Top 10 Audiobook Download Sites for iPhone

While many people associate iPhone and iPod with apps, music, and movies, these devices are equally handy for listening to audiobooks. Below are our picks for the best places to get free audiobooks for your iPhone.

Some of the audiobooks found on these sites don't download in a file format that the phone recognizes as an audiobook. Either convert these audiobooks to the M4B format with a file converter tool or force iTunes to make the files appear as audiobooks.

There are lots of other free audiobook sites you can look through if you don't find something interesting on these websites.

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Archive.org

What We Like

No cost, ever.
Lots of classics.

What We Don't Like

Not much contemporary, quality content.
Can be difficult to navigate.

Archive.org is a gigantic collection of all types of free media. Beyond its 18,000+ free audiobooks are eBooks, software, movies, images, old web pages, and more.

All content on Archive.org is totally free, but it also tends to be either public domain or content released by self-published authors. As a result, don't expect to find the biggest names or the latest hits, but you will find a nearly inexhaustible supply of great listening.

Visit Archive.org

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All You Can Books

What We Like

Good selection of content.
Free for 30 days.

What We Don't Like

Expensive monthly charge.
Must enroll in trial to access the catalog.

All You Can Books is a subscription service that offers audiobooks for a monthly fee, but with a twist: it offers a 30-day free subscription period, after which (unless you cancel) you'll pay $19.99 per month. The trial is identical to the paid edition, so during this free period, you can download unlimited audiobooks onto your iPhone for free.

It's hard to know what kind of selection the site has because you can't browse its library of over 40,000 titles without subscribing, but since the first month is free, the risk seems low. You can cancel your subscription before the first 30 days are up. Or, let the payment process and continue getting books, just not for free.

Visit All You Can Books

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Audible

What We Like

Huge selection.
Many current releases.
Free trial.

What We Don't Like

Subscription model.

Our Review of Audible

Perhaps the best-known provider of downloadable audiobooks, Audible has been going strong since 1997. It's primarily a subscription service — it costs $14.95/month after a 30-day free trial — and offers free audiobooks as part of its promotions to attract new subscribers.

Audible sponsors many popular podcasts and other top shows. It provides free audiobooks through those ads. Be alert when listening to those podcasts to get free audiobook offers.

Audible has a free mobile app that provides access to your Audible library while on the go.

Learn how to download Audible books if you need help.

Visit Audible

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eStories

What We Like

Expansive selection.
New releases each week.
Quick and easy signup options.

What We Don't Like

Several pricing plans, some are expensive.
By-the-book download fees.

A spin-off from the subscription-based music store eMusic, eStories (formerly called eMusic Audiobooks) is the new version of that site's audiobook download business. The audiobook selection is robust and includes the latest big-name titles and authors as well as less-well-known works.

Literature fans can choose from plans that offer one, two, or five audiobook downloads per month. Plans also offer a rollover for unused downloads and support for playback on multiple devices. Subscriptions run from $11.99 to $49.99 per month, with discounts applied for full-year purchases.

Visit eStories

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LibriVox

What We Like

Great selection of classics.
Free and volunteer-curated.
MP3 downloads without DRM restraints.

What We Don't Like

Hit-or-miss selection.
No meaningful contemporary catalog.

This volunteer-powered site offers public domain books in audio format for iPhone, read by people from all over the world (and, as a result, offers books in many languages). These iPhone audiobooks are available as 64 kbps or 128 kbps MP3s.

Since these are public domain-only books, you won't find the latest titles here. However, if you're looking for a wide selection of classic titles, and if you want to listen in a variety of languages, LibriVox is a good bet.

Visit LibriVox

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Lit2Go

What We Like

Focus on education.
Completely free.
Learning materials included.

What We Don't Like

Sharply limited catalog.

Teachers may find Lit2Go to be a good resource for students. This site, which offers hundreds of free audiobooks, divides classic literature into bite-sized chunks that break up a long novel into several separate downloads for easy assignment and listening. Each audiobook selection comes with reading strategies, transcripts, and more that can be used in class or as homework assignments.

Visit Lit2Go

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Loyal Books

What We Like

Public domain content.
Downloadable MP3s.

What We Don't Like

No current catalog.
Not a major market player.

Loyal Books (previously called Books Should Be Free) is another site that offers public domain audiobooks (this includes books by authors who passed away, in most cases, at least 75 years ago). Most of its over 7,000 titles are drawn from Project Gutenberg and LibriVox.

The audiobooks here are completely free and can be downloaded either as a podcast or as an MP3. The iPhone-compatible audiobook titles are offered in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and more.

To download an audiobook to iPhone, choose the iPod/iPhone M4b Audiobook link.

Visit Loyal Books

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Project Gutenberg

What We Like

Growing audiobook catalog.
A venerable source of classic and public domain books.
Supports many formats.

What We Don't Like

Hit-or-miss whether an audiobook associates with an eBook.
No contemporary catalog.

Project Gutenberg is the most prominent provider of free, public domain eBooks on the web. It also offers audiobook versions of some titles. You won't find the latest books by the biggest authors here, but if you're after the classics or quirky obscurities, it's a great resource for truly free books for iPhone.

Download the books in MP3, M4B audiobook, Speex, or Ogg Vorbis formats.

Visit Project Gutenberg

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Scribl

What We Like

Discover some interesting stuff.

What We Don't Like

Crowd-pricing model.
Not many major publishers.
Wade through junk to find gems.

Scribl (formerly called Podiobooks) offers audiobooks, podcasts, and eBooks using what it calls a crowd-pricing system. This means that works that are highly rated by its users cost more, while lower-rated titles cost less, with many offered for free. Another nice feature of the service is that audiobooks come with an eBook version of the title for free.

For writers, Scribl is also a self-publishing platform. That means you're likely to find more up-and-coming indie authors here than big names. Still, there are tons of titles across many genres, so you're likely to find something of interest.

To find only audiobooks for iPhone, filter the results to hide other content such as podcasts and eBooks.

Visit Scribl

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ThoughtAudio

What We Like

Offers PDFs.
Public domain content.

What We Don't Like

Not a major market player.
Fairly limited catalog.

ThoughtAudio is another source of free audiobooks that work on the iPhone. Like other audiobook sites, it's free because it contains public domain texts. You'll find dozens of free MP3s, with longer books often broke up into multiple files. ThoughtAudio offers a nice bonus, too: PDFs of the text being read. Since the works it offers are in the public domain, it can provide these books for free.

Visit ThoughtAudio

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