Category: Review

Uptime is a 5-minute learning, knowledge-hacking, and book summary app. It offers over 2,500 knowledge hacks in extremely creative reading, watching, and listening formats.  In our Uptime review, we’ll explain exactly how it works, what it’s like, and whether it’s worth your time and dollars.

Whenever there’s a new book summary service, at Four Minute Books, we feel obliged to review it for you. In Uptime’s case, we’re excited to do so not just because of their creative approach to delivering the content, but also because their self-proclaimed goal is to replace doomscrolling with productivity, learning, and wellbeing. If that’s not a noble reason to start a book summary service, then what is?

The Uptime team not only summarizes books but also adds courses, documentaries, and podcast summaries to its quickly growing content library. It also has a lot of unique features that add a lot to the summary-reading experience. We’ve tried Uptime for the last few weeks, and now, we’d like to tell you all about it.

After our usual, quick summary and FAQ, we’ll show you the pros and cons of using Uptime, along with a detailed walkthrough of how it feels to use the app. We’ll also break down how Uptime’s “Knowledge Hack” format works, and we’ve even gathered some reviews from other users around the web. Finally, we’ll end on our conclusion and recommendation.

As always, you can jump to whatever section of this review seems most interesting to you thanks to our neat table of contents:

If you want to come back up here at any time, just hit the little up arrow icon on the bottom right corner of this page. Alright, let’s dive into our Uptime review with the most frequently asked questions about the app.

Can they turn your downtime into uptime? You’re about to find out!

Quick Summary of Our Uptime Review (FAQ) 

1. What is the Uptime app? 

Uptime is a knowledge-hacking app that gives quick summaries or “hacks” of all kinds of content, from books and online courses to documentaries and more. You can read or listen to hacks and leave bookmarks, download for offline listening, and see where you can purchase the course or book.

2. Is Uptime a good app? 

Uptime is one of our favorite apps for learning from digital content. It’s easy to use, has all of the most important features like the ability to read or listen anywhere, and it’s got a ton of content. One of our favorite parts is that it lets you quickly figure out what the best books, courses, and documentaries are for you so you don’t have to waste time on content that doesn’t appeal to you. More on that later though!

3. Can you use the Uptime app for free? 

You can download and use the Uptime app for free but you only get one free hack per day and you don’t get to choose it. The app does give a variety of free summaries between their different content types, including book, course, documentary, and podcast hacks. 

4. How much does an Uptime subscription cost? 

The regular price of Uptime is $19.99 per month if billed month-to-month. You can also pay yearly at the price of $79.99 per year, which comes to about $7 per month. We often find discounts though that let you purchase your first year for $49.99, or just over $4 per month on average.

5. Is Uptime worth it? 

For just $4-$7 per month you get thousands of summaries of courses, books, podcasts, and documentaries that you can learn from to improve your life, learn a new skill, or just relax and enjoy interesting stories and ideas. This saves you hundreds of hours of your precious time. It also saves hundreds of dollars that you’d normally have to spend on all of this content. You can get just the main points for a fraction of the time and money, making Uptime 100% worth the cost.

Pros and Cons of Uptime

Uptime has so many cool features that we can’t wait to show you. Before that, though, we want to go over the main reasons that people love Uptime and also let you know what’s not so great about it. Let’s jump right into it with the many plusses of using Uptime!

Pros of using Uptime:

1. It has over 2,500 summaries of courses, podcasts, and documentaries as well as books. This is the only app that we are aware of that offers shorter versions of courses, podcasts, and documentaries and we absolutely love it. We love digital content of all types, and the ability to find summaries of all kinds is wonderful because it really broadens the horizons of what you can learn from.
2. Uptime will save you a TON of time and money that you could be spending consuming full courses, books, podcasts, and documentaries. We love this about all summary services but Uptime does an exceptional job here with all that it has to offer. Many online courses, for instance, cost between $150 and $1,000, so to be able to get the main points of as many courses as you want for just $4-$7 a month is an incredible deal. Not to mention that most courses, documentaries, books, and podcasts would normally take you at anywhere from one to 10 hours to complete. With Uptime, you can get the main ideas in a mere 15 minutes at most.
3. The app already has phenomenal reviews in the Apple app store and many awards. It’s got a 4.8 out of 5 average rating and users are raving about it. Almost every review has a response from Uptime as well, both good and bad. It’s also currently an Editors’ Choice app in the Apple app store. We’ll get into more on what other users have to say about Uptime in the next section.
4. The content delivery system is one of the best we’ve ever seen. You can read or listen to hacks and each is made up of mini lessons that you swipe between, so you’re never overwhelmed by a wall of text. They also get creative with the way content is delivered, occasionally including videos to give context to the lessons and make them even more clear. Plus, you can save any page within a hack so that you can easily remember your favorite parts of everything you read on Uptime.
5. Their team is adding 40 new hacks every week. That averages to almost six new summaries every day. I’ve been using the app for a little while now and it’s tough to consume that much in a day, so I’m excited to know that I’m never going to run out of stuff to learn from within Uptime!

Cons of using Uptime:

1. It’s a new app, so it might not have some of your favorites. However, because they are adding 40 new titles every week, their library is growing quickly and you’ll soon be able to find everything you want to learn from inside.
2. You don’t get the stories and nuance that you’d normally have reading a full book. We’ve found that this is completely made up for in the fact that we end up using Uptime to find the best courses, books, podcasts, and documentaries, so we only spend our time and money on what we love. I might use Uptime to find a course that I really love amid a few that are just alright, so it’s much easier for me to decide to go purchase the full course. Plus, there are links to the full courses, books, and podcasts in each hack!
3. Some of the courses give really generic tips. I found that I couldn’t go into as much detail with learning from courses as I would have liked to, and I’m sure the same applies for the rest of their content as well. I’d sometimes get to the end of a course hack and not feel like I’d learned how to do what the course was designed to teach. I will say that it was always a good preview of what I would learn if I were to purchase the full course, which made it much easier to be picky in which online courses I actually decide to buy.

What Is It Like to Use the Uptime App?

As we’ve already explained, the user interface in the Uptime app is one of the best we’ve ever seen. There are so many options for reading or listening, it’s super simple and visually appealing, and it lets you save anything you might want to access later. 

Let’s get right into it with the main screen when you first open the app:

In the top right corner the little fire icon shows your streak and lets you customize your interests at any time. If you are using the free version of the app you’ll notice a diamond icon up there that shows your options for purchasing a subscription.

Next up, in the first main section of this screen, you’ve got the option to jump back into any hacks that you were partway through when you last opened the app. 

After that begins a section of recommendations based on your previous reading. More suggestions follow, starting with the “Now trending” section just above the bottom menu. Below that you’ll continue to see more recommendations and other sections:

That bottom menu lets you navigate between four main pages within the app:

1. Your home page, which is what you see above
2. The “Browse” area, which lets you find new content by topic or collection
3. “Sparks,” which are bookmarks of your favorite lessons
4. My Uptime, which will show your streak, messages, settings, and your hacks, including downloads.

Let’s take a dive into each of these other sections, starting with “Browse.” Here is a screenshot of what this section looks like:

At the top you can search for any hack by title, author, or keyword.

Next you can browse by topic. This section includes all the major topics of books, courses, podcasts, and documentaries. You’ll see sections like Personal Growth, Money & Investing, Parenting & Relationships, Arts & Design, and more. 

The “Deep dive into” section comes last, and includes links to all different kinds of hacks that Uptime has. These sections are:

• Collections
• Book hacks
• Course hacks
• Documentary hacks
• Podcast hacks
• Editor’s picks 
• Trending hacks
• New hacks

Note that collections are groupings of hacks based on all kinds of things, such as authors favorites, top documentaries, best books, how to be a leader, and much more. 

Editor’s picks will show you hacks for current top rated content in all different categories.

I think my favorite thing about this is how simple it is to find content that you’ll love. Right away I can see genre’s that I like, but I can also sort through collections by my favorite authors or life events I might be dealing with. 

It’s also not bogged down with too many sections. You get the search bar, the browse by topic option, and the deep dive area, and that’s it. I don’t ever feel like I have to waste time trying to figure out how to use this section, which saves me even more time getting right to the best lessons from all kinds of content!

After the Browse area comes the Sparks, which is like a personal library of your favorite lessons that you’ve saved from summaries. Here’s what the main screen looks like:

Sparks are organized into boards, and the default board they’ll go into is “My board” shown above. Once you go into the board, you’ll get to replay each of the sparks you’ve saved as if you were reading it within the summary that you saved it from. 

Within each Spark you can also have a few different options:

First up is your typical share option. Below that you’ve got the big button that lets you add a note to your Spark. I love this idea because the library then becomes a living document that you can go back and record ideas and experiences living the principles that each Spark teaches. 

Below that you’ll see the option to view the board that the Spark is in. You can also remove the Spark. At the very bottom is a link that will take you to the full hack that the Spark came from.

As with the previous sections, I love how simple this is. It’s just what you need and no more than that. It’s not overwhelming with too many options. I really think that if you used it right this could rival an Evernote library, but you’ll have to check out our review of Evernote to decide for yourself.

The last of the main sections in the Uptime app is “My Uptime.” Here’s what it looks like:

From the top right corner we’ve got the mail icon, which lets you join Uptime’s newsletter to get updates on their newest content. Next to that is where you can change the app’s settings, including going into dark mode, signing out of your account, changing your notification options, and more. 

Next, you’ll see the “Start your streak” section. You’ll start and continue your streak by completing one insight per day from any hack. This a fun way to help you remember to keep learning.

Below that you’ve got the option to set up reminders so that you don’t lose your streak. I’ve found that this is really helpful because with so many apps on my phone, it’s easy to forget what I want to be spending my time on the most. I don’t usually allow many reminders on my phone, but Uptime is definitely one I’m considering letting notify me to remind me to keep learning!

In the next section you’ll see all the hacks that you’ve saved. You can view them by all, downloaded, unfinished, or your history.

At the very bottom you’ve got two last areas, one for your stats and the other lets you get in touch with Uptime:

I really love the “hours saved” widget, which shows you how many hours you would have had to spend reading full books and other types of content instead of using Uptime to get them summarized. 

You’ll also see your longest streak, number of different topics you’ve covered, your favorite category, and more.

That does it for the main screens in the Uptime app, now let’s move on to get into the finer details of using Uptime!

How Do Uptime’s Knowledge Hacks Work?

I love reading summaries, also known as hacks, with Uptime. It’s simple but also goes in-depth in all the right places. For this section, we’ll focus just on book and course hacks, but podcast and documentary hacks are going to have the same look and feel. Basically, consuming these hacks feels exactly like watching stories on Instagram or Snapchat!

When you first press on any hack, you’ll be taken to a screen that has a summary, options to bookmark and download, and a link to the full content. You can then select whether you want to read, watch, or listen to the hack.

Once you start reading a hack, here’s what you’ll see:

At the top you’ll see a little bar showing you the name of the book and a notation of which section you are in of how many total sections there are in the hack. Next to that you can pause the hack, toggle listening on or off, and exit out of the hack.

The small bar below that shows the title of the section you’re in and has a slider showing how long you have left on this screen. Uptime automatically switches between sections in each hack, so this bar is like the timer telling you when your time on this section is up. You can pause at any moment though, so don’t worry about missing anything!

