Audible
The most recommended of 3 audiobook services
Audiobook subscription and app that people recommend for listening on phones and tablets, with a sleep timer and mostly reliable syncing. Common caveats are buggy app behavior and restrictive DRM.
Audiobook subscription and app that people recommend for listening on phones and tablets, with a sleep timer and mostly reliable syncing. Common caveats are buggy app behavior and restrictive DRM.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 15
- approval share
- 44%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Syncing works across devices
“Little trouble getting audible syncd to his ipad remotely but we got it working.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Reading is a vice: US student reading abilities and habits are declining” “The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Buggy app and syncing problems
“The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Singapore’s National Library Board offers micropayments to build reading habits” “Little trouble getting audible syncd to his ipad remotely but we got it working.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Reading is a vice: US student reading abilities and habits are declining” “For the last few months I still randomly get errors opening audible.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk” - Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws”
DRM and exclusivity restrictions
“If you want to be part of their subscription service, then you cannot sell your book anywhere else”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Amazon Busted for Widespread Scheme to Inflate Prices Across the Economy” “the biggest store that doesn't have a DRM-free option is Audible”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks” “they tend to limit listening time on large part of their portfolio”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Anna's Archive Owes $340 Million, Lost Several Domains, but It's Still Online” Downloads removed or unavailable offline
“audible downloads auto-remove when you get to the end. hard to find settings”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Ads on Apple Maps” “kindle books/audible audiobooks track each thing you do, but can't offline.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Ads on Apple Maps” “The only bummer was I lost about 5 years of Audible books”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “The Amazon Tax” Cluttered home screen and library search
“Instead of opening up to your library and your books on default it opens to an obnoxious home screen”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Root shell on Samsung TV” “When you try to search your own library instead it shows you books for sale.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line”
Other audiobook services people recommend
The two most recommended other audiobook services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 audiobook services, rankedWhat people said
27 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Instead of opening up to your library and your books on default it opens to an obnoxious home screen”
“I kept telling Audible they needed to invest more into premium audio experiences”
“They want you to buy books, not listen to them.”
“Why bother with libraries when you can subscribe to Audible?”
“which was possibly not the ideal experience”
“The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.”
“they tend to limit listening time on large part of their portfolio”
“The only bummer was I lost about 5 years of Audible books”
“I knew the deal when buying, so I simply went through the grief on my end to strip them”
“Audible does a good of that as well”
“there was a deluge of AI generated works or AI voice 'readings' of (especially public domain) works on there”
“kindle books/audible audiobooks track each thing you do, but can't offline.”
“audible downloads auto-remove when you get to the end. hard to find settings”
“"At Audible, we're always making updates and improvements to make your listening experience better."”
“They said there was nothing that could be done.”
“I had duplicate Audible and PlayStation accounts. No way to delete them.”
“If you want to be part of their subscription service, then you cannot sell your book anywhere else”
“Good call on the Audible distinction. You're right, different value prop.”
“For the last few months I still randomly get errors opening audible.”
“Def helped my sleep patterns when I started using Audible on a 30 minute sleep timer with them.”
“Little trouble getting audible syncd to his ipad remotely but we got it working.”
“still have audible which seems like suffering from the same problem”
“the biggest store that doesn't have a DRM-free option is Audible”
“Audible was actually only paying authors a 15% cut, while keeping 85% of sales for themselves.”
“what's become of Amazon/Audible's book recommendations”
“the Adible app is sending out. Even if just idle in the background.”
“When you try to search your own library instead it shows you books for sale.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.