Alas, my flip phone’s inner screen is broken. I decided to cut my losses and buy a refurbished iPhone 13 Mini. This means I needed to figure out which iOS audiobook app I want to use. I scoured the internet to come up with a list of potential audiobook apps and then made a spreadsheet to compare features. All these apps were tested on my iPhone 13 Mini which is currently running iOS 18.1.1. Carplay was tested on a 2018 Subaru Impreza. Below are my thoughts on the apps.

Audience

iPhone users who

• Want to read a long post about iOS audiobook apps
• Want to use something other than Apple’s native iBooks app
• Own non-DRM audiobooks from places like Libro.fm (i.e. not Audible) ¹
• Want the audiobooks locally on their phone, not in the cloud, for situations when internet access is spotty
• Don’t want to run their own media server².

Audiobook Apps

I downloaded 10 audiobook apps but had to exclude two because they were no longer functional. I’ve listed the remaining eight audiobooks below in order of preference. However, we all have slightly different audiobook needs so my favorite may not be yours. In my view, the two best audiobook apps are BookPlayer and MP3 Books. Both can be downloaded for free to compare functionality. If you like the functionality of MP3 Books best, I recommend paying the small one-time fee to upgrade to the Pro version. If you plan to use BookPlayer, you can contribute to the optional tip jar.

Important: To my knowledge, none of these apps work with DRM content. This includes audiobooks bought through Audible and Apple.

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BookPlayer

Price

• Free for most features
• Optional Tip Jar to show appreciation
• A subscription is required for some beta features including Cloud sync

Pros

• Regularly updated
• Good UI
• Very configurable
• Multiple ways to import books
• Easy to batch-add M4B and zipped MP3 audiobooks
• Ability to search audiobook collection
• Great organization options for large collections
• Can retrieve the embedded audiobook cover or replace with a custom cover
• Optional Auto Sleep Timer
• Excellent Carplay features
• Voiceover support (not tested)

Cons

• No Wi-Fi upload
• Sleep timer doesn’t pause when the book is paused and movement doesn’t restart the sleep timer
• Not easy to batch add audiobooks made up of multiple MP3 files

BookPlayer is an excellent audiobook app. The organization options are one of its biggest strengths. While multiple apps, including this one, have the ability to search for audiobooks, this is the only app that offers the option of nested folders. It allows me to group my books by authors and then by series. So, if I want to easily browse all my Bujold books, I go to my Bujold folder, and then choose either the Vorkosigan Saga or the World of the Five Gods folder. In addition, within the folders I can drag the books to the order I want them to appear. This is particularly useful when you have BookPlayer’s AutoPlay toggle turned on which automatically goes to the next book in the list. If I finish all the books in the Vorksigan saga, it’ll start playing the first book I have in my World of the Five God’s folder. In addition, BookPlayer has a select feature that lets me organize multiple audiobooks at once rather than one-by-one.

For me, one of the most exciting features BookPlayer has is its optional Auto Sleep Timer feature. This restarts the sleep timer whenever playback is started again until you explicitly turn the sleep timer off. This means that if I don’t fall asleep before the first sleep timer expires, I can simply tap my earbud to start the audiobook again, without needing to open my eyes, and it will remember I want the sleep timer to engage again. It looks like this is a new feature as of 2024 and I am very excited the developer added it. The sleep timer does work a little differently than in the Android Smart Audiobook Player. In BookPlayer, it doesn’t pause when the book is paused and it seems to be a global setting. That is, the timer continues to count down even if I switch to another book. This works fine for me but may be a problem for others. One other really nice feature of the sleep timer is it fades before stopping completely. It’s a shorter fade than I had for Smart Audiobook Player. However, it’s smooth enough that I don’t wake up from the sound suddenly stopping.

BookPlayer’s CarPlay experience is also excellent. Most of the apps I tested had some basic CarPlay functionality if I started the audiobook playing from my phone. However, very few of the apps let me open them from the car’s screen. On long drives I might want to easily switch from my podcast player, or Libby app, to my personal audiobook collection without stopping the car and BookPlayer makes this very easy. In addition, there are an amazing number of options while playing audiobooks. Besides the basic pause and skip buttons (both short skips and chapter skips), you can also choose tracks from a menu, add bookmarks with one touch (there is no annotation option in CarPlay mode), boost volume, and change playback speed.

