Have you ever heard of Chirp? Chirp is an audiobook retailer that lets you get amazing limited-time deals on selected digital audiobooks. Unlike many other audiobook services, there are no monthly subscription fees or minimum purchases. How does it compare to the most popular audiobook provider Audible? Which one should you choose? Let's take a detailed look at the pros and cons of the two options.
1. Chirp
Chirp is owned and operated by the same people who started BookBub, a book discovery service used by millions of readers across the world. It is a dedicated site for audiobook deals with no membership plan or subscription requirement. The prices are really good (the lowest price I've seen is $0.99), and most of the books cost $3 or less.
Why Choose Chirp?
1 No subscription requirement. There is no monthly subscription for Chirp. You just pay for the book.
2 Quite Cheap. The prices of Chirp audiobooks are exceptionally low. A book that can cost over 2 on Chirp.
2 Free Audiobooks. Chirp offers a selection of free audiobooks. You can add your favorite titles to the library and listen to them in the Chirp mobile app.
3 You own the books. Any books you purchase are yours to keep and available for you to listen to whenever you want.
4 New book deals arrive daily. Every day, they highlight the best audiobook deals, sorted by genre and with information about how long the deal will last. You can also sign up for their newsletters and they’ll send you an email every day with the best deals.
5 Money-back guarantee. If you buy an audiobook and hate it, you'll get a refund.
6 Quality app. You can listen to audiobook on the free Chirp app from your phone or tablet or you can stream it from your computer.
Why Not Choose Chirp?
1 Only available in the US or Canada. If you are in Europe or other countries in the world, the service is unavailable.
2 Only some books are offered really cheap. A lot of the books actually cost just as much as they would on audible.
3 Limited audiobook selection. The selection of books at Chirp is not as wide as it is at Audible.
4 Not allowed to search or purchase books directly on the app. Chirp requires purchasing the books on their website before you can view them in the app.
Good News: Convert Chirp Books to local MP3s
If you want to download your chirp audiobooks locally and convert Chirp books to MP3 format, Epubor Chirp Converter is an ideal tool you should try! With the help of Epubor Chirp Converter, you can easily download your audiobooks from the Chirp and back them up as local M4A files. Next, it's very easy to convert them to MP3 format and transfer the converted books on any preferred devices for offline listening. For more detailed steps, you can read Epubor Chirp Converter User Guide.
2. Audible
As an audiobook service launched by Amazon, Audible is the largest audiobook producer and retailer in the world. The Audible audiobooks can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the users receive "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to unlimited listening (streaming or download) from the Audible Plus Catalog.
Why Choose Audible?
1 Available worldwide. Audible.com supports the US and all other countries
2 The world's largest library of audiobooks. Audible has over 400,000 titles, including bestsellers, new releases, mysteries, sci-fi, romances and more genres.
3 Unlimited book returns. Members have unlimited book returns as long as the title is within 1 year of the purchase date.
4 You own the book. You keep the ownership of all your purchased Audible books.
5 Available for different devices. Audible audiobooks are compatible across dozens of different devices, including but not limited to Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Kindle, Amazon Echo.
6 Convert Audible to MP3. You have the option to convert Audible books to MP3.
Why Not Choose Audible?
1 Quite Expensive. The cost for Audible membership plan is $7.95/month for the Audible Plus and $14.95/month for the Audible Premium Plus.
3. Verdict: Chirp vs Audible
To help you make the final decision, the following is an intuitive chart of the comparison between Chirp and Audible.
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Chirp |
1. No subscription requirement. 2. Quite Cheap. 3. You own the books. 4. New book deals arrive daily. 5. Money-back guarantee. 6. Quality app. |
1. Only available in the US or Canada. 2. Only some books are offered really cheap. 3. Limited audiobook selection. 4. Not allowed to search or purchase books directly on the app. |
| Audible |
1. Available worldwide. 2. The world's largest library of audiobooks. 3. Unlimited book returns. 4. You own the book. 5. Available for different devices. 6. You can convert Audible to MP3. |
1. Quite Expensive. |
Verdict: Chirp or Audible?
Who is Chirp for? Chirp is for someone that doesn't read too many books like one every two months or every three months. It's great for occasional readers because you only have to pay two or three dollars and you don't have to worry about the monthly subscription if you aren't going to be using it frequently.
Who is Audible for? Audible is for the medium and high-level listeners like one to four books or more a month. By subscribing to the membership, you'll get really good value out of audible.
Bonus Tips - Convert Audiobooks to MP3
If you would like to listen to your favorite Audible books on various devices and back them up permanently, Epubor Audible Converter is the best one that can help you convert your Audible audiobooks to MP3 in a much easy way. For more details, just read The Official Guide to Convert Audible to MP3.
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Michelle loves technology & reading very much. She seeks the methods to enjoy eBooks and audiobooks more freely and wants to share everything new she has got with you.
