Audible versus hoopla

hoopla is the library service people forget they have. If your public library offers it, you already have a monthly allowance of audiobooks at no cost, and it is worth exhausting that before paying anyone anything — including us.

What hoopla is, in its own words

From hoopla's own site: “Borrow and enjoy audiobooks, eBooks, comics, movies, TV, magazines, or music everywhere you have a screen — your computer, your phone, your car, even your TV. All you need is a library card.” It adds that titles “may vary based on library catalog” and that content is “all FREE thanks to your public library”.

The important structural point is in that last phrase. Your library is paying per borrow, which is why the allowance exists and why it is set locally rather than by hoopla.

The rules that actually govern your month

hoopla's help pages are unusually specific, and these are the four facts that decide whether it covers your listening:

• The limit is local. “This limit is set by your local library”, visible in the My hoopla section once you are signed in.
• It resets monthly. “The monthly borrow limit resets on the first day of the new month”, and unused borrows “will not roll over into the next month”.
• Early returns do not refund. “If you return a title early, you will not be able to check an item out in its place.” The limit is a monthly total, not a titles-at-a-time cap.
• Loans run 21 days. “Most Audiobooks, Comics, and eBooks are available for 21 days from the time you borrow the title.”

Two more worth knowing: renewing a title “will take a borrow from your monthly limit”, and downloads for offline listening are a mobile-app feature — hoopla states that titles on Windows and macOS “are only available for streaming”.

Side by side

Which one you actually want

hoopla, if it covers you. Four to eight borrows a month is a real reading habit, and if the titles you want are in the catalog then this is the whole answer at zero cost. Combine it with Libby if your library has both, since the catalogs differ and the allowances are separate — the audiobook apps compared sets out how they fit together.

Audible, when the allowance runs out. The specific failure modes are running out of borrows halfway through the month, wanting a title neither library service carries, or wanting to keep books rather than borrow them. Those are genuine reasons and the only ones we would put a subscription against.

Check your library first, because a large number of systems do not offer hoopla at all. If yours does not, the comparison you want is Audible versus Libby, and the setup for either is on how to borrow from your library.