Audiobooks have taken a huge place in the book market due to their convenience. You can play audiobooks while you're cleaning, working, or strolling after dinner, which can help you consume more content at a faster speed. With such an increasing demand for audiobooks, many companies have developed audiobook platforms in recent years. Among them, Audible and Scribd are the two most popular choices.
But if you only want to choose one audio platform, Scribd vs Audible, which is the most matched with your demands? In this comprehensive review, we will introduce and compare the two platforms from the aspects of price, library and collection, content resources, audio quality, and more. In this case, you can make your own decision to choose the best audiobook platform.
- Part 1. Audible vs Scribd: What You Need to Know
- Part 2. Scribd vs Audible: What's the Difference
- 1. Pricing Plan
- 2. Content Resources
- 3. Explore Audiobooks
- 4. Library and Collection
- 5. Content Ownership
- 6. Audio Quality
- 7. Supported Devices
- Audible vs Scribd: Pros and Cons Summary
- Part 3. Bonus Tip: How to Play Audible Audiobooks on All Devices
- Part 4. Conclusion
Part 1. Audible vs Scribd: What You Need to Know
Audible is an audiobook and podcast streaming platform launched by Amazon. After subscription, you can access its over 200k titles. It provides Audible Plus and Premium Plus two subscription plans, with credit and a purchasing system to buy the copyright of the audiobook. Instead of providing content in one platform, Audible separated its platform into several parts in different countries like Audible UK, Audible US, Audible AU, and more markets to meet the content regulations of each country. The subscription plan and fee may differ from each market.
Scribd, also called Everand now, is a more comprehensive digital book platform. It includes ebooks, magazines, audiobooks, podcasts, and other digital content. You can only play audiobooks on Scribd after subscription since it doesn't support buying audiobooks for its users.
Part 2. Scribd vs Audible: What's the Difference
How to choose an audiobook platform? In my opinion, you should consider: how much it costs, how it sounds, how to manage audiobooks on it, can you find what you want to play on it, where can you play it, can you play it after your subscription expires, and how can you discover new audiobooks to play.
Based on my listening experience, I compare Scribd and Audible in several aspects. Now, let's delve into the details of the differences between them and analyze which one is best for whom. You can go through the overview of Scribd vs. Audible first.
| Audible | Scribd | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $7.95(Plus) $14.95(Premium Plus) |
$11.99 |
| Audiobooks | 470k+ | 300k+ |
| Podcasts | Audible Originals | Scribd Originals |
| Magazines/Documents/Ebooks | ❌ | ✔ |
| Offline Playing | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supported Devices | iOS/Android/Desktop /Amazon Alexa |
iOS/Android/Desktop |
| Audio Quality | Up to 128 kbps | 32kbps |
| Ownership | Keep purchased books forever | ❌ |
| Advanced Support | Car Mode/Sleep Mode /Connect Waze |
Car Mode/Sleep Mode /Connect Waze |
1. Pricing Plan
Audible and Scribd (Everand) take different pricing plans.
Audible offers 2 options for you to subscribe monthly or yearly; you can get either Audible Plus or Audible Premium Plus. For Audible Plus members, you can enjoy unlimited listening to all titles under the Audible Plus Catalog, while Audible Premium Plus member has additional credit and discounts to purchase audiobooks. It combines the borrowing and buying model, which can be more flexible to users with various demands.
Besides, Amazon Prime member can access to free Audible books and get additional credits with their first trial.
As for Scribd, it only offers subscriptions monthly to unlock unlimited access to audiobooks, ebooks, magazines, and more content on Scribd/Everand/Slideshare. Simply say, you can subscribe to the three platforms at once for $11.99 per month.
Notice: According to Reddit threads and its own explanation, the unlimited access is actually not truly unlimited. Based on each subscriber's listening activity, Scribd will limit some titles monthly. Most threads said some of their audiobooks are listed as Available Soon after playing 4 or 5 audiobooks, which can be available until the next billing cycle.
Both Audible and Scribd (Everand) support canceling and pausing the subscription. You can freely cancel or pause the subscription based on your need.
View also: How to Pause Your Audible Membership
Audible vs Scribd Pricing: Audible Wins.
2. Content Resources
Audible, as the world's largest audiobook platform, contains over 470k audiobooks in 24 categories and many original podcasts. You can listen to the most famous or niche fiction and non-fiction with Audible membership. Even free users can enjoy some free audiobooks on its website. Besides, Audible regularly updates its resources and brings many new releases to its audience. You can never worry about anything to play with Audible.
