Kobo Audiobooks Pricing, is it worth it? The monthly subscription plan comes with audiobook credits but the monthly subscription offers other options as well.

Kobo Audiobooks Pricing

Rakuten Kobo offers readers the option to listen to a wide variety of audiobooks at an affordable price. Kobo.com provides readers with a variety of ebooks, audiobooks, and Kobo ereaders available, including information on all pricing. The monthly subscription plan comes with audiobook credits but the monthly subscription offers other options as well.

Overview of Kobo audiobooks

Kobo audiobooks is an online subscription service for audiobooks. At an affordable price, subscribers can grow their audiobook library monthly with 1 credit to use toward any audiobook in the kobo store regardless of the list price. Once a reader purchases audiobooks, they remain in your library forever, even if you choose to cancel your subscription. Unused credits are only available for 6 months from the cancellation date. Kobo’s library offers considerably more titles than Audible, but availability in certain countries may be limited. 

Kobo audiobook app is compatible with Android and iOS devices. However, at this time the Kobo Inc. Desktop app does not allow readers to listen from their desktop or home computer. 

How pricing works for Kobo audiobooks 

Users may register for a 30-day trial before deciding to continue with a $9.99 monthly fee. Kobo only offers the standard subscription but with the subscription price, users get 1 free credit to use in the Kobo store each month. Readers can use their credit to download a variety of bestsellers and new releases regardless of the book price. If you are a light user and prefer to avoid subscriptions, Kobo does allow users to purchase audiobooks at their list price as well. 

Affordable audiobook alternatives 

Many book lovers are seeking trending and affordable audiobook alternatives to purchasing titles one at a time. Subscription services offer that alternative but the options seem endless - Downpour, Scribd, Kindle, Audible, and Audiobooks.com to name a few. While these are some of the best audiobook services out there, each has benefits that may appeal to different subscribers. Each service offers the first 30 days free which allows readers to navigate the features of the service before deciding to stay on or check out the next service. All of these are monthly subscriptions but the user can cancel at any time on each service. Subscription fees for these services range from $11.99 to $14.95 per month. With these services, some allow additional credits to be rolled over while others require users to use their credits within the month issued. Other free audiobook services are available as well but those services are public domain, where the copyright has expired, and readers may have limited access to titles, specifically, they may find new releases and bestsellers hard to find. 

No more audiobook subscription 

Tired of audiobook subscriptions altogether? Plenty of options exist that offer audiobooks for free but limitations apply to the free services. Overdrive, an online resource to borrow audiobooks through local libraries, provides multiple titles but readers need to belong to their local library to check out the book. As with all libraries, time limits and waitlists may preclude the users from listening right away or having the book available for an extended period. However, the ease of Overdrive’s online catalog makes finding a book near you very simple. 

Some countries, such as New Zealand and Canada, offer free audiobook access to students who are dealing with a print disability, such as dyslexia, vision impairment, or dysgraphia. Other public domain sources like LibriVox offer free audiobooks as well.

Speechify 

Speechify can turn any ebook into an audiobook with text-to-speech on Apple, Android, and Chrome devices. As an affordable alternative to your audiobook subscription service, Speechify aims to create a better, faster reading experience for all users.  The smooth speech conversion creates a delightful listening experience with a wide variety of options, including a variety of voices and speeds to listen. 

FAQs - See below

What is the difference between Kobo and Audible?

An Amazon product, Audible, has an audiobook store with over 500,000 fiction and non-fiction titles and original content. Kobo offers considerably more titles and also offers original content exclusively for Kobo readers. Audible offers accessibility on iOS, Android, and desktop apps but Kobo only allows listeners to access it via mobile devices. The pricing difference is fairly considerable with Kobo’s monthly subscription being only $9.99 while Audible is $14.95. 

How are audiobooks different from podcasts?

An audiobook is a professionally recorded reading of an existing text, which could be a book.  Podcasts are typically released on a regular basis and allow subscribers to access new content immediately.

Are there any free audio books?

Free audiobooks are available through public domain sources without subscribing to a service. Overdrive offers over 400,000 titles, including new releases, bestsellers, and books for students, and has a searchable database on overdrive.com. Other sites such as LibriVox, Internet Archive, and Lit2Go have primarily public domain titles available. 

What is the Kobo audiobook app?

The Kobo audiobook app allows readers to listen to an ebook on their mobile device via the Kobo app. At this time listening to audiobooks is limited to mobile devices only. Readers can use the Kobo Books app to read an ebook on their desktop or mobile device.