For me, the biggest downside to BookPlayer is how it handles multiple MP3 files for the same book. To be fair, this is something that most audiobook apps seem to struggle with. If you try importing multiple individual MP3 files for multiple books at the same time, you either have the choice to leave them all ungrouped or to group them as one audiobook. Either option could require significant cleanup after the import. Copying a folder, zipped or unzipped, does work but unlike Smart Audiobook Player you can’t choose which folder it ends up in ahead of time³. When batch importing, it’s best to either stick to M4B or organize MP3 files into individual audiobook folders before importing.

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MP3 Audiobook Player

(also called MP3 Books)

Price

• Free with ads for books under 12 hours
• $1.99 to remove ads
• $3.99 for audiobooks over 12 hours
• $5.99 one-time for everything above and more (Pro)

Pros

• Regularly updated
• Decent UI
• Many advanced features
• Many supported file-formats
• Multiple ways to import books
• Easy to batch-add M4B and zipped MP3 audiobooks
• Ability to search audiobook collection
• Can retrieve the embedded audiobook cover or replace with a custom cover
• Graphical overview of listening statistics
• Optional always on sleep timer

Cons

• No organization options⁴
• Couldn’t play from CarPlay screen
• Cannot manually reorder individual MP3 files within a book
• Minor things don’t always work as expected
• Free limitations are annoying, but cheap to remove

Both MP3 Audiobook Player⁵ and ListenBook, its sibling app, are the most configurable of any of the apps I tested. They’re created by the same developer and have similar functionality so unless I say otherwise, all features I mention are relevant for both. The developer mentions they listen to audiobooks all the time and it shows in both of these apps. Almost every setting can be customized. For example, the auto-rewind customization has different settings for very short pause, short pause, and long pause.

As you can tell, sleep timers are near and dear to my heart and this sleep timer can be extensively customized. In addition to the typical duration options, like BookPlayer the sleep timer has an optional setting to be “Always Enabled”. It also has a setting for automatic volume control which can reduce the volume as the sleep timer runs out. Unfortunately, this reduced volume is persistent so if you start the audiobook again, it starts at the reduced volume. One really nice set of sleep features this app has is several “restart timer on” options. For example, you can have it restart the sleep timer when the phone moves and even set the shake sensitivity. The timer also pauses when you pause the audiobook. Like BookPlayer, the sleep timer is persistent regardless of which book you’re listening to.

This app has a number of advanced features that BookPlayer doesn’t. It has a nice graphical statistics page that displays how long you’ve been listening in the app and includes a separate page with detailed info on your listening history. MP3 Player also has advanced sound quality settings. When choosing the universal audio engine you also get an equalizer option. This app also works with the widest range of audiobook file types: MP3 (tested), MP4, AWB, OPUS, OGG, FLAC, AWB, AAC, WMA, M4B (tested), and M4A.

For me, the biggest downside of MP3 Audiobook Player is that it doesn’t have robust organization options. In addition, the Always Enabled sleep timer didn’t consistently work for me. The other bug I noticed is when I tried to select the app on my Carplay screen, it would open but the audiobook wouldn’t play. When I started the book directly from the phone, it worked fine and in addition to basic functionality, did allow bookmarking. In the reviews, several people noted that sometimes the app would revert to the “free” version and it was sometimes difficult to restore to the paid version. This was not a problem I had while testing.

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ListenBook and ListenBook Pro

Price

• $0.99 monthly subscription
• $7.99 annual subscription
• 17.99 one-time

Pros

• Same features as MP3 Player
• Additional UI customization options
• Has a music mode
• More sound customization options

Cons

• Same as MP3 Books
• Expensive compared to most book apps

Listenbook and ListenBook Pro is from the same developer as MP3 Books and the main difference between the two is the user interface and additional customization options. This app has two subscription options: monthly and annually via ListenBook. You can also pay a higher one-time fee by going to ListenBook Pro instead. As far as I can tell, they’re the same app, just different payment options. I bought ListenBook Pro back in 2022 for $4.99 and had no problem installing it on my new iPhone. ListenBook is more expensive than the other options on the list but if you want a long-term option with a nice interface, this may still be a good choice.