Scribd has about 300k audiobooks in 51 sections, which is less than Audible. So you cannot access some audiobooks like Harry Potter in the Scribd. However, it provides numerous magazines, ebooks, documents, and even sheet music. If you are looking for a comprehensive platform-provided kind of digital book, Scribd is a great option.
Scribd vs Audible Content Resources: Audible and Scribd both have extensive resources.
3. Explore Audiobooks
With so many resources on the platform, how to discover the audiobooks I want to play? Fortunately, both two platforms provide convenient discovery and recommendation features.
Audible
On the Audible website, you can click Browse to explore audiobooks; you can also input the title's name and search it directly.
On the Audible app, you can explore Bestsellers, New releases, trending, and other top audiobook lists on the Home page. On its Discover page, you can browse audiobooks by Category, and Editors' Pick section. The Editors' pick section contains many curated collections of audiobooks under certain themes. With this section, you can save several audiobooks under a similar theme. In this case, you can get a more comprehensive understanding of a certain theme or topic.
As you click on Title details, you can find some recommendations related to this title's topic, category, and your listening preferences.
Overall, the Audible doesn't highlight its similar recommendation feature, instead, they may suggest audiobooks from the Editors or Creators and the trending. For users who always want to play some different types of new audiobooks, Audible can be a good choice.
Scribd
As for Scribd, it has a similar discovery feature to Audible. However, Scribd may put more attention on suggesting similar content.
On the Scribd (Everand) Home page, you can see your Saved Audiobooks, Bestselling, NewYork Bestsellers, Popular categories, and Everand Original Audiobooks.
Besides, it provides an individual Top Charts section to list the most popular content generated from critics, NYT, and more resources, which is more comprehensive.
It also set a Discover section for you to explore audiobooks by the categories. Most importantly, it places a Topics we think you'll like section on the Discover page. These topics are suggested based on your activity on Scribd, including clicking, playing, saving, and more.
You can also find the Editors' Picks section on Everand. This section is quite different with Audible's since it is updated 32 single audiobooks weekly.
When you enter specific title details, you can see many recommendations at the bottom. Scribd will suggest more audiobooks written by the title's author, audiobooks under the same categories, and even related ebooks, podcasts, and extensive articles to you.
Overall, the Scribd discovery feature relates the audiobooks, ebooks, and podcasts due to its various content resources. It also performs better in the recommendations than the Audible.
Scribd vs Audible in Exploring New Books: Scribd and Audible are good.
4. Library and Collection
Talking about audiobook management, it can be hard work if you've played hundreds of audiobooks. In this case, the library and collection function in the app also matters to me.
On the Audible, the library function is more powerful. In its Library, you can visit saved audiobooks, podcasts, and authors. You can filter them by Finished and Unfinished. Besides, you can create personal collections to group your audiobooks. Moreover, you can add your favorite audiobooks to the Favorite collection.
Usually, I'll mark the audiobooks that really impress me and I want to share with my friends and family as favorites; and I can easily add and find them out with the favorite feature. For audiobooks that I want to buy on sale or gift to my friends, I add them to the Wish List. This list is separated from other audiobooks so I can quickly buy them once the sales begin.
The Scribd makes such Add to Library operation easy. When you explore the next audiobook to play, you can simply click the little save icon around the audiobook's cover.
You can also filter unfinished audiobooks and create lists to group them. However, you can only hide finished titles instead of displaying them on Scribd. And there is no favorite feature in Scribd.
Both Audible and Scribd provide the listening history feature, so you don't need to worry about missing some chapters or audiobooks when you play in car mode. Surprisingly, Audible provides an exclusive achievement system to collect the badge, listening level, and listening time, which can encourage users to play more audiobooks.
View Also: How to Earn Audible Badges and More Achievements
Scribd vs Auidble Library: Audible Wins.
5. Content Ownership
Audible allows you to borrow and buy audiobooks. Once you purchase, you take the content ownership and can play the audiobook forever via its platform even if your subscription has expired. While Scribd only lends the audiobook to you; once you end your subscription, you cannot access any content on it.
Therefore, if you don't replay audiobooks, you can choose from an Audible Plus subscription and a Scribd subscription. If you want to save your favorite audiobooks as part of your property, subscribing to Audible Premium Plus is your best choice.
Audible vs Scribd Content Ownership: Audible Wins.