The body of the hack follows, and I love how this keeps things super simple for us and doesn’t have a wall of text or anything overwhelming. The content in this section changes as you go through, starting with the “in a nutshell” and moving on to the actual lessons:

This is an example of one of my favorite parts of Uptime. Rather than just telling you about an event or lesson, it actually gives you the video or other applicable content as much as possible. 

In this instance, we see the hack mentioning when a news reporter had a panic attack while reporting on live TV and they actually show the footage of it! You can’t even get that when you’re reading a book normally! 

This is just one small way that Uptime goes above and beyond when it comes to summaries. No more searching to try to find what a book is talking about, it’s right there for you to watch for yourself! We’ve never seen this kind of thing in a summary service before, and it’s one of the reasons we love Uptime so much.

Also while reading hacks you’ll have a few options at the bottom of the screen, starting with the “Spark this” button, which will pull up this screen:

Your Spark will automatically be saved and you can choose what board to add it to or create a brand new board. After pressing “Done,” you’ll return to the hack to continue reading, listening, or watching. 

On the right side of the bottom menu while reading a hack, you’ll see the option to share and then a “More” button, which takes you here:

At the top you’ll still see the “Spark this” and “Share” buttons and a “Less” button to take you back to the hack. 

In the middle, you’ve got options to save the hack to your library to read later, change the mode, download it for on-the-go listening or reading, and the option to change the reading speed. 

The mode is pretty cool as it lets you change between three types of delivery:

• Story, which is the default option where it automatically moves from lesson to lesson.
• Audio, where the hack is presented in the same breakdown as story mode, but it’s just audio instead of text.
• Text, which lets you just read the hack at your own pace and move to each section whenever you want.

You can also toggle the auto-play in story mode. This lets you choose whether or not you want hacks to automatically play the next lesson and gives you the chance to move at your own pace more. 

I like both options because sometimes it’s easier to focus when I know that the content will only be onscreen for a limited time but it’s also nice to be able to switch if I want to just take my time and think about the lessons as I go through them.

Another cool feature of Uptime is that it shows you ways to apply what you’re learning. I love that they emphasize this because a lot of the time with summarized content it’s easy to get caught up in consuming volume instead of taking a deep dive. Uptime fixes this by offering an “insight in action” for each lesson:

You get to see each insight in action at the end of the lesson, and a shorter summary of all of them together when you’ve finished the hack:

Sometimes it’s really tough to get the “what should I do about this?” out of non-fiction content like this. Many books we read have so much in them that we feel overwhelmed with everything we want to do about what they teach. 

Uptime removes this problem by giving you the summary and focusing you on just a few main points from the content that you can apply to improve your life!

That’ll do it for Uptime’s main features! I told you it was simple and easy to use, didn’t I? It’s easy to see already that we love Uptime, but let’s wrap up with a quick summary of everything and our final conclusion of whether or not Uptime is worth it for you. Although I think you already know what we’re going to say about it!

Uptime Reviews By Users

As of this writing, Uptime has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 in the Apple app store and 4.0 out of 5 in the Google Play (Android) store. Let’s take a deeper look into what people have to say about Uptime in their reviews.

On the Google Play app store, the majority of negative reviews have to do with the cost of Uptime. Many of these people say that the content is great, they’re just frustrated with the price. 

Looking through the reviews, I also couldn’t find a single one that Uptime hadn’t responded to, no matter whether it was critical or praise! And I scrolled through maybe a couple hundred reviews, too. These guys care about their users, and it shows. 

Here are some of the main ideas from comments from app store reviews of Uptime:

• People love the concept of summaries for books, courses, documentaries, and other types of content as well as the way that Uptime delivers these.
• Tons of summaries and a very nice app but sometimes the summaries feel too simple and thin. I just want to point out here that as we mentioned in our pros and cons list above, this is inevitable with summary services and can actually be a good thing as it helps you decide what content is actually worth your time.
• One user referred to Uptime as “Snapchat for knowledge” and we couldn’t agree more. 
• Comments mention that it gives people an opportunity to learn from books and other content that they’ve been dying to read but haven’t had the time for. Plus they love that it also leads them to books that they might never have found on their own!
• A review from just a few months ago describes how the user used to pick up lots of books and never finish them, but that Uptime has solved this issue for them!

I searched for reviews of Uptime on Reddit but unfortunately wasn’t able to find anything just yet. Give it some time though, and I’m sure people will start chiming in there to let us know what they think! 

There are already hundreds of comments in reviews in the Apple and Google Play stores though. If you want more ideas to help you see if Uptime is for you, check out Uptime in each app store via the links below:

Read Uptime Reviews in the Apple App Store »

Read Uptime Reviews in the Google Play Store »

Now that we’ve seen what others think of Uptime and looked at it’s major pros and cons, it’s time to get into the awesome details of what the app feels like.

How Uptime Has Changed My Life for the Better

I love non-fiction content, especially from books and online courses. In just the last few years, I’ve probably spent a few thousand dollars on just courses and books.

The sad part about all of that, though, is that I’ve only actually finished about 25% of it all. If I had started with Uptime, I would have saved all that money and not left anything unfinished because I’d have got through all of that content much sooner at a far cheaper price. 

I’ve only been using Uptime for a short time, and it already tells me that I’ve saved 57 hours by learning from 27 insights. If we were conservative and said that each of those was a book insight and the average cost of a book is $15, I’d be out $405 to read all of those books. Considering many of those were courses, the actual number is probably over $1,000!

What’s more, those 57 hours I’ve saved have let me spend more time on applying the content to improve my life and less time bogged down in the details that can make some non-fiction content difficult to get through. Without all that overwhelm, I’ve improved my life much faster than if it weren’t for Uptime.

Conclusion of Our Uptime Review: Is Uptime Worth It?

An Uptime subscription costs just $4-7 per month and lets you get the main ideas out of books, courses, and documentaries in a fraction of the time. Plus, you get to find out whether or not a book or course is worth it for you without spending all the money to buy it first. No more wasted time buying digital products that don’t meet your needs. 

My conclusion is that Uptime is 100% worth the price because it’s one of the best all-around summary services out there. For just a few dollars per month, you get summaries of books, podcasts, courses, and documentaries, all in an easy-to-consume format with the ability to save and take notes on all of it.

If you’ve made it all the way here, congratulations, and thank you! If you’d like to give Uptime a try, please use the button below. We’d really appreciate it. As always, we hope we’ve helped you learn more in less time, and we’ll see you soon in our next review!

---

Other Reviews

Looking for our other reviews of the most popular book summary apps, tools, and services? Here’s a list of all the reviews we’ve published so far:

Masterclass is a high-end online course platform where classes are taught by some of the top experts in their fields. It gives you the opportunity to learn from some of the most inspiring artists, leaders, and icons in the world.

Masterclass offers many categories of courses to make you an expert in your desired field, hobby, or passion. Its subscription cost matches the value they provide with its content and production quality.

Now the question is – is Masterclass worth it? Should you stick with other, lower-price online course platforms, or should you invest in a Masterclass membership? The answer depends on your personal situation and needs. That’s why, in this in-depth Masterclass review, we’ll teach you all you need to know to make the decision that works for you.

Besides a quick tl;dr summary and in-depth walkthrough of both the Masterclass app and desktop version, we’ll also list all the pros and cons of using Masterclass. We’ve even compared them to all their most relevant competitors for you! Finally, we’ve curated some list of their most popular classes as well as our personal favorites, so you’ll know exactly where to start learning.

As usual, you can use our convenient table of contents below to jump to whatever section might interest you the most! Let’s go!

Quick Summary of Our Masterclass Review (FAQ)

• Is Masterclass worth it?

Masterclass is worth it if you want to learn from top industry experts across various creative fields. It may not be for you if their topics don’t interest you or if you prefer learning from other teachers and professors.

• Does Masterclass offer a free trial?

Masterclass doesn’t offer a free trial. However, they do provide a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you want to cancel your membership and get a refund. They also allow all new customers to give away three guest passes for 14 days.

• How’s the course quality of Masterclass?

The courses in Masterclass are produced with great care and attention to detail. It may be possible that you don’t like a particular class, but most of the time, you’ll find the course material and the learning experience top-notch.

• How much does Masterclass cost?

Masterclass has an Individual plan for $180 a year, a Duo plan for $240 a year, and a Family plan for $276 a year. You can find details about each plan in the Masterclass Pricing section of the review.

• How does Masterclass compare with its alternatives?

There are many platforms similar to Masterclass. It is commonly compared with Skillshare, Udemy, Coursera, CreativeLive, LinkedIn Learning, and Mindvalley. You can find the key differences between them in the Masterclass vs Competitors section of the review.

Pros and Cons of Masterclass

Masterclass has more than 150 online courses taught by the world’s top experts. Its course categories include Food, Design & Style, Arts & Entertainment, Music, Business, Sports & Gaming, Writing, Science & Tech, Home & Lifestyle, Community & Government, and Wellness.

Here are the top pros and cons of Masterclass:

Pros of using Masterclass:

1. The courses are taught by experts, so you can rely upon their expertise and enjoy high-quality content with excellent delivery.
2. The learning experience is professional and accessible on devices such as PC, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
3. The app lets you take notes along with each lesson and also gives you a downloadable workbook with each course.
4. Masterclass can easily be shared with family with their Family plan. It can also be used by business teams with Masterclass at Work.
5. Masterclass comes with new classes every month and publishes new articles regularly.

Cons of using Masterclass:

1. There are cheaper alternatives to Masterclass which you can use if you don’t need their ongoing membership to take several courses.
2. Masterclass doesn’t offer a free trial to potential customers nor does it allow you to pay monthly. It charges for the annual subscription with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. Masterclass course categories are limited to creative and business skills, so you should only invest in it if its categories interest you.

What Is It Like to Use Masterclass?

Masterclass offers incredible learning and user experience in all its applications. It’s available on PC, iOS, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku. For this review, we’ll show you the interface of both the web and iOS application on mobile.

Navigating Masterclass is pretty straightforward. If you can use a smartphone or personal computer, you will most likely have no difficulty with Masterclass. It’s not just the simplicity but also their attention to detail as well as the high course production quality that makes it stand out.

Let’s break down several sections and features of Masterclass:

1. Discover Tab

• Daily Moments

A selection of clips from different courses that you can watch. It’s a great way to explore a course without starting it. You can start taking the full course if it interests you.

• Continue Watching

Continue watching the courses from where you left off so you don’t need to remember where you are in each course.

• Featured

When new sessions or classes are added, they are displayed here.

• Sessions

Sessions are 30-day curriculums where you also submit your project, get feedback, and are supported by a community.

2. Library Tab

Browse courses and categories or search for courses, topics, and instructors in the library tab.

 

3. My Progress Tab

• Keep Watching

Resume the courses you’re taking.

• Try Something New

Course suggestions for you from Masterclass.

• My Notes

All notes you take while watching the courses are saved here for easy access.

• Classes You’ve Mastered

All classes that you finish are shown here.

4. Playlists

Playlists such as Working Well, The Kitchen, Inside The Craft, Big Ideas, and A Creative Life are curated here by Masterclass.

