest, this is SUPER frustrating to me.
But, the low price of $11.99/month is still totally worth it to me even if it does not have unlimited access like other subscription apps do.
I mean, could you imagine Netflix being like “Oh, sorry, you already watched 6 episodes of The Walking Dead, so you'll have to wait until next month to continue. But, how about you watch Grey's Anatomy instead”.
It just seems very odd for a service like this especially since we are such a binge society now.
60 Day Scribd Free Trial Available Here
Ready to start enjoying Scribd books and audibles right now and want an extended Scribd free trial? I've got you friend!
If you use my referral link, you can enjoy doubling the free trial than if you go directly to the Scribd site to sign up for a Scribd free trial.
Get FREE access to Scribds entire library of books, audiobooks, and more!
Typically Scribd offers a 30 day free trial to explore current hits and top reads. With our referral link, you get 60 days to determine if Scribd is better than other apps like Audible or Kindle unlimited.
Scribd does require that you add your credit card to your account when you do the free trial and download the Scribd app. This is because they will automatically charge the card on file on your next billing date.
How To Cancel And Stop Paying For Scribd
If you do the Scribd free trial and decide it just isn't for you, you can easily cancel your monthly subscription as long as you do so before the next monthly subscription starts.
Just log in to your Scribd account, click on the profile icon in the top right, and then go to ‘your account'.
On the bottom left, you'll see the Subscription box that has your plan details. At the bottom of the box, you'll see the button to cancel your Scribd subscription.
Once you cancel your monthly membership, you will still have access until the end of your billing cycle. After that, you will lose access to the Scribd app and all of the contents in their library.
Here's To Consuming More Books and Audiobooks This Year
Thanks for reading this Scribd review. I hope you enjoyed it and decide to take the free trial for a spin 🙂
Frequently Asked Questions About Scribd
Now that my Scribd review is complete, I wanted to address some of the FAQs people have asked about using the Scribd app.
Q. Is Scribd Really Free?
A. The Scribd trial is completely free and you will not be charged during the 30 day (or 60 day if you use my link) trial period. After that, Scribd has a monthly fee of $11.99 and is no longer free.
Q. How do I stop paying for Scribd?
A. It's very easy to cancel your Scribd subscription. Just log in to Scribd.com or your Scribd app. Go to your ‘account', scroll to the subscription section and click the Cancel button. On the next screen you will need to scroll down and then click ‘continue cancellation' to make it official. If you skip this step, you will continue with your membership.
Q. Is Scribd as good as Audible?
A. This is going to depend on your listening style and the type of books that you like to listen to. With an Audible membership, you get credits that are turned in for ‘lifetime' access to audiobooks. Meaning, even if you cancel your Audible subscription, you will still be able to access your purchases. With Scribd, you lose access as soon as you cancel your membership and your current month ends.
I rarely go back and listen to audiobooks a second time, so there is no benefit for me to have them in my library forever.
Plus, the price of Scribd is $11.99 for ‘limitless entertainment' and Audible is $14.99 a month for 1 audiobook credit per month. That means if you listen to more than one book on Scribd, you'll save money over getting it with an Audible credit.
Q. Does Scribd limit audiobooks?
A. The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it depends on how many you listen to. I've found I can listen to 4 similar titles before I have to switch to a different author or genre. See the section above where I go into more detail about the monthly limit on Scribd.
When a book is not currently available, it will give you a date that it will be available (which is the start of your next billing cycle). When you see this, you know that you are being limited by Scribd for the rest of the month.
Q. Does Scribd have the same books as Audible?
A. This is a good question! I found myself asking this before I signed up as a member too.
The short answer is no, Scribd doesn't have ALL of the same books as Audible. They do have a lot of books that are the same, but I've found that more popular and/or new titles are not available on Scribd.
Looking at the best sellers list for Business and Careers here are the top 10 Audible books. I'll share if they are also available in the Scribd library.
- Atomic Habits – no
- How To Win Friends & Influence People – yes
- Extreme Ownership – coming soon
- Unscripted – no
- Never Split The Difference – yes
- Think and Grow Rich – yes
- Atlas of the Heart – no
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – yes
- Dare to Lead – no
- Start with Why – yes
So, for those, about 50% were available on both Audible and Scribd.
Q. How Much Is Scribd Monthy?
A. After your free trial, the cost is currently $11.99 a month.
Q. How much is a yearly subscription to Scribd?
A. If you purchase a year of Scribd at a time instead of paying monthly, you'll save 16% and pay $119.99 a year instead of the $143.88 that you would pay over a year one month at a time.
Q. How do I remove my credit card from Scribd?
A. Since Scribd has a monthly recurring payment, you can not remove a credit card on file without adding a new card or way to pay.
Get FREE access to Scribds entire library of books, audiobooks, and more!