6. Audio Quality
Audio quality is also essential when playing audiobooks since background noises may ruin your listening experience. Based on my testing, the Audible audiobook sounds better than the Scribd audiobook.
When downloading audiobooks on Audible, you can adjust the audio quality to Standard or High based on your needs. The high-quality audiobooks is tested in an audio quality of 128kbps according to some threads.
However, the Scribd audiobook has lower audio quality at just 32kbps. And you may hear some noises in the audio, which is not good for the ears.
Audible vs Scribd Audio Quality: Audible Wins.
7. Supported Devices
Both Audible and Scribd support typical iPhone/Android apps, and websites on computers. However, Audible supports wider connections with Amazon devices. You can play Audible audiobooks on Alexa, Kindle, or Fire TV. In this case, you can play audiobooks with your family together or read Kindle ebooks with Audible narration by the Whispersync function.
View also: How to Sync and Use Audible on Kindle Devices
If you want to play offline audiobooks on the go, you can only download audiobooks from your Audible or Scribd app on your phone. Besides, you can play Audible audiobooks on your MP3 player and other devices with the assistance of professional software. Move to Part 3 to explore how it works!
Scribd vs Audible Supported Devices: Audible Wins.
Audible vs Scribd: Pros and Cons Summary
From the comparison and introduction above, we can easily make a summary of the pros and cons of Audible and Scribd.
| Audible | Scribd | |
|---|---|---|
| Pros | - More audiobook resources - Better audio quality - Provide ownership of audiobooks - Supported more devices - Flexible subscription options - Inspired Achievement system |
- Better recommendation feature - Access to ebooks/audiobooks/magazines, etc. - Clear and user-friendly interface |
| Cons | - Cost more subscription fees - No ebooks/magazines provided |
- Limited content in its unlimited plan - Less audiobooks and lower audio quality |
Audible vs Scribd Summary: Audible Wins.
Part 3. Bonus Tip: How to Play Audible Audiobooks on All Devices
When I play audiobooks on the go offline, especially a long distance, I may worry about my phone's battery all the time. In this case, I prefer to play my audiobooks on an exclusive player like MP3 player and other devices. However, the downloaded Scribd files are limited to access, while the downloaded Audible audiobooks are in DRM-protected AA/AAX format, which I can't play on the MP3 player directly. Fortunately, I found professional software to help me - the AudFree Audible Audiobook Converter.
The AudFree Audio Converter is designed to help remove such DRM protection on the original Audible audiobooks and convert AA/AAX formats to MP3 and other plain formats, which has wider compatibility. Besides, I can use its built-in tool to split Audible audiobooks into chapters. I can even edit the audiobooks' ID3 tags and increase or decrease audio volumes. Once converted, I can keep my favorite Audible audiobooks forever and play on any device.
If you are someone have the same demands as me, you can read this part to learn how to use the AudFree Audiobook Converter to save your Audible audiobooks permanently without buying them.
Notice: This software is only applicable to Audible audiobooks; you need to download audiobooks from Audible and find where are Audible books stored before using this software.
Step 1. Import Audible Audio Files
For Android users, you can transfer the downloaded files to your computer via the USB cable or SD Card once you find their storage location. For iOS users, you can sync Audible books to iTunes on your computer.
Once you move the downloaded files to the computer, you can click the second Add button at the bottom left to import audiobooks from the local folder. If you use iTunes for syncing audiobooks, you can click the first Add button at the bottom left to import them into the AudFree Audio Converter.
Step 2. Define Output Format and Quality
Click the Speaker icon at the bottom right to open the Format Setting window. Then, you can select the output format as MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, FLAC, and WAV. You can also customize the output quality with sample rate, bit rate, and more.
Step 3. Export Audiobooks to Your Devices
Click the big Convert button at the bottom right; you can enjoy a fast conversion at a speed of 30X. After the conversion is completed, click the Folder icon at the bottom central to open the storage location. Then, connect your MP3 player or other devices to the computer and move the Audible books to your MP3 player.
Part 4. Conclusion
Scribd vs Audible, which one is the best? This choice is closely related to your own use habits and demands. If you want more audiobook resources, the Audible is best for you. If you prefer ebooks and audiobooks integrated into one platform, Scribd could be the best, as well as for those who do not care about the ownership of books or saving the audiobooks. However, if you want to save your audiobooks on your hard drives or play them on an MP3 player, Audible + the AudFree Audio Converter is your best choice.
Ivan Scott
Staff Editor