5. Articles

Articles are published regularly by Masterclass which you can read and bookmark. They complement the course materials of Masterclass.

6. Masterclass Courses

You can continue watching any course from where you left off. When you watch a lesson, you can:

• Share the lesson
• Download the class guide (workbook)
• Bookmark a lesson
• Take notes
• Watch Moments to see the highlights of the lesson (available on apps)

• Download the lesson (available on apps)
• See the list of upcoming lessons
• Switch between audio and video (available on apps)

• Change the speed of the video (0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x)
• Change the language of captions (English, German, Spanish)
• Change the quality of the video (360p, 540p, 720p, 1080p)
• Mute, increase or decrease the volume
• Pause and play
• Switch between fullscreen and normal view

Note: Masterclass also used to conduct live classes. You can still watch all the recordings of the past classes under Masterclass Live.

List of All Classes on Masterclass

Below, you will find a full list of all classes on Masterclass as of July 2022, sorted by category. To save space and not clutter your screen, we’ve wrapped them into expandable blocks. Simply click on any category to see the full list of classes about that topic.

The 10 Most Popular Masterclasses

1. Chris Voss Teaches the Art of Negotiation

Chriss Voss is a former SWAT team officer at the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. Now he is the founder of Black Swan Group which focuses on training businesses and individuals to become highly effective negotiators.

He teaches the key principles, techniques, and strategies of negotiation. Some of the lesson titles include Tactical Empathy, Mirroring, Labelling, Mastering Delivery, Body Language & Speech Patters, Creating the Illusion of Control, The Accusations Audit, The Value of “No”, Bending Reality, Bargaining, Black Swans, and The Power of Negotiation.

2. Neil deGrasse Tyson Teaches Scientific Thinking and Communication

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a famous astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. He is also the director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium.

He discusses scientific literacy, communication, concerns, and concepts. Some of the lesson titles include The Frontier of Science, The Scientific Method, Cognitive Bias, Our Systems of Belief, Communication Tactics, and The Future of Our World.

3. Dr. Jane Goodall Teaches Conservation

Dr. Jane Goodall is a lover of animals. She started learning about wildlife when she was young. She now travels more than 300 days a year to speak about the challenges facing chimpanzees and the environment.

Goodall talks about animal behavior, climate change, and what we can do to help our planet. Some of the lesson titles include Chimpanzee Behaviour, Animal Intelligence, Chimps & Humans, Humans & The Environment, Animal Cruelty, Climate Change, Water, Land, Organic Farming, Making Global Change, and Reasons for Hope.

4. Chris Hadfield Teaches Space Exploration

Chris Hadfield is known to be the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong. He is the author of the international bestseller books An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here.

He teaches about rockets, spaceships, the ISS, Spacewalking, and Mars among other topics. Some of the lesson titles include Astronaut Training, How Rockets Work, Life Support Sytems, Leadership: Commanding the ISS, Spacesuits, Spacewalks, Living on Another Planet, and The Future of Exploration.

5. Jon Kabat-Zinn Teaches Mindfulness and Meditation

Jon Kabat-Zinn has been at the forefront of the Western mindfulness movement for more than four decades. He founded the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society. He is also the author of fourteen books.

Kabat-Zinn talks about the role of mindfulness in stress reduction and teaches various meditation techniques. Some of the lesson titles include A Guide to Meditation, Meditation Postures, Mindfulness and Stress, The Science of Mindfulness, Reclaiming Our Wholeness, Healing the World, and Maintaining a Mindfulness Practice.

6. Brandon McMillan Teaches Dog Training

Brandon has helped raise tigers since he was four years old. The animals he has trained have appeared in motion pictures and television commercials. He now trains shelter dogs to be service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support dogs.

He teaches building trust, bonding, and training a dog like a pro. Some of the lesson titles include Trust & Groundwork for Training, Sit, Down, Stay, No, Off, Come, Heel, Housebreaking, Door Dashing, and Digging, Chewing, Barking.

7. Matthew Walker Teaches the Science of Better Sleep

Matthew Walker is the founder-director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the book Why We Sleep in which he explains how sleep affects the mind and body and the role it can play in conditions like dementia and depression.

He explains the science behind sleep and gives tips to get better sleep. Some of the lesson titles include How Sleep Works, Night Owl or Morning Lark?, Prevent Sleep Debt, Fire Up the Brain, Overnight Therapy, The Absurd Act of Dreaming, Sleep to Thrive, and Reclaim Your Sleep.

8. Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing

Margaret Atwood is a well-known author of over 40 books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. She is the author of the famous book The Handmaid’s Tale. She has won many awards and her stories have been adapted for television.

Atwood shares her writing process and gives advice on plotting stories, structuring novels, bringing characters to life, and crafting dialogues among many other things. Some of the lesson titles include Story and Plot, Narrative Point of View, Creating Compelling Characters, Writing Through Roadblocks, and The Writer’s Path.

9. Stephen Curry Teaches Shooting, Ball-Handling, and Scoring

Stephen Curry has broken numerous NBA records. He won his first NBA championship in 2015 and his second in 2017. He has also earned two MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards.

Curry explains his mechanics, drills, mental attitude, and scoring techniques. Some of the lesson titles include Form Shooting Practice, Ball Handling: On The Move, Creating Space From Your Defender, Ball Screens, Scoring at the Rim, and Pregame Preparation.

10. Carlos Santana Teaches the Art and Soul of Guitar

Carlos Santana has ​​hit number one on the Billboard charts with Abraxas, featuring seminal hits “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen.” He now has a legendary status as a guitarist.

He gives his secrets about how he plays the guitar to move the hearts of audiences. Some of the lesson titles include Practice as Musical Offering, Going Inside the Note, Finding Your Sound, Learning From the Blues, Melody is Supreme, Leading and Playing in a Band, and Continuing Your Transformation.

Our Top 5 Favorite Masterclasses

1. Gordon Ramsay Teaches Cooking

Gordon Ramsay has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. His restaurant has earned three Michelin stars and now his empire has grown to 30 restaurants throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S.

He teaches his layouts, methods, skills, and recipes. Some of the lesson titles include Pomme Purée, Cauliflower Steak, Olives and Mushrooms, Roasted Aubergine With Basil and Feta, Szechuan Roasted Whole Chicken, Sesame Crusted Tuna With Cucumber Salad, and Raspberry Soufflé.

2. Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess

Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the USSR at the age of 12, the World Junior Champion at 17, and the youngest World Chess Champion at the age of 22. He held on to the title of the world’s highest-rated player until retirement.

He shows everything from the fundamentals to various tactics and strategies to become a master at Chess. Some of the lesson titles include Discovered Attacks, Deflection/Attraction, Winning Trades, Openings, How to Analyse, and Mental Toughness.

3. Bob Iger Teaches Business Strategy and Leadership

Bob Iger is the chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. Disney’s annual net income has increased more than 400 percent under his leadership. He’s been ranked the most powerful person in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter many years in a row.

He teaches ​​how to lead creatively and curiously with an acceptance of risk and an ability to learn from mistakes for extraordinary business success. Some of the lesson titles include Using Your Time Efficiently, The Art of Negotiation, Creating Brand Value, Anticipating What Consumers Want, The Importance of Risk-Taking, and Tenets for Success.

4. The Power of Empathy With Pharrell Williams and Noted Co-Instructors

Pharrell Williams is an artist, songwriter, producer, fashion designer, bestselling author, and cultural influencer. He is the founder of Black Ambition, a non-profit dedicated to reducing the wealth gap by providing funding and resources to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.

He and other co-instructors give various practices and exercises to tap into the power of empathy to change the world. Some of the lesson titles include The Evolution of Empathy, Changing Your Vantage Point, Empathy as Democratizing Force, The Love Ethic, and Extinguishing Limitations & Empowering Others.

5. Paul Krugman Teaches Economics and Society

Paul Krugman is a Nobel-prize-winning economist known for his work on international trade and economic geography. He is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes.

He shares the economic theories that drive history and help explain the world around you. Some of the lesson titles include Two Fundamental Principles of Economics, Major Developments in Economic Thought, Economic Solutions to Crises, Inequality: The Growing Gap, Understanding Taxes, and Economic Geography.

Masterclass Pricing

Masterclass has three pricing plans and one customized solution for businesses. All plans give you access to 150+ classes across 11 categories. Here are the differences between the plans:

1. Individual

The Individual plan costs $180 per year (or $15 per month). It lets you create one account and use Masterclass on one device at a time. It doesn’t let you download lessons for offline viewing.

2. Duo

The Duo plan costs $240 per year (or $20 per month). It lets you watch Masterclass courses on two devices at the same time. In addition, it allows you to download lessons for offline viewing.

3. Family

The Family plan costs $276 per year (or $23 per month). It lets you watch Masterclass courses on six devices at the same time, making it the best value option if you intend to share it with your friends and family.

4. Masterclass at Work

Since Masterclass provides a lot of courses in the Business category, Masterclass at Work could be a great addition to a company. It could enhance a business with courses on Strategy & Leadership, Sales Organization & Deal Closing strategies, Effective Communication strategies, etc.

The pricing depends on the volume of orders. You can contact their sales team for more info.

Masterclass vs Competitors

Masterclass alternatives are plenty. Here are the key differences between its main competitors:

Masterclass vs Skillshare

• Masterclass instructors are industry experts whereas Skillshare allows any user to create a course.
• Masterclass has fewer courses than Skillshare but their production quality is much better.
• Masterclass doesn’t offer a free trial whereas Skillshare lets you get started for free.

Masterclass vs Udemy

• Masterclass is led by experts in their field whereas Udemy courses can be created by anyone.
• Masterclass has a subscription-based model whereas Udemy lets you buy individual courses, some of which are free.
• Masterclass has fewer courses but its content and production quality are usually way better than Udemy.

Masterclass vs Coursera

• Masterclass courses are taught by celebrities or artists who are masters in their profession whereas Coursera courses are taught by college professors and teachers.
• Masterclass doesn’t provide a completion certificate while Coursera awards students a certificate from colleges and companies upon course completion.
• Coursera provides free access to its courses but the production quality of Masterclass is better.

Masterclass vs CreativeLive

• Masterclass instructors are generally more famous in their industry than CreativeLive instructors.
• Masterclass courses can only be accessed with their membership while CreativeLive courses can be bought individually.
• Masterclass courses cover a more diverse range of topics whereas CreativeLive courses are restricted to a few categories.

Masterclass vs LinkedIn Learning

• Masterclass courses are focused on creative and business skills whereas LinkedIn Learning courses are more diverse for various career options.
• Masterclass doesn’t offer any completion certificate while LinkedIn Learning gives you certificates that you can also display on your LinkedIn profile.
• Masterclass subscription is cheaper than LinkedIn Learning. 

Masterclass vs Mindvalley

• Masterclass offers courses on creative and business skills whereas Mindvalley is more focused on personal development.
• Masterclass has less of a community aspect to it while Mindvalley has a private social network.
• Masterclass’ basic plan is cheaper than Mindvalley annual membership. 

Conclusion of Our Masterclass Review: Should You Get Masterclass?

