How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Amazon renamed Kindle Unlimited to Kindle Plus in October 2026. It costs $11.99 a month, borrows up to 20 titles at a time, and still has the deepest genre and indie catalogue.
- Everand, the service that grew out of Scribd, is also $11.99 a month, but read the model: a select unlimited catalogue plus premium titles that take monthly credits.
- Kobo Plus is the cheapest paid plan here: $7.99 a month for ebooks, $9.99 for ebooks and audiobooks together.
- Audible and Libro.fm sell audiobooks by monthly credit that you keep. Libro.fm's files are DRM free and your purchase supports a local bookshop.
- Libby is free with a library card and carries the bestsellers the subscriptions exclude. Its only price is the wait list.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Kindle Plus | The deepest borrow catalogue | $11.99 per month | No |
 Everand | Ebooks, audio, and magazines in one plan | $11.99 per month | No |
 Kobo Plus | The cheapest ebook plan | $7.99 per month | No |
 Audible | Audiobooks you keep | $14.95 per month | No |
 Libro.fm | Audiobooks that support bookshops | $14.99 per month | No |
 Audiobooks.com | A credit plus a streaming club | $14.95 per month | No |
 Spotify Premium | Audiobook hours inside your music plan | $12.99 per month | No |
 Libby | Free borrowing from your library | Free | Yes |
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The best ebook subscription services
Starting price$11.99 per month
Free planNo
Kindle Plus is Kindle Unlimited under a new name. Amazon made the change in October 2026, keeping the $11.99 monthly price and the borrow up to 20 rule, and using the relaunch to expand included audio, including titles narrated with its Virtual Voice AI tool for self published authors. Readers should know that distinction matters to many listeners: the catalogue's audio growth is substantially machine narrated, while professionally performed audio still lives mainly on Audible and Libby.
The catalogue remains the reason to subscribe. Kindle's subscription pool, fed by authors who enroll exclusively through Kindle Direct Publishing, is deepest exactly where heavy readers live: series fiction, romance, thrillers, and self help, read in volume. A reader finishing eight genre novels a month pays about $1.50 a book. A reader hunting this month's prize winners will find the shelf bare and should look at Libby instead.
What we like- Millions of borrowable ebooks, strongest in romance, thriller, and self published fiction
- Borrow up to 20 titles at once with no due dates while subscribed
- Many titles include Audible narration, and October 2026 expanded AI narrated audio
- Works on Kindle devices and apps everywhere
Watch out for- Amazon renamed the service from Kindle Unlimited in October 2026, so older reviews describe the old name
- Big publisher bestsellers are mostly absent
- You own nothing, leaving ends your access to everything you borrowed
- Not included with Prime, despite the common assumption
Starting price$11.99 per month
Free planNo
Everand is what Scribd became, and its current model needs explaining because its reputation is out of date. The old promise was unlimited everything; the 2026 Standard plan at $11.99 a month pairs unlimited access to a select catalogue with credits that open premium ebooks and audiobooks, one on Standard, more on pricier tiers. In practice it behaves like a library with a fast lane: plenty to read freely, and a monthly allowance for the titles everyone wants.
That is still a good deal for omnivorous readers, because no rival bundles ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, and documents under one login. It is a worse deal than its legend, and readers who joined for unrestricted bestsellers should recheck their tier before renewing. Judge Everand on the select catalogue's depth in your genres and the credit count, not on the brand's history.
What we like- One plan covers ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and documents
- Standard at $11.99 includes unlimited reading of a select catalogue
- Premium titles open with monthly credits, with higher tiers offering more
- 30 day free trial by current listings
Watch out for- The model changed from the old Scribd all you can read: premium titles are rationed by credits
- Top tier pricing reaches $28.99 a month for five title credits in comparison tables
- Availability of popular titles can vary month to month
- You keep nothing when you cancel
Starting price$7.99 per month
Free planNo
Kobo Plus wins on price and simplicity. Ebooks alone cost $7.99 a month, audiobooks alone the same, and both together $9.99, which undercuts Kindle Plus while covering both formats. For a reader already in the Kobo ecosystem, with a Clara or Libra e reader on the nightstand, it is the obvious subscription, and Kobo's devices add a trick Kindle cannot match: library borrowing through Libby's owner OverDrive is built into the reader itself.
The catalogue is the trade. Kobo Plus draws from a wide but smaller pool, and the Kindle exclusive indie catalogue does not appear. Kobo readers also tend to be people who value the open posture, native EPUB support and no ad supported hardware. If your reading is mostly traditionally published fiction and nonfiction, Kobo Plus at $7.99 is the best value on this list.
