Audible versus Audiobooks.com

These two are unrelated companies with confusingly similar territory, and the honest answer to “which is better” depends on one fact that only one of them publishes. Here is what each says about itself, read on the date stamped on this page, and what the gap between them means.

What Audiobooks.com says it gives you

Audiobooks.com's own page advertises a “30 day free trial” with a “choice of 1 audiobook from our catalog of half a million audiobooks”, a “choice of 2 bonus audiobooks from our curated VIP section” and “unlimited listening to our library of 10,000 free audiobooks”.

Taken at face value that is three audiobooks and a catalog for nothing, which is more than anyone else in this category offers up front. It is a genuinely strong-sounding opening offer and we are not going to talk you out of finding it attractive.

What Audible says it gives you

Audible publishes a 30 days trial for new members and states the price of both of its plans: $8.99 for the cheaper tier and $14.95 for the credit tier. The trial gives you the benefits of membership for its length and then converts automatically into a paid month unless you cancel.

On day one that is one credit against Audiobooks.com's three titles. On the face of it Audible loses this comparison badly, and if the only question were “who hands me the most in month one”, it would.

The difference that actually decides it

One of these companies tells you what it will charge you, and the other does not. Audible's own page carries both plan prices. The Audiobooks.com page advertising that 30-day trial does not state a monthly price anywhere we could read it.

Every free trial in this category is an introduction to a recurring charge. That charge is the actual product; the trial is the sample. So an offer that is loud about what it gives away and quiet about what it costs is not a better deal than one that is modest about both and clear about the second. It is a less complete offer, and the missing half is the half that keeps billing you.

Is three titles actually better than one credit?

It depends entirely on what “a choice of 1 audiobook” and “2 bonus audiobooks” turn out to mean at the end of the trial, which is the thing the page does not say. There are two possibilities and they are not close in value.

If those titles are permanently yours, three books for nothing is excellent and beats a single Audible credit outright. If instead they are licensed for as long as you keep subscribing, then they are not three books, they are a bigger sample — and the comparison swings back the other way, because Audible states that titles bought with a credit are yours to keep. We do not know which applies, and we are telling you that instead of guessing.

The “VIP section” carries the same uncertainty. A curated subset is a real benefit or a marketing frame for a smaller catalog depending on what is in it, and the page does not enumerate it. The 10,000 free audiobooks are worth a moment of skepticism too: catalogs of that size in this category are usually substantially public-domain recordings, which are also free from several places that charge nothing at all.

The frictions worth knowing, both directions

• Audible converts automatically. Its trial is for new customers and rolls into a paid month unless you cancel. That is stated plainly on its page, and it still catches people.
• Audible is one credit a month. If you listen to four books a month and buy them all with credits, a credit-based membership is an expensive way to do that. The arithmetic is on is Audible worth it.
• Audiobooks.com is an unpriced commitment until signup. You find out the recurring cost at the point of entering payment details, which is the least useful moment to discover it.
• Both are another app and another account. Neither plays inside the other's ecosystem, and if you already own Amazon devices that is a mild point in Audible's favor rather than a decisive one.
• Neither is your library. A library card gets you audiobooks for nothing, permanently, with no trial to cancel. That is covered on Audible versus Libby, and for a lot of readers it ends this question entirely.

So which one

If you want to sample widely for a month and you will genuinely cancel on time, the Audiobooks.com trial hands you more up front, and taking it costs you nothing beyond the diary reminder. Read its price at signup before you agree to it.

If you want a specific book, want to know the running cost before you start, and want the title to stay yours afterwards, Audible is the one that publishes answers to all three. That is a duller pitch than three free audiobooks, and it is the one we would rather stand behind. The full set of trials, including the ones that pay us nothing, is on every audiobook free trial compared.

Where we make money, stated plainly

We are paid a flat fee when someone starts an Audible trial through this site. We have joined no program for Audiobooks.com and earn nothing whatever you decide about it. That is worth knowing when you read a page that concludes in Audible's favor — so note that the reason given above is a documentation gap on the competitor's own page, which you can go and check yourself in about thirty seconds. If Audiobooks.com publishes its price tomorrow, this page changes. Our method and our funding are on how we research and the affiliate disclosure.