Masterclass was founded in 2014 and it has gained more and more popularity ever since. Despite tough competition in the online course market, Masterclass remains the best premium option for those who value high-quality material and expert advice. You can consider buying Masterclass membership if:

• You want to learn from some of the best experts in their fields.
• You value a great user and learning experience.
• You are interested in learning about the topics: Food, Arts & Entertainment, Business, Writing, Home & Lifestyle, Wellness, Design and Style, Music, Sports & Gaming, Sports & Gaming, Science & Tech, and Community & Government.
• You want to share Masterclass membership with family members or a business.
• You like to take, save and revisit notes while taking online courses as Masterclass makes it easy for you.
• You want to commit to ongoing learning and greater mastery.

Overall, we think Masterclass is most likely the best online course platform out there. You’ll learn from true legends and veterans, and the production quality is unrivaled.

Masterclass is an outstanding online course platform. You may find alternatives that are more suitable or budget-friendly for you, but if our review makes you want to try Masterclass, we recommend you give it a shot! While there is no free trial of Masterclass, there is a 30-day refund policy in case you decide it’s not for you.

---

Other Reviews

Looking for our other reviews of the most popular book summary apps, tools, and services? Here’s a list of all the reviews we’ve published so far:

Is Evernote the best note-taking app for you? How does it compare with its alternatives? Is the free plan of Evernote enough or is it worth getting the premium version? Let’s find out.

Evernote is a popular note-taking app with a large userbase. It has established a solid reputation among students and professionals. People often use it for both their personal and professional needs.

In our Evernote review, you’ll find out how it works, its pros and cons, and how it compares with its alternatives so you can pick the note-taking app that suits you the best. As usual, you can use our handy table of contents below to jump to whatever section might interest you the most! Let’s go!

Quick Summary of Our Evernote Review (FAQ)

1. Is Evernote the best note-taking app?

Evernote is one of the best note-taking apps. Whether it is the best for you depends on your preference and needs. We compared Evernote with its common alternatives in the Evernote vs Competitors section of the review.

2. Does Evernote offer a free version?

Evernote has a free plan that covers the basic features you’ll need to take notes for personal use. If you want access to the premium features or need more storage, you’ll need to upgrade your account. Check out the Evernote Pricing section of the review for details.

3. How’s the user experience of the Evernote app?

Most users find the interface of Evernote simple and accessible. However, its extra features can be a bit more complicated than some of its alternatives that offer a simple note-taking solution without the added features.

4. How much does Evernote cost?

Evernote has a free plan, a premium personal plan for $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year, and a premium professional plan for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. We compare the differences between them in the Evernote Pricing section of the review.

5. How does Evernote compare with its alternatives?

There are many similar apps to Evernote. It is commonly compared with apps like OneNote, Notion, Google Keep, Notability, Bear, Apple Notes, Trello, and Todoist. We highlight the key differences between them in the Evernote vs Competitors section of the review.

Pros and Cons of Evernote

Evernote is one of the most famous note-taking apps which also has a task management system. It is known for its extensive features with an easy-to-use interface. Most users stick with it because it lets you efficiently capture, organize, and search notes. It also syncs between several devices and integrates with third-party programs.

Evernote has its upsides and downsides as follows:

Pros of using Evernote:

1. Capturing, accessing, organizing, and searching the notes is convenient. It also syncs with other devices quickly so you can switch between your devices with ease.
2. Navigating the app is super simple and elegant. Most people have no trouble getting started with the app. Even the advanced features are easy to grasp, thanks to its slick user experience and interface.
3. Miscellaneous features like Web Clipper, Document Scanning, Character Recognition, Tasks, and Calendar make it stand out as a prominent note-taking app. These features can save you a lot of valuable time and effort.
4. Integration with apps like Google Drive, Slack, Outlook, MS Teams, Zapier, and Gmail makes it extremely useful for working professionals. It’s also helpful for teams working together.

Cons of using Evernote:

1. Cheaper alternatives to Evernote are available when you compare their premium plans. However, the price difference between them is only a few dollars.
2. Evernote can be heavier or more complex than a simple note-taking app if you take notes occasionally and don’t need the extra features.
3. Some of Evernote’s competitors provide more storage but usually, most people find Evernote’s storage to be more than enough.

What Is It Like to Use Evernote?

Evernote is a dedicated note-taking app that gives you complete control over your notes. It makes capturing, organizing, and searching notes exceptionally accessible.

Evernote’s user experience is simple, elegant, and efficient. It syncs between multiple devices fast and is available on desktop, mobile, and web. The navigation on all devices stays similar.

Onboarding instructions make it easy to get started with the app. Even the advanced features are not hard to grasp. You can access almost all features from the home tab or you can open the side menu bar to access various sections.

1. Navigating the App

The following features and sections are available while navigating the app:

• Notes

A collection of all notes sorted by recently used.

• Scratch Pad

A writing space for jotting down a quick note, which you can later delete or copy-paste into a new note.

• Pinned Note

Pinned notes are shown in this section for quick access.

• Recently Captured

Captured web clips, images, documents, audios, and emails are shown in this section.

• Notebooks

A list of all the Notebooks sorted by recently used. Notes are organized under Notebooks.

• Tags

A collection of tags made by the user to easily access notes under the same tag.

• Shortcuts

A list of shortcuts created by the user to quickly access frequently used notes.

• Calendar

The calendar connects with Google Calendar to link notes with events for easy access.

• Filtered Notes

Set filters based on keywords, tags, notebooks, attachments, dates, etc. to view a collection of notes in one place.

• My Tasks

A list of tasks created by the user that can be added to notes and organized with due dates or flags.

• Settings

Manage app settings and customize the look with Dark Mode or Create Button appearance options.

2. Writing Notes

As you tap the “+ New” button, you’re prompted with a range of options to add a camera photo, sketch, attachment, audio, task, or a note.

At the top, you can see or edit the notebook under which the note is saved. Then, you can enter the title or simply start writing. You also have an option to pick a Template provided by Evernote or you can create a custom template if you’re a premium user.

These are the formatting options you can use while typing notes:

• Insert a task, camera photo, calendar event, attachment, image, link, table, divider, audio, checkbox, code block, sketch, or Google Drive files within the note.
• Edit the text style, size, font, text color, highlight color, or text alignment.
• Make the text bold, italics, underlined, struckthrough, subscripted or superscripted.
• Add a checklist, bullet list, or numbered list
• Add a link with a title and a URL.

You can use the following features while using notes:

• Share the note with someone via email, invitation, or by creating a shareable link.
• Search text within the note.
• Add a tag or reminder to the note. 
• Pin the note to Home.
• Find more info about the note such as creation date, last update date, size, etc.
• Save the note as a template.
• Print, move, duplicate or delete the note.
• Undo or redo any action.

Evernote’s sketching mode comes with the following additional features:

• Turn on “Snap to shape” for smoother or precise sketches.
• Change the background color or background pattern of the sketch.
• Change the color and the size of the sketching pencil or the highlighter pen.
• Use the eraser or the slicer to edit the sketch.
• Zoom in, zoom out, or come back to the fit-to-screen view.

3. Searching Notes

Evernote is popular for its search feature that makes it incredibly easy to search through the notes.

You can apply filters based on tags, notebook, creation date, update date, and the following contents:

• Addresses
• Archive Files
• Attachments
• Audio
• Calendar Events
• Checkboxes
• Code Blocks
• Contacts
• Dates
• Document Files
• Email Addresses
• Encryptions
• Google Drive
• Images
• Integers
• Lists
• Numbers
• Office Files
• PDF Files
• Percentages
• Person Names
• Phone Numbers
• Presentations
• Prices
• Spreadsheets
• Tables
• Tasks
• Tasks: Completed
• Tasks: Not Completed
• Time
• URLs
• Video
• Webclips

The search function also includes character recognition that searches for keywords in photos, whiteboard scans, business cards, handwritten notes, and documents.

Additional Features of Evernote

Evernote continually adds features to keep its reputation as one of the best note-taking apps. Some additional features that make Evernote stand out are:

1. Web Clipper

The Web Clipper is available as a browser extension that lets you save web pages, articles, images, screen captures, and PDFs. You can easily organize them under notebooks and annotate screenshots while saving them.

2. Document Scanning

If you hate keeping piles of papers, Evernote has got your back! You can scan and save any document whether it is your ID card, a business file, or a handwritten note. With Evernote’s character recognition feature, you can even search inside documents for a particular text.

3. App Integrations

All your tasks, emails, calendar, and notes can work in harmony with third-party integrations in Evernote. It integrates with applications like Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Outlook, and Zapier.

4. Penultimate App

Penultimate is a free digital handwriting app for iPad by Evernote. It’s like a paperless and inkless notebook that you can take anywhere for sketching or writing notes. It syncs with Evernote seamlessly. 

Evernote Pricing

Evernote has three tiers of pricing and a team plan:

1. The Free Plan

Many users who don’t need premium features only use the free version of Evernote as it covers the basic features you’ll need for casual use. It includes:

• 2 devices synchronization
• Up to 60 GB monthly uploads
• Up to 25 MB note size
• 3 widgets on the home page
• In-note tasks
• Search with tags
• Web clipping
• Document scanning
• Attachments as PDFs, receipts, files, photos, images, and documents
• Audio notes
• Gmail connection to save emails in Evernote
• Offline access to notes on the desktop

You can see all details of the free plan here.

2. The Personal Premium Plan

The Personal Premium plan costs $7.99 a month or $69.99 a year. It is ideal for personal use if you want to use its premium features. It covers all the features of the free plan and also includes:

• Unlimited devices synchronization
• Up to 10 GB monthly uploads
• Up to 200 MB note size
• Customizable home page
• Access to extra widgets
• Google Calendar connection
• Due dates, reminders, and notifications feature for tasks
• Offline access to notes on mobile and desktop
• Text search inside images, docs, and PDFs
• Custom templates
• Images and PDFs annotation
• Email forwarding to Evernote
• Google Drive connection to add files to notes
• Note version history and restoration

You can see all details of the Personal plan here*.

3. The Professional Premium Plan

The Professional Premium Plan costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year. It is best for professionals who want to manage projects of large scope at work or in their personal life. It covers everything in the personal premium plan and also includes:

• Up to 20 GB monthly uploads
• Access to all widgets and customization options for the home page
• Personal and workplace Google Calendar connections
• Task management system for teams
• Boolean terms search
• Location-based search
• Notebooks exports (as PDFs)
• Integration with Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and more

For a full overview of all details of the Professional plan, go here*.

4. Evernote Teams

Evernote also offers a workplace solution for businesses working in teams. It costs $14.99 per user a month. It covers everything in the Professional Premium Plan and also includes:

• Spaces that make collaboration in team projects easier. You can access all notes, documents, and tasks within a Space from one dashboard. You can also find the latest updates made by the team members and pin notes that are frequently accessed.
• Admin Console lets the admin manage users, content, billing, security settings, and integrations from this dashboard. It also lets you search the activity history with detailed logs.

Evernote vs Competitors

There are many alternatives to Evernote. Below we compare the key differences between them to help you make the best choice.

Evernote vs OneNote

• Evernote is more user-friendly, simple, and elegant than OneNote.
• Evernote offers some features only to premium users whereas OneNote gives all its features for free. You’d only need to pay for OneNote if you need more than 5GB of data storage.
• Evernote has an advanced search tool whereas OneNote’s search function is limited to text without many search modifiers.