What we like- Three simple tiers: Read $7.99, Listen $7.99, or both for $9.99 a month
- Pairs with Kobo e readers, which also borrow library books through built in OverDrive
- No exclusivity games, Kobo authors publish widely
- Free trial offered, 14 to 30 days depending on region and offer
Watch out for- Catalogue is smaller than Kindle Plus, especially in self published genre fiction
- Fewer bundled audiobooks on the Read tier, none
- US marketing and device presence trail Amazon's
- Prices and trials vary by country
Starting price$14.95 per month
Free planNo
Audible is a purchase club wearing a subscription's clothes. Premium Plus at $14.95 a month gives a credit worth any audiobook in the store, including $30 new releases, and the books stay in your library permanently, which no borrow model here matches. Its catalogue and its exclusives, full cast productions and Audible Originals, remain the benchmark the others measure themselves against.
The maths work for listeners who finish about a book a month and choose titles that cost more than the membership. They fail for grazers, who are better served by Everand or Kobo Listen, and for anyone who forgets to spend credits before cancelling, since unused credits generally expire with the membership. Audible's cheaper Plus tier, streaming catalogue access without credits, suits sampling. For committed audiobook readers building a permanent shelf, Premium Plus is the standard.
What we like- Premium Plus at $14.95 includes one credit a month for any title, yours to keep
- The largest audiobook catalogue and the strongest exclusives
- Credits roll over within limits and member sales cut prices further
- Whispersync pairs many Kindle ebooks with cheap audio upgrades
Watch out for- One credit a month is slow for heavy listeners
- A cheaper Plus tier covers streaming catalogue listening only, no credits
- Cancelled members keep their library but lose unused credits in most cases
- Audible originals and exclusives lock value inside Amazon's ecosystem
Starting price$14.99 per month
Free planNo
Libro.fm exists to answer an ethical objection to Audible: it sells the same one credit a month model at $14.99, but the audiobook files are DRM free, playable anywhere forever, and your chosen independent bookstore receives a share of every payment as if it had sold the book itself. For readers who left Amazon's ecosystem on principle, it is the like for like replacement.
The compromises are catalogue and convenience. The library is large, comparison tables put it above 750,000 titles, but Audible's exclusive productions are absent, and the app experience is a step behind. None of that matters to its customers, who are buying the model as much as the books. If the credit system suits you and a local shop matters to you, Libro.fm is the clear choice; if you want streaming breadth, look at Everand.
What we like- Same credit model as Audible at $14.99 a month, but files are DRM free and yours outright
- Every membership is tied to a local independent bookshop that shares the revenue
- Catalogue reported at 750,000 plus titles through its retail partners
- Playlists and gifting suit book club households
Watch out for- No free trial by current comparisons
- No streaming catalogue tier, credits are the whole model
- App polish and smart speaker support trail Audible
- Catalogue, while large, lacks Audible's exclusives
Starting price$14.95 per month
Free planNo
Audiobooks.com blends the two audio models: a monthly credit for a premium title you keep, plus a rotating club selection you can stream as part of membership. At $14.95 a month it matches Audible's price while adding the included listening Audible reserves for its cheaper tier, which suits listeners who finish their credit book by mid month and want something to hear for the rest of it.
It sits between giants, without Audible's exclusives or Libro.fm's bookshop story, and its terms deserve a closer read than most, since club listening and credit ownership are different rights. For a listener who wants one app, no Amazon account, and a mix of owning and streaming, Audiobooks.com is the balanced middle option on this list.
What we like- Membership at $14.95 includes a monthly credit plus access to a VIP selection of included listens
- Catalogue reported around 700,000 titles
- 30 day trial by current comparison tables
- Works across phones, cars, and web players without ecosystem lock in
Watch out for- The included VIP selection is narrower than Everand's catalogue
- Ownership terms on club titles differ from credit titles, read the fine print
- Less prominent exclusives slate than Audible
- Pricing and bundles shift with promotions
Starting price$12.99 per month
Free planNo
Spotify Premium quietly became an audiobook service: the $12.99 individual plan includes 15 hours a month from a catalogue comparison tables put around 700,000 titles. For the household already paying for Spotify, those hours are effectively free audiobooks, enough for a typical novel or a nonfiction title a month, inside the app everyone already has open.
The ceiling is the story. Fifteen hours disappears into a single epic fantasy novel, top ups cost extra, and on family plans the included hours belong to the plan manager alone. Spotify is the right audiobook answer for light, opportunistic listening and the wrong one for committed listeners, who should treat it as a supplement to Audible, Libro.fm, or the library rather than a replacement.
