Everand: An update about this audiobook subscription

Have you heard of Everand? (It used to be called Scribd, but now has split into two parts with Everand housing the ebooks and audiobooks!).

When I wrote this post a few years ago about where to find free audiobooks, several people suggested Everand in the comments and I started using it a little bit that summer.

Then a few months later, I started using it in earnest, and I was HOOKED and recommended it far and wide for years

But now, Everand has changed and . . . if the DMs I’ve gotten are any indication . . . people are NOT HAPPY.

First off, here’s a comparison of how Audible and Everand used to be different.

Imagine Audible like a giant bookstore.

You can go in and buy basically any book that exists and it’s yours to keep forever. The selection is unmatched (basically if an audiobook exists, Audible will have it) and you pay for exactly what you want.

Everand, on the other hand, was more like Netflix.

You paid a flat monthly fee ($11.99 per month) and you had access to everything in their library which includes both audiobooks and ebooks. You don’t own any of it, but you can listen or read as much as you’d like.

In the case of this kind of app, the important thing is “how good is the library?”

Everand’s library? REALLY good.

I started recommending it in earnest for Everyday Reading Book Club and so many people were telling me the hold lines were out of control for specific books.

Many of the books for book club were included in Everand which meant readers could listen to a copy without waiting in any line at all.

Then I was listening to The Poet X for my children’s lit bookclub and my library copy expired before I could finish it. So I hopped on Everand and there it was. Ten seconds later, I was right back at my spot and finished it without a deadline hanging over my head.

Plus thousands of other good options.

And when it’s subscription-based, it didn’t feel like a risk to start listening to something and then decide “meh” and move on.

There are also tons of children’s audiobooks, so it’s easy for me to find things for my girls to listen to too.

My kids have listened endless to Boxcar Children books and Dragon Masters and hundreds of others over the years.

And they automatically play over wifi, but you can download anything for offline listening too.

AND it’s very easy to navigate the app.

They don’t have everything, for sure, but it’s a good enough catalog to keep me busy for a LONG time.

The only weird thing about Everand was that there was some sort of behind-the-scenes algorithm that means sometimes some books aren’t available until the next month (usually once you hit 2-3 bestsellers per month, you’d be shut down on buzzy bestsellers until the next month).

So, that’s how Everand USED to be.

Now, they’ve moved to an “Unlock” model. Any premium titles (which, spoiler, are going to be most of the titles you’re interested in) will cost you an unlock – you get 1 unlock a month for $11.99 or 3 unlocks for $16.99.

The unlocks basically function like a credit on Audible or Libro.FM.

For most users, this meant that they went from being able to listen to multiple audiobooks a month to just one.

(Although there are non-premium titles that you can still listen to without an unlock but those will generally be old titles, not popular titles or kids titles).

Frankly, if that’s how you used Everand, I would recommend moving to Amazon Music Unlimited instead. For $9.99 a month (or $10.99 if you don’t ‘have Prime), you can get a free audiobook every month to listen to ALONG with unlimited music listening. (I have a whole post about how the audiobooks on Amazon Music Unlimited work here).

BUT I do think the $16.99 plan is being overlooked as a great value for power listeners – you’d be hard-pressed to get 3 premium listens per month on any other platform (since it works out to less than $6 per audiobook).

So if you’re willing to pay a bit more, you’ll get probably the best deal you’ll find anywhere on audiobooks!

(You can try it out for a free month here!)

The other thing to know about Everand is that it’s not a controlled platform for kids – there is plenty of adult material included so it’s not something I’d just hand over to a kid and let them go wild with.

I turn Everand on from my device and connect it to their bluetooth speakers so they can listen but can’t search the catalog on their own.

If you haven’t tried it out, I HIGHLY recommend it.

You can grab a free 30 day trial here (just set a calendar alert so you can cancel it if you decide you don’t like it enough to keep it but I’m pretty sure you’ll think it’s WELL worth it).

If you have questions about it, let me know – I’m not an expert, but I’m happy to try to help!

If you liked this Everand review, you might also like these posts:

• Why I LOVE the Libby app for listening to library audiobooks
• My favorite audiobooks for the whole family
• Where to find free audiobooks

Photos by Heather Mildenstein