Evernote vs Notion

• Evernote is primarily a note-taking app whereas Notion is more than a note-taking app. Therefore, Evernote is best if you’re looking for an exclusive note-taking app without many distracting features and Notion is best for those who want a multipurpose workplace app.
• Evernote can be great for personal management whereas Notion may be better for large team project collaborations.
• Evernote offers features like in-app sketching and document scanning whereas Notion doesn’t offer such features.

Evernote vs Google Keep

• Evernote’s user interface is like a notebook while Google Keep’s interface is like sticky notes. Therefore, Google Keep is simpler to use and navigate, but Evernote offers more features.
• Evernote integrates with many programs whereas Google Keep integrates only with Google applications.
• Evernote has rich text formatting options whereas Google Keep doesn’t offer such text formatting options.

Evernote vs Notability

• Evernote’s free plan provides enough features whereas the free version of Notability is quite limited even for personal use. However, the premium version of Notability costs only $11.99 a year (pricing varies by region).
• Evernote organizes notes under Notebooks whereas Notability has Subjects and then Dividers which makes its organization a bit more complex.
• Evernote is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android whereas Notability is only available on Mac and iOS.

Evernote vs Bear

• Evernote offers distinct features like Templates, Web Clipper, and Audio Notes while Bear has other distinct features like multiple export options, Markdown Syntax and Focus Mode.
• Evernote is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android whereas Bear is only available on Mac and iOS.
• Evernote integrates with more third-party programs than Bear, which makes Evernote easier to synchronize with your workflow.

Evernote vs Apple Notes

• Evernote and Apple Notes, both let you create Notebooks but Evernote lets you tag notes whereas Apple Notes lets you create sub-notebooks.
• Evernote provides rich text formatting, has many features, and integrates with many third-party programs whereas Apple Notes is simpler, has fewer features, and doesn’t integrate with any third-party program.
• Evernote is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android whereas Apple Notes is only available on Mac and iOS.

Evernote vs Trello

• Evernote is great for taking and organizing notes while Trello is best for planning and managing projects. You can use either one or use both by connecting them with the Evernote Power-Up in Trello.

Evernote vs Todoist

• Evernote is specialized in note-taking with Tasks as an additional feature while Todoist is a dedicated task management app for managing projects.

Conclusion of Our Evernote Review: Is It Worth It?

Evernote is a prominent note-taking app that has been around for decades. It is reported to have more than 250 million users. Although it has many alternatives, Evernote has many loyal fans who stick with it too. It may be best for you if:

• You take a lot of notes and want to organize them efficiently. Its advanced search will let you find the exact note you’re looking for in seconds.
• You’d like a task management system built into the app along with your notes to smoothen your workflow.
• You like to take voice notes, draw sketches, insert images or scan handwritten notes.
• You want an easy and efficient way to clip sections or pages from the web to add to your notes.
• You use several devices to take notes and want them to work in synchronization.
• You use applications like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Slack, Outlook, MS Teams, Zapier, etc., and want to integrate them with your notes or tasks.

Overall, Evernote is a great app for your personal and professional use. It is worth the considerate price. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll likely stick with it.

In our opinion, Evernote is the most accessible note-taking app with rich enough features to cover most, if not all use cases you’ll need. Other Evernote alternatives are not bad either, but we prefer Evernote because its developers keep upgrading the app to make it more useful, efficient, and ever easier to use.

We hope you found this review helpful, and that you now have the information you need to pick the best note-taking app that works for you. We’ve been using Evernote to organize our book summaries for many years, and we still think it’s one of the best productivity tools out there.

---

Other Reviews

Looking for our other reviews of the most popular book summary apps, tools, and services? Here’s a list of all the reviews we’ve published so far:

I’ve used Scribd consistently for the last 3+ years. In this Scribd review, I’ll cover all the details of why it’s my favorite audiobook service.

Scribd has audiobooks, ebooks, and more, all in one place. It’s like a combination of Audible, Audiobooks.com, Kindle, and more for less than $10 a month.

To jump to any particular section in this review, here’s a handy table of contents:

If you love books, be it fiction or nonfiction, audio or digital, I think you’re going to love Scribd. Let’s get right into the most frequently asked questions about Scribd!

Quick Summary of my Scribd Review (FAQ) 

1. What comes with a subscription to Scribd?

With a Scribd subscription, you get unlimited listening and reading of all content in their gigantic library of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, news, podcasts, and much more.

2. How much does Scribd cost?

Scribd offers a free 30-day trial after which a subscription is just $9.99 per month. It’s as simple as that. No upsells, confusing credit systems, lack of flexibility, or anything else.

3. Is Scribd actually unlimited?

Scribd lets you listen to, read, or access any of its digital books, audiobooks, magazines, and more as much as you want for as long as you’re in a free trial or paid subscription. Some titles are available only at certain times, however, but you can still always find plenty to listen to. If not, I wouldn’t have been paying for it for the last three years!

4. Are all books available on Scribd?

Not all books and audiobooks are available on Scribd, but most are. I’ve found and listened to or read the digital versions of hundreds of bestsellers and popular books on Scribd. Its recommendations are far superior to that of Audible, so much that I’ve never run out of books to read or listen to!

5. Is Scribd safe and legal?

According to the Scribd website, it is “fully compliant with the DMCA and complies with all applicable laws.” In all my time using Scribd, I’ve never had any issues or concerns with my personal data and credit card information.

6. Is Scribd free?

You can get a 30-day free trial of Scribd during which you will have full access to their entire library just as if you were a paying customer. Other than that, Scribd is not free. Once your trial ends, you will need a subscription to keep using Scribd.

7. Do you keep Scribd books?

While you don’t get to keep the books and audiobooks you access on Scribd, I’ve found that this is never a problem. I always have more to listen to on Scribd than I have time to listen. It’s also been one of the best and most inexpensive ways for me to get a feel for books that I might want to buy before actually buying. Audible and Kindle don’t have that benefit, once you get a book there, you’re stuck with it forever.

8. Can I cancel Scribd after a free trial?

You can cancel your Scribd free trial or paid subscription at any time. I’ve had to cancel once just to switch my account to a different email address and the process is simple and painless. No gimmicks or anything!

Pros and Cons of Scribd

I could spend all day telling you all the reasons why love using Scribd. For this review, though, I’ll just stick to six of the best. I’m also going to explain some of the drawbacks of Scribd, but I think you’ll find that many of them aren’t really that big of a deal.

Here are the main pros of using Scribd:

1. You don’t get stuck with any bad books because you can try so many books at a time. This is really what sets Scribd apart from Audible. If you want to find a new listen on Audible you take the risk that you won’t like it. That never happens with Scribd, though, as you just find another book if you start to hate the one you’re listening to or reading. I’ve done this hundreds of times and I’m so glad I have this option!
2. You get audiobooks and digital books and much more all in one place. I love this. If I can’t find a title in audio format, it’s usually available in digital! It’s also really helpful that I can listen when it’s tough to read and vice versa. It’s nice that I get both options in one great app! Plus there are a lot more content types to choose from. More on that in a moment.
3. The recommendations are the best I’ve ever seen in any reading app. Audible’s recommendations mainly focus on getting you to buy new books. Kindle is the same. And the trouble with both of those is that you usually have to spend money to try any of the books out! With Scribd, you get hundreds of really specific recommendations that are actually similar to what you’re reading. Each different section usually has dozens of recommendations. And the best part is that you can click on the book and start listening to or reading it instantly!
4. You get a ton more than just Audio and digital books and it’s all high-quality stuff. The Scribd library includes books, audiobooks, documents, magazines, podcasts, Sheet Music, and Snapshots (summaries). So not only can you get your digital books and audiobooks in one place, you can listen to your favorite podcasts and read summaries in Scribd as well!
5. You can download books for offline listening, add bookmarks, and do just about everything else that the other reading apps do. I have yet to find an app feature within Audible that Scribd doesn’t have as well. It’s got everything that you need! If there is something missing I haven’t found it yet because it has all the features necessary for a quality listening experience.
6. At about $10, the price is fantastic. This is a large part of why I’ve loved Scribd and have had it for as long as I have. It’s been called the “Netflix of books” and if you give it a try you’ll see why this is true. It’s been interesting to see how Audible and other services have recently been trying to keep up with Scribd by adding more streaming-type subscription options. But Scribd was always the winner in that race, and the best, in my opinion!

Now let’s take a look at the cons of using Scribd:

1. You don’t get to keep the books you listen to. This is one area where Audible does beat Scribd, but honestly, I don’t really care. For one, as I mentioned above, the recommendations are so good and I can listen to so much at once that I never get stuck with a bad book. What’s more, I can keep listening to my favorites as long as I have a subscription. Angela Duckworth’s book Grit has been in my library for at least two years now and I’ve listened to it dozens of times!
2. Adding highlights in digital books is tough sometimes. I never had a problem with this on Android but ever since I switched to iPhone it’s difficult to add highlights. I have to try multiple times to get it to do what I want. This doesn’t happen on Android, so it may just be an iPhone problem. They’re usually good at fixing bugs though, so I’m not worried that this will remain a long-term issue.
3. There are too many great books to listen to. This is a good problem to have, honestly! But I do often feel like I’m missing out on so many good books because the recommendations are really so fantastic. I’ll go through phases where I listen to a dozen books at a time and it’s hard to actually finish because they’re all so good! This does help me find the best of books though, which I really enjoy.

What is it Like to Use the Scribd App?

Now that you know some of the general details and pros and cons it’s time to get into the finer details of Scribd. There’s some really cool stuff here so let’s dive right in and check it out!

We’ll start by focusing on the main uses for Scribd which are listening to audiobooks and reading digital books. Then later we’ll take a look at some of its features and benefits other than books.

First, we’ve got listening to audiobooks. Here’s what the audio player within Scribd looks like:

You can see the book title and author, an image of the cover, how much time you have left, and have the ability to rewind, fast-forward, skip ahead, add a bookmark, and much more. It’s a pretty similar audio player to most of the others.

Let’s start from the top and move downward looking at each feature. In the top right we have the menu, which lets you:

• Remove the book from Saved or add it to Saved if you’re listening to a book that you haven’t yet added to your library.
• Download the book for offline listening.
• View the table of contents.
• View the bookmarks you’ve added within the book.
• Share it.
• Change the audio jump length so instead of jumping 30 seconds at a time you can jump a different amount. 
• See the details about the book. 

The next main feature on this page is that little arrow in the middle of the screen on the left. Pressing on it will take you back to a spot that you’ve previously listened to. It may be the beginning of the chapter or the beginning of the book even. It changes depending on your listening habits, which is nice.

This is helpful for being able to get right back to where you want if you end up listening on different devices or want to listen to a section multiple times.

A little below that arrow you’ll see the moon icon which will show you options for the sleep timer. This lets you select an amount of time after which Scribd will automatically pause your book so if you fall asleep you won’t miss anything. You get the following options for a sleep timer:

I really like that it has the custom option like many others but also that it adds the “End of Chapter” in there. I often listen to books before bed and it’s really helpful to be able to know that I can turn that on and not have to wonder which chapter I was in when I started in case I fall asleep partway through a chapter.

