10 Best Apps for Audiobooks on iPhone

When we mention free audiobook app for iPhone and iPad, the first one that comes right into our head is without doubt Apple Books, known as iBooks, Apple’s own audiobook and eBook app for its iOS owners to listen to audiobooks and read eBooks on the move. Apple iBooks is not only an audiobook listener and eBook reader, but also includes an online book store that allows you to directly purchase audiobooks and eBooks from Apple Store, while some other audiobook and book apps for iPhone only allow you to read local books. Also, Apple Books app supports CarPlay feature, which enables you to listen to audiobooks through your car’s speaker, getting much more enjoyable audiobook listening experience.

Nook Audiobooks app is a totally free audiobook listener app that includes 100,000 Nook audiobooks for you to listen to with your iPhone devices. Nook app connects you with the Nook audiobook store offering over 100,000 books, some of them available at reduced prices. You can try most audiobooks by downloading their free samples. However, it’s a different app from the regular book-reading Nook app. In other words, you need two Nook apps for your digital content from Barnes & Noble store. And from several user reviews, Nook Audiobooks app is not reliable and stable enough.

OverDrive is a free service offered by your library or school that lets you borrow digital content (like ebooks and audiobooks) or watch streaming video from your library using OverDrive Media Console anytime, anywhere. Every OverDrive collection is slightly different because each library or school picks the digital content they want for their users. All you need to get started with free digital content from your library or school is a library card or student ID. This app features over 28,000 worldwide audiobook titles for users to listen to on iPhone. Being a free audiobook service, this app is one of the best-selling audiobooks apps at the iTunes.

As a one-stop platform that enables you to find all your favorite audiobooks, Scribd lets you get access to audio books, magazine, documents, news, music and more on iPhone. Also, you can make use of the internal browser to explore all the latest topics and get personalized recommendations based on your personal interests. Compared to other book apps, Scribd even has curated contents handpicked by editors and business leaders. That means you will get recommendations from professionals. You could read 3 books and one audiobook for free every month. If you want unlimited access to books, magazines, audiobooks, you have to become a paid subscriber.

The Kobo App allows you to browse our growing collection of the world's best eBooks, audiobooks, graphic novels, and children's books, to enjoy instantly on your smartphone or tablet. With Kobo app on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, you could search by author, title, topic or genre to discover what you would like to listen to or read. Kobo app's audiobook player is nicely designed and extremely easy to use. A nice slider makes it easy to navigate through the book with just one tap. The player displays information how much time is left to finish, and you can slow down or speed up the narration at any moment. But there is no official confirmation on CarPlay feature upon Kobo app.

Owned by Amazon, Audible offers a vast range of titles covering almost all the best sellers. So, whether you want to catch up with audio shows, audiobooks or even the famous original series, it's got you fully covered. Besides, it's packed in all sorts of essential features to enhance your experience. Features like transferring the books to your device via Wi-Fi, switching between reading and listening with Whispersync for Voice are really impressive. You could freely listen to audiobooks on Audible app on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on the go. Price: $15 per month subscription.

We all know that most audiobooks purchased from various audiobook stores are DRM protected. The DRM protection has limited the use of audiobooks. Only professional audiobook DRM removal tools could help you remove audiobook DRM protections to break the limitation. However, Bound provides an effective solution to this. Bound supports all popular cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud. Once you have connected the app, it will automatically sync all the audiobooks store there. You can upload any DRM-free audiobook and listen to it on Bound as well. You can also upload audiobook content from your local library or downloaded from Librivox. Price: $3.99.

Audiobooks HQ, which gives you access to more than 5,000 public-domain titles -- all for a measly $1.99. From the latest bestsellers, to timeless classics, to up and coming indie authors, Audiobooks HQ is the app for a massive selection of studio-recorded quality audiobooks, at your fingertips. The app connects you with two catalogs: the Globe Radio Repertory and Librivox. The former contains just four works (including "Don Quixote" and "Madame Bovary"), while the latter gives you the real meat of the app. Price: $1.99

Bookmobile provides a better experience for listening to audiobooks than any other app. You could download the app as a FREE TRIAL of up to 5 audiobooks for 60 days. If you like it, an In-App purchase will allow an unlimited number of audiobooks for $3.99 USD.

Libro has a business model that is very similar to that of Audible. The first month will cost you just $0.99 after which, you have to pay $14.99 every month per audiobook. Each additional audiobook will cost 30% less. The good thing about buying credits from Libro is that, unlike Audible, they never expire. Libro is working with over 270 indie bookstores to bring you the best of audiobooks at your fingertips. They have a strong collection with over 100k audiobooks and support DRM-free content as well. Therefore you could get quite a lot of choices from Libro.