What we like- Premium at $12.99 includes 15 hours of audiobook listening a month from a large catalogue
- No second subscription for households already paying for Spotify
- Top up hours can be bought when a long book runs over
- Music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one app the family already uses
Watch out for- Fifteen hours is less than one long novel, heavy listeners will hit the wall monthly
- Hours do not buy ownership, access ends with the subscription
- Only the plan manager gets the hours on family plans
- Audiobook catalogue varies and some titles are excluded
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Libby, the library app from OverDrive, is the service that embarrasses the paid ones. It costs nothing, it stocks the frontlist bestsellers that Kindle Plus and Kobo Plus cannot offer, because libraries license the same editions bookstores sell, and its reading experience is among the best designed here. Many Kobo e readers borrow through it natively, and US readers can send most books to Kindle.
The price is patience. Libraries buy a limited number of digital copies, so a hot title means a holds queue, and your place in it depends on your library's budget and size. Readers who plan ahead, placing holds and letting books arrive, read more current titles for free than any subscription sells. Casual, immediate readers will find the waits frustrating. The sensible household stack is Libby first, one paid service second, which is why the free option closes this list as its benchmark.
What we like- Completely free with a public library card
- Carries current bestsellers and new releases the paid subscriptions exclude
- Ebooks and audiobooks in one app, with Kindle delivery in the US
- No billing, no credits, no cancellation traps
Watch out for- Popular titles have hold queues that can run to weeks or months
- Your library's catalogue and copy counts decide what you can get
- Loans expire automatically, usually in 14 to 21 days
- Heavy series readers may wait between volumes
How we chose
We covered the three models a reader will meet, borrow catalogues (Kindle Plus, Kobo Plus, Libby), credit clubs (Audible, Libro.fm, Audiobooks.com), and hybrids (Everand, Spotify), using October 2026 comparisons from Ecommerce Paradise, ToolRadar, TextToLab, and Product Bible, plus ZDNet reporting carried by LavX on the October 2026 Kindle Plus rebrand. Where a service's model changed materially, Everand's credits, Kindle's name, the entries say so. We left out summaries apps such as Blinkist, which abridge rather than provide books, deal stores such as Chirp, and regional services with no US offer.
What to look for in an ebook subscription service
Match the model to your reading speed. A borrow catalogue pays off at four or more books a month; below that, a credit club or the library is cheaper per finished book. Check your genres against the catalogue before paying, because subscription pools are publisher opt ins: genre fiction and self published work pools deep, literary frontlist barely pools at all, and no subscription here replaces buying new releases.
Mind what happens when you leave. Borrowed books vanish with the subscription, credit books from Audible stay, Libro.fm files stay and play anywhere, and Spotify hours evaporate monthly whether used or not. Then pair deliberately: Libby for bestsellers and holds, one paid service for volume or audio, is the combination most heavy readers settle into. Finally, use the trials in sequence rather than in parallel; a month of each finalist, reading your actual list, tells you more than any catalogue size claim, including the ones in this article.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to Kindle Unlimited?
Amazon renamed it Kindle Plus in October 2026. The price stayed $11.99 a month, the borrow up to 20 titles rule stayed, and the relaunch expanded included audiobooks, in large part by adding titles narrated with Amazon's Virtual Voice AI tool for self published authors. Existing members simply continue under the new name. Reviews and recommendations written before October 2026 that say Kindle Unlimited are describing this same service.
Which ebook subscription is best value?
By the month, Kobo Plus Read at $7.99 is the cheapest full ebook plan, and Libby is free. By the finished book, it depends on your pace: a heavy genre reader gets the most from Kindle Plus at $11.99, an audiobook listener who keeps books gets it from Audible or Libro.fm credits at about $15, and a patient bestseller reader beats every paid service with a library card and a holds list.
Do I own the books from these services?
Only some. Credit titles from Audible and Audiobooks.com are yours to keep in your account, and Libro.fm's are DRM free files you own outright. Borrow models, Kindle Plus, Kobo Plus, Everand's catalogue, and Libby, give access that ends when the subscription or loan ends. Spotify's included hours rent listening time and leave you nothing. If building a permanent library matters to you, weight your choice toward the credit clubs.
Why are new bestsellers missing from Kindle Plus and Kobo Plus?
Because publishers choose which books enter subscription pools, and the major publishers largely keep their frontlist out, preferring full price sales and library licensing. The pools fill instead with backlist, genre series, and self published work, including Kindle's exclusive indie catalogue. The exceptions prove the rule: Libby carries bestsellers because libraries pay for licensed copies title by title, which is also why its popular books have queues.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.