In the middle of the screen just below the image of the book, you see the option to add a bookmark. This is really helpful for quickly getting to your favorite parts of a book. It makes listening to non-fiction a lot easier because you can get right to the main points after you finish a book, which makes it easier to practice whatever the book teaches.

To the right of that, you have the option to change the playback speed. These include the typical options all the way up to 2x: 

On the very bottom, you have the main player controls. This area shows you what chapter you’re in, the progress in that chapter, and the buttons for moving around. 

You can press and hold the blue dot then move it backward or forward to go to any specific location in the chapter or hit the buttons directly to the left or right of the pause/play button to either rewind or fast-forward. The arrows to either side will take you to the beginning of the chapter you’re in currently or the beginning of the next chapter.

That about does it for the audiobook player, now let’s get into what it’s like to read an e-book on Scribd. 

Here’s what the e-book reader looks like (I’ve pressed the Aa menu in the top right to show the options for the look of the e-reader):

The three dots in the upper right corner have the same options as in the audio player. Next to that, you can see the “Aa” button which lets you change your font, alignment, line spacing, scroll direction, font size, theme, and brightness. I really love that I can read in dark mode, it makes reading at night a lot easier!

Underneath this section, you have the main reader. Note that those options to change the look of this screen aren’t always showing, I just pressed that to show what you can change. 

On the reader, you can press and hold anywhere on the text to make highlights and add notes. At the bottom, you’ll see the book title, which will show you the chapters in the book. You’ll also see what page you’re on, your progress in the book, and you can scroll to any section within it. At the very bottom right you’ll see the search function which lets you find any specific words or phrases you want to look up within the book.

If you tap once anywhere on this screen you’ll enter fullscreen reading mode which hides all the player controls and even your phone’s top menu. I really like this because it’s a distraction-free way to read. You do still have the option to add a bookmark as you can see by the dashed diagonal line in the upper right corner:

Reading books in Scribd is simple and straightforward just as it should be. There are no crazy frills or missing features here. I just wish it was a little easier to add a highlight, but as I said earlier, I believe they’ll fix that soon.

Finally, the other main feature of the app is viewing the books and other content that you’ve saved. Here’s what your library looks like:

If you look at the top left of the screenshot above you’ll see that we’re on the “Titles” section. This is the main area you’ll see your content in. 

Starting from the top and moving downward you can see that you have the ability to do the following:

• Search your titles. This is only for the titles you’ve saved.
• Filter your titles. You can select by books, audiobooks, magazines, documents, or podcasts. Also, you can hide the titles you’ve finished. This and the previous option might seem trivial but trust me, you’ll use them more than you think. With Scribd’s awesome recommendations you get a ton of books stacked up (notice how I have 64 saved titles!) and it can be hard to find what you want with so many in there!
• Pressing the “Downloaded” button is another way of filtering that shows only the content you’ve saved to your device. This is helpful when you’re not connected to the internet. I use it all the time.
• View the titles in your library and continue listening or reading to them.

You’ll be on this screen more than any of the other options. But within your library, you can also access your content by the following:

• Lists, which you can use to create groupings of your content however you like. You could make lists of non-fiction books and fiction books or business books and personal development books, for instance. The sky’s really the limit here! I haven’t used this feature to its full potential yet, probably because I’ve just been spending way too much time listening to and reading all the great recommendations that Scribd gives me!

• Notebook, where you can see all the bookmarks and highlights you’ve saved, view them and any notes you’ve added to them, and share them with others. Whenever I find a really life-changing book I use this section a ton to refer back to my favorite sections in the book. Just see how many notes and highlights I have in Jon Acuff’s Soundtracks!

• History, which shows you everything you’ve ever read or listened to. This is helpful when I need to find a book I’ve listened to that I can’t remember the title of. 

Across the bottom of all these pages, you’ll see the main menu items. I haven’t focused on these yet because you’ll spend most of your time in the audio player, the reader, or your library. 

These menu items include the following:

• Home, where you can find new content between books, audiobooks, and more. We’ll get into all of those in just a moment.

• Top Charts, which is just another great way to find new content to add to your library.

• Search, which is also a way to find new content and is pretty self-explanatory:

• Saved, which is where you can find your library of books as explained in detail above.
• Account, where you can find support, manage your downloads, change your settings, and more:

That about covers the main features of the Scribd app. There are a few more though that I think are worth touching on and we’ll get into those now!

 

Additional Features of the Scribd App

For this section, we’ll focus on mostly the features that make the reading, listening, and discovering experience better for just books. In the next section, we’ll dive into the other awesome content within Scribd. 

All of this can be found on the “Home” page by pressing the home icon on the bottom menu. 

Once on the Home page, you’ll see options at the top for selecting different types of content to view:

The main three are All, Books, and Audiobooks. This is where I spend most of my time when I’m looking for new books. The All page has every type of content, starting with your library then showing books and audiobooks, and then going into other types of content. 

When you press on Books or Audiobooks you get a long list of recommendations in each category. These each start with the books you’ve saved, then have lists in the following categories:

• Books similar to the ones you’ve been reading or listening to. This is one of my favorite things about Scribd. These recommendations are where I find most of the new books that I read and they are always right on with the kind of content I love most. There are multiple sections, one for each of the books you’ve read or listened to the most recently. 
• Genre recommendations, like business, motivational, and more. These take the genres of your most read content and give you suggestions based on what you’ve been reading in that genre. 
• Bestselling in the categories that you listen to the most, similar to what we just talked about.
• General recommended for you based on the content type. So, for instance, if you’re in the Books tab it will show you recommended books, and so on.

Here’s a brief preview of what this looks like in the app:

Keep in mind that what you’re looking at here is just a tiny sample of the many many sections to get recommendations. So you can find thousands of books that you will enjoy. You’ll never run out of stuff to read or listen to.

Also, don’t forget that you can press and immediately begin listening to or reading any title you see. You don’t get this when you’re in Audible or Kindle. Instead, those apps make you purchase each book individually. With Scribd, you just get unlimited content that you can start reading or listening to right away. This is a big thing that sets Scribd apart for me and so many others that enjoy it. 

When you click on each title you also get to see the details of it before listening to see if it’s the kind of thing you want to dive into:

You get to see ratings, length, and more. I really love that it will show you the formats that Scribd has available for the book. This title, for instance, is available in e-book and Snapshot, which is a summary of it:

Below this, you’ll also see that there are even more recommendations for you. There are just so many ways to find great books to read in Scribd that you’ll never run out. And I know this is how it goes because I’ve been doing this for over three years now!

We’re about done with this review but there’s one other aspect of Scribd that we’ve got to touch on first. It’s other content than just books, and I really think you’re going to be excited about it!

Other Benefits Than Just Books

You’d think that all these awesome features for listening to and reading books are all there is to Scribd. But wait, there’s more! No really though, Scribd has a ton more content than just books, and it’s all really great stuff.

There are five main additional content types that Scribd offers:

• Podcasts. Whether you like Hidden Brain, This American Life, Stuff You Should Know, or some other podcast, Scribd has them all. I really love that the first couple of sections on the Podcasts section appear to be specific based on my listening habits. It’s just further proof that Scribd is by far the best at giving recommendations! You can also find award-winning podcasts, best of, and more. 

• Snapshots. If you’re familiar with Blinkist, this is just like what Blinkist offers. If you’re not, this section (and Blinkist) offers short summaries of books. You can read them or listen to them and download each for offline access as well. Most are about a 7-10 minute read which comes to about a 15-minute listen.

• Sheet Music. If you play the piano, guitar, or a percussion, woodwind, or brass instrument, Scribd has sheet music for you. I’m a piano player myself and have really loved some of the sheet music I’ve found on Scribd. It’s got top songbooks, currently charting, Grammy award-winning artists, and much more. I mentioned earlier one downside of Scribd is that I end up finding too much that I don’t have time to consume it all, and this definitely applies here too.

• Documents. This section is a little different but is extremely useful. It includes documents, like PDFs, of all sorts of books and other media. A lot of it is workbook and journal-type stuff that goes along with books you read. But there’s way more than just that, you can find just about anything here. When I was studying for a licensing exam a couple of years ago I actually found some great resources that really helped with that too! I’ve never seen a section like this in any reading app but I’m really glad Scribd has it. It’s unique and useful and I think everybody will find something in it that they’ll enjoy. 

• Magazines. Ever wonder what’s happening to print magazines as everything moves online? Well, many of them are still around and you can read them right within Scribd! It’s got a wide variety including politics, entertainment, tech, business, parenting, health, cooking, arts, crafts, home & garden, and sports. You’ll find some of the big-name magazines on here like Time, People, and Macworld, just to name a few.

Is Scribd Worth It?

I’ll just get straight to the point and say that at about $10 per month for unlimited access to thousands of books and other content, Scribd is 100% worth it. I’ve been paying for it for over three years so I should know! It’s worth every penny I’ve spent on it.

You might look at all these features and books and think that alone makes Scribd worth it. But what really sets Scribd apart for me, and has for the past three years I’ve been using it, is the way it’s changed my life. 

A couple of years ago, not long after I first discovered Scribd, I was having a tough time with my financial situation and work. I felt burnt out, stressed out, and like I would never make enough money. Listening to all kinds of books on Scribd was helping a ton, but it all changed when Scribd’s awesome recommendations led me to this book. 

I listened to the entire book in just one day. Since then, I’ve used Scribd to listen to it almost 20 times. I’ve also listened to other great books on Scribd like Think and Grow Rich, Essentialism, and so many more. 

My mind and life have been completely transformed for the better because of all of these books. It’s like I get to hang out with the authors and really see how they view the world. Their perspective helps me live better, which makes me happier and more successful. 

That’s not the end of my story though. After finding that finance book and listening to it all in one day, I felt determined to change things. I made a plan to start my own company then wrote myself a check for $100,000 and dated it two years in the future. Fast-forward a couple of years later and I was checking the financials of my new company that I’d started that year. We had billed exactly $101,000 of work. I was stunned. 

Not only that, but as I reflected back on that year and on my financial life since, everything has improved. We paid cash for a car, bought a house, went on spur of the moment vacations to Hawaii and Alaska, and so much more. Most of all, we finally feel financially free, and even though life and work still have their challenges, I feel more confident than ever that we’ll be just fine.

All of this just because of one book that I found from a recommendation on Scribd.

This has improved the financial aspect of my life so dramatically that I hardly recognize it from where it was before. And that’s just this one area of my life! This has happened with many other areas as well. 

This is all to say that you can have a similar experience with Scribd. All it takes is the right book at the right time and your life can completely change for the better.

Scribd is the way to make that happen because it gives such great recommendations and you can listen to or read every one of those books right away. There’s no financial barrier like there is with Audible and Kindle. You get to try thousands of books until you find the ones that will make the difference you seek in your life.  

So you have to ask yourself, is the potential to transform your life for the better worth $10 a month? I definitely think so. And if you’re on the fence, just get a free trial of Scribd and you will get to see what I mean. You’ll never look back again. I certainly haven’t, and I plan on keeping my Scribd subscription forever.