As I mentioned above, the look of the user interface is a fair amount different than MP3 Books. ListenBook allows you to view books three different ways: 2 covers per row, 3 covers per row, or a more detailed list. When playing the audiobook you also have more view options. There’s the condensed play view, the expanded play view, and the music mode. The expanded play view allows you to change a number of settings without having to leave the play area. This includes book marks, sleep timer, book/music mode changer, airplay, and sound options. The sound options are where ListenBook has more customization than MP3 Books. It also has the ability to change pitch, enable noise cancellation, convert to mono or change your channel mix, or enable Bauer stereophonic-to-binaural.

Overall, this is a really nice audiobook app and if I didn’t like the organization of BookPlayer more, I would probably use this one.

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Bound

Price

• $4.99 one-time

Pros

• Simple but well-designed
• Regularly updated
• Handles individual MP3 files well

Cons

• No search
• Cannot boost volume
• Can’t transfer directly from computer via USB
• Only available in English

This is a relatively simple audiobook that still includes essential audiobook features such as changing playback speed, bookmarks, and a basic sleep timer. It even has a couple of moderately advanced features such as being able to reorder individual MP3 files. In fact, unlike the other apps above, it easily handles importing multiple MP3 files at a time and correctly groups by the audiobooks they belong to based on the file metadata.

However, the app does not have as many advanced features as the other apps above. The lack of a search may be a deal breaker for people with large audiobook collections. In addition, the Web Uploader did not work when I tried it⁶.

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Little Ape Audio Books

Price

• Free

Pros

• Simple but nice interface
• Can organize by collections
• Handles individual MP3 files well
• Regularly updated

Cons

• Fewer features than many apps
• No search
• Can’t transfer directly from computer via USB
• Only available in English

This is a good app if you want something really simple that’s free. Like Bound, it reads the file metadata and correctly groups individual MP3 books together. You can also rearrange tracks if it gets the order wrong. One unique feature is you can add audiobooks to collections and color code the collections. When you look at the audiobook list you can see the collection color to the right of the book. Or you can click the top drop down menu to limit by collection. This app is currently very simple but it’s being actively updated and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets new features in the future.

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CloudBeats: Audio Book Player

Price

• Free for streaming and basic features
• $9.99 one-time for more features
• $8.99/year subscription to sync across devices

Pros

• Designed to directly connect with cloud storage
• Search
• Can handle playlists

Cons

• Fewer features than many apps
• Carplay seek buttons didn’t work correctly
• Can’t import files already on the iPhone

This app is only worth considering if you want to directly connect to Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Mediafire, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, ownCloud, pCloud, webDAV, or My Cloud Home (I only tested Google Drive). In some ways it feels more like a music player than an audiobook player. For example, it supports m3U playlist, you can set tracks to repeat, and remembering playback position is an optional setting.

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Audiobook Player SmartBook

Price

• 2 Books Free
• $9.99 for unlimited books

Pros

• Can boost volume 3x

Cons

• Fewer features than many apps
• Was last updated in 2020
• Some features were buggy
• Does not display embedded cover from file
• Free version includes ads

This app hasn’t been updated since 2020. There are better options available.

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Audo

Price

• Basic features free
• $1.99 one-time

Pros

• When playing audiobook can see bookmarks and chapter tracks on the same screen

Cons

• Fewer features than many apps
• Was last updated in 2020
• Some features were buggy

This app hasn’t been updated since 2020. There are better options available.

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Audiobook Apps That Didn’t Work

I already had Book Mower and Bookmobile from prior years. However, I didn’t include them because the free versions are limited, they were last updated more than four years ago, and trying to upgrade to the full-featured option now returns an error for both apps.

Footnotes