Conclusion: Our Scribd Review

The fact that I’ve been paying for Scribd each month for the last 3+ years should be a testament to how great it is. And especially so considering that I’ve been off and on with Audible and Audiobooks.com during that whole time but never stuck with either of them! Scribd has been my favorite of all three for a very long time.

My final conclusion about Scribd should be no surprise. It’s definitely worth the price to get unlimited listening and the best book recommendations you’ve ever seen. I mean it when I say that if you want to never have to be looking for books again you have to get Scribd. It’s just that good.

If you’d like to try Scribd out yourself and support Four Minute Books at no extra cost to you, click below to sign up for your free 30-day trial and start listening to and reading all the books (and more!) you want for free:

And if you’ve made it all the way here, thank you for reading this review! We hope that Four Minute Books helps you learn more, get smarter, and improve your life!

---

Other Reviews

Looking for our other reviews of the most popular book summary apps, tools, and services? Here’s a list of all the reviews we’ve published so far:

Audible is the most famous audiobook service in the world. Their “one new audiobook per month” subscription has been many people’s favorite for years, but, lately, they’re trying to switch things up and become the ultimate audio streaming service all around. In this Audible review, we’ll find out if the industry leader is (still) worth the price.

We’ll discover all the details of Audible’s newest subscription options, why its unique features make it such a good pick for audiobooks, and whether or not it’s really worth it for you, based on your unique circumstances. Here’s a handy table of contents so you can jump to any section you want:

Strap in, and let’s get right into our Audible review, starting with the most commonly asked questions you might have about the service.

Quick Summary of Our Audible Review (FAQ)

1. How many books do you get a month with Audible?

Audible has two membership options. The classic one-credit-a-month plan, known as Audible Premium Plus, will let you choose a title in their library to keep and listen to any title they have. They also now have a cheaper option called Audible Plus, which is like a streaming service for audiobooks where you can listen to all you want a month at a time.

2. How much does Audible really cost?

Audible Plus is $7.95 a month, for which you get to listen to any book in the library (but you don’t get to keep them). Audible Premium Plus costs $14.95 a month and gives you everything Audible Plus does plus 1 credit per month to select any audiobook in their library to keep.

3. How many audiobooks are on Audible?

There are over 200,000 audiobooks available on Audible. I’ve been using it for years and have yet to find that it doesn’t have one of my favorites. It’s also usually the quickest service to get bestsellers as they come out and many audiobooks are only available on Audible.

4. Is Audible free with Prime?

Audible is not free with an Amazon Prime membership. However, if you choose to get a free trial of Audible Premium Plus then you get to select 2 audiobooks to keep instead of just one! 

5. Can I get Audible for free?

You can try Audible for free for 30 days. Then, your subscription will renew monthly depending on which plan you chose. If you use an affiliate link, like ours, when you subscribe to Audible Premium Plus, you’ll get at least 1 audiobook to keep even after the free trial is over. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you’ll get 2. For those who purchase Audible Plus, you can listen to any audiobook in their library for free for 30 days.

6. Do I need a subscription for Audible?

You do not need a subscription for Audible to keep the books you’ve purchased or received as part of a free trial. Without a subscription, however, you will not be able to listen to unlimited audiobooks in their library or use credits to purchase audiobooks.

7. Can I still listen to Audible if I cancel my subscription?

If you cancel your Audible subscription, you still get to keep the books that you’ve received as part of a free trial or purchased with credits or otherwise. I’ve gone through times when I don’t have an active Audible subscription and I can still listen to any book in my library all I want!

Pros and Cons of Audible

Audible has got to be the most popular audiobook service out there. And for good reason, too! We’ve certainly enjoyed using it! 

Let’s get into why it’s so great and also look at what cons there are to Audible as well. Most of these only apply to an Audible subscription and do not refer to the free trial or non-subscription use of it.

Pros of using Audible:

1. You get to listen to any audiobook in the “included” library no matter which subscription you purchase. Remember earlier how we said it’s kind of like a streaming service for audiobooks? That’s what We’re talking about here. Unlimited access to all the audiobooks you want! You can listen to 10 books a month if you feel so inclined! 
2. The selection on Audible is absolutely unbeatable. Many of the books are Audible-only, so you can’t get them anywhere else. Audible is also really on top of getting new titles, especially bestsellers, quickly after they’re released if not at the same time.
3. Using the Audible app is an almost flawless experience. I say almost because nothing is perfect. But Audible comes very close here! No crazy glitches, a beautiful user interface that includes dark mode, and so much more. We’ll get into that later.
4. You get a 30% discount on the full price of any audiobook for as long as you keep your subscription. Audiobooks are expensive, so this is a pretty big deal! 
5. It’s really affordable. $7.99 a month is like $.26 a day! Audible also has additional options for purchasing monthly credits that can make it pretty inexpensive. A 2 credit plan is $22.95 a month, for instance, which is about $11 per audiobook. That’s a steal! Other options are the annual 12-credit plan for $149.50 and the annual 24-credit plan for $229.50 which are both great deals as well.

Cons of using Audible:

1. You don’t get to keep the books if you subscribe to Audible Plus (the one that’s like a streaming service). I’m not sure I really mind this though, because how often do you really re-read or re-listen to your favorite books? I know I do occasionally, but I can only do it every few years or so. Just recently I wanted to find something new to listen to but my Audible library only has about 6 books in it, all of which I’ve listened to recently! With a subscription, even to the cheaper option, you get unlimited listens to any book in their “included” library. 
2. It’s owned by Amazon, which means that its effectiveness as an audiobook service may be hindered by Amazon’s goals. I think of it like buying running shoes from a general shoe company as opposed to buying from a company that only does running shoes. The one that solely makes running shoes is going to have a lot better shoe than the generalist one. That being said, I’ve not really found that Audible is lacking at all because of this. It’s still top-notch, and, on the plus side, having a giant with endless resources behind it makes it more stable and reliable than other options.

What Is It Like to Use the Audible App?

The best thing about the Audible app is that it’s a perfect mix of simplicity and functionality that makes listening to audiobooks a fantastic experience. This section will focus on the main features of the app and in a moment we’ll get into some other cool tools within it. 

You can get the Audible app for free in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You’ll need a subscription or to purchase audiobooks individually to add new listens to your library. But once you own those titles you get to keep them forever and listen for free, even if you decide to cancel your subscription. 

Let’s dive in with the audio player itself and its main features. Note that these screenshots are from the iPhone version of the app but it looks almost identical in the Android app. 

Here’s what it looks like when you’re in the app listening to an audiobook:

On the top left you have the down arrow that will take you back to the main screen where you can see the following:

• The home page, which includes recommendations for new books, shows what you’ve been listening to, offers a subscription if you don’t currently have one, and more. 
• Access to your library of books.
• The Discover section, where you have many options to find great new listens.
• Your profile, which shows you your achievements, account details, customer support, and more.

We’ll get into these features more in a moment. For now, let’s continue focusing on the listening experience in the Audible app.

The car icon on the top right will put you into driving mode which takes over the screen and only shows the play, rewind, and bookmark buttons:

Next to that, you have the menu icon which gives you options to view Title Details, share it, give a rating, and more:

Here you can also enter “button free” mode which can be really useful when you’re in the car or don’t want to be distracted by so many options on the main screen:

That covers the top part of the listening screen, now let’s take a look at the bottom portion and see what options we have. Here’s that player screen to remind you of what we’re looking at:

These player controls cover all the basics and have some neat additional features that make listening even better. Starting from right below the image of the book’s cover and moving downward we have:

1. The chapter or section title and the place you are within that chapter or section right below it. You can press and hold the orange bar to move to a different place in the section. 
2. Connect to Device which lets you play the audiobook from wireless devices like a Bluetooth speaker.
3. Controls to go directly to the front of the chapter, rewind 30 seconds, pause or play, fast-forward 30 seconds, and go directly to the next chapter. 
4. Options to change the playback speed, select a specific chapter, enter sleep mode, or add a clip or bookmark so you can easily return to that part of the book. I particularly like these features as they go beyond what most audiobook apps have available, and the audio clip feature especially.

Here are all the options you have for changing the narration speed:

Most of the time I find myself trying to speed things up, but some authors, like Ryan Holiday, talk fast so I like to slow it down. As a side note here, I’ve learned that it’s more enjoyable and helpful to listen at normal speed or slower. Trying to listen at faster speeds works if you need to finish something quickly or find the right spot in a book (although you can just use clips for that as we’ll see in a moment). 

But if you really want to immerse yourself into a fictional book’s story, normal or slower is best. And if you’re listening to non-fiction slower is even better because you’ll remember more and get more out of it. I know it works because I’ve been listening to books more slowly recently and I’m really enjoying these benefits!

After the playback speed button, we have the chapters button, which is pretty straightforward:

Next is sleep mode which just lets you start a timer after which audio playback will stop. You can do this for as little as five minutes and as long as 120 minutes or until the end of the chapter or even choose a custom amount of time all the way up to 23 hours and 59 seconds! 

Recently I’ve been really enjoying listening to fictional books to disconnect from work. It’s especially helpful to do this at night when I lay down and my brain starts reminding me about all I need to do. 

This sleep timer is really useful for times like this when I want to relax but don’t want to worry about falling asleep! If you’re the kind of person who gets stressed out at night and struggles to sleep, try listening to fictional audiobooks and putting a sleep timer on.

The last feature of the Audible player is adding a clip and bookmark, which is in the bottom right corner. Once you press it, a clip and bookmark will immediately be added and you’ll see options to add a note to it and preview it as well:

When you press the “Preview” option you get to change the length of the clip you’ve saved, play it back to see if you got everything you wanted in it, and enter a title also. I really like this option and wish I was better at utilizing it. I’m usually listening to audiobooks while doing something else though, so it’s kind of tough to do. 

If you listen to the same books a lot, which I highly recommend you do after finding the books you like the best, you’ll want to use this feature to mark your favorite parts. I’m definitely hoping to start using it more, even if it means I have to stop whatever else I’m doing to save the clip!

We’ve now covered all of the basics of using the Audible app to listen to audiobooks. But we’ve not even got into all the other cool features of the app, which I really think you’re going to love.

Additional Features of the Audible App

Audible has some awesome ways to make the listening experience even better. And that’s not just within the audiobook player, either. There’s a lot to discover in other areas in the app, too. 

When you press on the “home” icon in the bottom left, you’ll see this screen:

I’m not currently a paying subscriber of Audible, so the first thing I see is an ad for purchasing a subscription. We’ll get more into the details of the costs and options later. 

Continuing down the page you’ll find great ways to listen, including:

• • Sample Audible Bestsellers, which lets you listen to clips of recent bestsellers to see if you like them.
  • Continue Listening to Your Library is a section that shows the books you’ve listened to most recently in order so you can pick up where you left off.
  • From your wish list shows you books you’ve added to your wishlist, starting with most recently added.
  • Best Sellers, including the most recent popular books.
  • Recommended For You, which is a great way to find new reads based on what you’ve listened to in the past.
  • Popular In Your Top Genres is a cool one that takes the genre of what you listen to and recommends top listens from that genre.
  • New Releases is the newest books on Audible. They add more all the time, so this section is constantly changing.
  • Editors’ Picks are recommendations from the editors at Audible.
  • Top 10 free podcasts shows you the best podcasts that you can listen to for free, with or without a subscription.

I really like seeing the recommendations in the Best Sellers, Recommended For You, and Popular In Your Top Genres. It’s really helpful to make sure I don’t miss a good listen or a potential gem that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to find!

The next option on the bottom menu is your Library, which is pretty self-explanatory:

The main use for this page is selecting a book to listen to. But if you click on the three vertical dots by a title you can see its details, find more books by the author, share, mark it as finished, rate and review, add it to your favorites, add it to a collection, archive it, or download it or remove it from your device if it’s been downloaded.

Across the top, just above your list of books, you can select different options for viewing your library. These include All, Not Started, Started, Downloaded, and Finished. 

Above that, you can see additional ways to view your content or find new listens. You can sort by:

• All
• Audiobooks or Podcasts
• Wish List
• Collections
• Authors
• Genres

Most of these are pretty basic features you’d want to see in an app like Audible. But one of my favorites that I haven’t seen many other places is collections:

With this section, you can create your own groups of audiobooks. This makes it really easy to keep track and listen to just what you want to at the right time. This makes finding books a lot easier, and sharing some of your favorites with others, too! I also really like that it makes it possible for me to split up the fiction and non-fiction books that I listen to.

This next section we’ll talk about is another favorite of mine that makes Audible quite unique. It’s called “Discover,” and here’s what it looks like:

From the top moving downward, you have some great options for finding new books. These include:

• Browse by genre
• Podcasts
• Sleep & meditation
• Audible Originals
• Included With Membership

I really like how simple this is. It doesn’t have a ton of options, but that’s good because it only includes the best. 

Scrolling down below that you can see best sellers, creator picks, coming soon, and more. At the bottom is a list of the main categories and an option to see all categories. If you don’t have a subscription you’ll see an option to “Compare plans and start listening.” 

Remember that if you purchase any Audible subscription you can listen to any book in their “included” library as much as you want. It’s just the higher tier subscriptions that let you keep one book, but those also let you listen to any book in the library. So any of the books here are free game to listen to if you have a subscription! 

The last feature of the app that I’ll cover is the profile section. This might sound boring, but there are some cool features within it. Here’s what it looks like:

You get the typical options to view your account settings and billing and get customer support. But what I really like about this is the “Achievements” section. You can see how long you’ve listened, what level you’re at, and even the badges you’ve earned. 

The badges are particularly interesting and are a good motivation to read and use the app to its full potential. Here are some that I’ve earned:

The really cool thing about these is that if you press on any of the badges that you don’t have yet you can see generally how to get it but not the specifics. It’s kind of a mystery what you need to do to get the badge, but that makes it even more fun! 

My badges came from doing things like listening to a title that’s longer than 20 hours, listening for at least three hours around lunchtime, and finishing two books in a single week. It’s kinda fun, and if you like competition and challenging yourself, you should check it out!

Other Listening Options

If you’re like me, having your phone around can be really distracting no matter how well your “do not disturb” mode is. That’s why sometimes, I really like listening on other devices, like my computer. 

To see all the listening options for Audible, click here. The tldr; version of that page is that you can get apps for iPhone, Android, and Windows to begin with. But you can also listen in other ways, including on:

• Sonos speakers
• Fire TV
• Alexa-enabled Devices
• Kindle
• Tablets, including Android, iPad, and Windows
• Streaming on your computer online or in the iTunes app

You’ll notice that many of these options include Amazon devices. That makes sense considering that Audible is owned by Amazon. But it’s not my favorite because it means I can’t listen to my Audible audiobooks on my Google Nest speakers. This is where Audiobooks.com wins for me personally. All things considered, though, it’s really easy to find a way to listen to your books on Audible.

When I listen on my computer I just go to Audible’s website, where I have the same options as in the app:

From here, I can click on my library then listen to any book I have:

The audio player does pop up in a new separate window, which I don’t love, but it works just fine. Your audiobooks do still play if you close the Audible tab you were on, which is nice. I could listen in iTunes/Apple Music if I wanted. But that’s just one more app to keep open on my already busy computer screen. 

While I wish the audio player on desktop wasn’t an extra popup, I still really like listening on my computer. It makes putting my phone and all the distractions that come with it out of sight and out of mind!

How Much Does Audible Cost?

There are five main subscription options for Audible:

• • Audible Plus – $7.99 a month. This includes access to the plus catalog, which lets you listen to thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts, sleep tracks, and meditation programs, as much as you want. 
  • Audible Premium Plus – $15.99 a month. This includes access to the plus catalog as described above plus one title of your choice each month that you get to keep in your library forever, even if you cancel.
  • Audible Premium Plus (2 Credits) – $22.95 a month. Same as the regular Premium Plus, but you get two audiobooks a month to keep in your library forever.
  • Audible Premium Plus Annual (12 Credits) – $149.50 a year. This option is the same as Premium Plus only cheaper, because you’re paying for a year at a time. Each credit comes out to about $12.50 on this plan. 
  • Audible Premium Plus Annual (24 Credits) – $229.50 a year. Same as the Annual plan described above, but you get 24 credits in the year instead of just 12. This is even cheaper, as each audiobook comes out to roughly $9.56 with this plan.

All options include a 30-day free trial. If you get Premium Plus, that means you get one audiobook for free plus the ability to listen to all those Audible Originals and more. And if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you can even get two premium titles as part of a Premium Plus free trial!

Ready to start yours now? Go here, and you’ll also support us at no extra cost. Thanks!

9 Benefits of Using Audible

So far, we’ve covered features and price. In other words, you know what you get and what you pay for it. But what benefits come with listening to audiobooks on Audible? What outcomes or results will you see if you purchase an Audible subscription?

Let’s look at the two main types of books—fiction and non-fiction—to see what you get from listening to both.

Fictional books include these benefits, to name a few:

• Reduced stress. Reading is one of the best ways to disconnect from everything going on in your life. Fiction is especially helpful for getting your mind off work. It puts you into a true state of relaxation when all your worries fade away as you get lost in the story. I’ve been using fictional books for this recently and it’s wildly effective at helping me relax. It’s far better at doing so than most other ways I can take a break!
• Better sleep. How often do you lie down to rest at night only to have your brain start going crazy? It seems that all your past embarrassments, worries about the future, and everything else bothering you start to show up right at bedtime. This sucks, but you can stop all this overthinking by reading a fictional book before bed. It will calm your mind down and help you get to sleep faster and help you have a more restful sleep. This has been working wonders for my sleep recently, I highly recommend it!
• Improved relationships. Fictional books are proven to help you have more empathy, which makes you treat others better. This is because they help you naturally put yourself into the shoes of others, which directly applies to the real world after you put your book down. It even activates the parts of the brain that help you understand the world and other people better. In other words, you’ll become a better person from reading fiction.
• Memory enhancements. It’s no surprise that as you get older your mental and physical faculties start to wear out. You can’t stop this, but you can slow it down significantly by reading fiction. Research indicates that people who read often deal with Alzheimer’s a lot less than those who don’t. 

When listening to or reading non-fiction books, you’ll find the following positive changes in your life:

• You start to become like the authors you read the most. It’s been said that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I believe that you’re also the average of the five authors you read the most. You can get mentoring from anybody, even people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to meet, by reading non-fiction.
• You’ll get smarter by learning tons of life lessons. I can’t tell you how many valuable insights I’ve gained from non-fiction of all kinds. Every one of them, from biographies to business books teaches lessons that, if applied, will make you smarter.
• It makes your life better. All those principles you learn from non-fiction books show you ways to improve your life. The more you listen, the more you’ll discover about how to live life to the fullest. 
• Non-fiction books motivate you to be your best self. I love listening to non-fiction even if I can’t always remember everything. Just hearing the ideas in each book is enough to inspire me to be better. I’ve even had times where something I learned from a non-fiction book came back to my mind at just the right moment when I needed it!
• You’ll become happier and more successful. I could talk about this one all day. I’ve summarized over 400 non-fiction books and read the best ones multiple times. In all that reading I’ve found the clearest pathways to joy and prosperity. Each time I read a new non-fiction book or re-read a favorite, those ideas get reinforced and my ability to grow happier develops even further. 

How Audible Helped Me Become a Better Person

Take it from me, books make your life better in so many ways. And even if you’re doubting, just try it yourself and see how they can improve your life. Get a free trial of Audible and you’ll discover why I feel so strongly about the power of books! Even one book, maybe even that book you may get or listen to during a free trial, can wildly change your life.

For instance, a couple of years ago, I came across Greg McKeown’s Essentialism during a very stressful time of my life. 

Its principles helped me simplify my life by eliminating the unessential so I could focus on what was most important. Doing that brought me greater happiness and a better ability to handle stress than I would have had without it. I’ve since listened to the book many times. Each time I get a new insight that makes my life better. There are countless books that I’ve had this same experience with. 

I’ve even seen the power of fiction working for me to make my life better. Just a few weeks ago I was really overwhelmed with everything going on in my life when I re-discovered a couple of old favorites. I listened through them and used them to help me relax and unwind each day. My stress levels went down, my sleep improved, and it became easier to handle everything going on!

Is Audible Worth It?

Now that you know all of these benefits that are possible with an Audible subscription, the only question left is whether or not all of that is worth $7.99 or $15.99 a month. 

That’s a small price to pay for better sleep, stress management, happiness, and success. So in that regard, just considering all of these benefits we’ve discussed, Audible is 100% worth it.

Although, if you think about it, do you even have to add that monthly expense to your budget? Maybe not, if you consider some expenses you could do without that would cover the cost of a subscription.

Think for a moment about what you’re already spending money on. You might have Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, or some other subscription. Chances are you have multiple of them. Most of these are about the same price as an Audible subscription, if not more. So what would happen if you just canceled one of them and instead used that money and time to pay for and listen to audiobooks on Audible?

Watching too much TV is proven to make your life worse. It can cause you to gain weight, decimate your mental health, reduce the effectiveness and amount of sleep and rest you get, increase your risk of Alzheimer’s, and even cause brain damage, just to name a few. 

Think about all of that in terms of cost. Not just monetary, think about these intangible costs like your health and happiness. If too much TV is causing you to miss out on a good life, isn’t the cost of an Audible subscription worth gaining that all back and then some? 

Conclusion: Our Audible Review

Audiobooks have completely changed my life in dozens of ways. And one of my favorite ways to listen to them is Audible. It’s got the best selection, a solid app and other listening options, and many great options for purchasing a subscription. For just $7.99 or $15.99 a month it’s a bargain when you consider everything you get out of it!

My conclusion is that Audible is definitely worth the price. You’ll get unlimited listening access to a great selection of audiobooks, one audiobook to keep forever each month, and all the intangible benefits that come with reading more books, be they fiction or nonfiction titles.

If you’d like to try Audible and support Four Minute Books at no extra cost to you, click below to sign up for your free 30-day trial. You’ll get a free audiobook plus the ability to listen to any title in their “included” library for the duration of your trial:

If you’ve made it all the way here, thank you for reading this review! We hope that Four Minute Books helps you learn more, get smarter, and improve your life!

---

Other Reviews

Looking for our other reviews of the most popular book summary apps, tools, and services? Here’s a list of all the reviews we’ve published so far: