hibooks - amazing audiobooks Reviews

by Jlyn1010101

***UPDATE***
App will not let me listen to unlimited books anymore?! It keeps saying my next audiobook is available in 29 days but just a few hours ago it said 27 days? Since when is this not UNLIMITED?! That is the whole premise of hibooks .. now I’m really really disappointed because I love listening to books at work but audible was too expensive.. now this feels scammy :( if they change the limitations you must inform customers.. there was no communication now I don’t want to pay for this service :(

I really love hibooks and concept. I have audible but it’s so expensive to buy books on it constantly so I loved this idea since it’s so cheap and unlimited! Love love love the concept but I wish there was a way to see your total progress jn the book.. instead you can only see where you are in that chapter. Not total time listened or total left in entire book. Sometimes it misses my place too and I end up listening to the same thing a couple times. I don’t think they have a book mark feature. I also wish it had more info about the book like how audible has a list of the characters and what not. Also, the chapters are kind of choppy in some books. Definitely recommend though.. I think it’s pretty new so for such a cheap subscription I’m willing to tolerate for now :)

by Jzeisler

I only discovered this app a couple of months ago and i was in love with it. Ive read more books in that 2 months than I did most of last year. Advertised as the Netflix of audiobooks, Most of the books i wanted were here so hibooks was amazing to me and a very good value!
With ZERO warning to any of their customers, mostof the popular books became unavailable for a month or so. I received a timer on all the books i wanted and couldnt download any for x amount of days. B\c there was no warning, i emailed customer service to find out what was wrong with my app. They acted like this was the way it had always been and that there were thousands of books(old books or free domain books) available when “some”(the most popular) books were unavailable. Customer service is a big deal to me. Don't lie to me and then try to talk around the truth.
They were losing money And made a change without any concern for their customers.
I would have paid more for unlimited books, but the way they treated us customers was too much for me. I canceled my subscription. Audible has a much better player (no skips or wrong chapters) and much better customer service and i own the books forever. They also havent lied to me.

by Aidanasian

hibooks used to be amazing! I was able to listen to my heart’s content to the newest and best books, but that’s changed. It started with certain books saying I had to wait X amount of days before I could get a new book. The amount of days to wait changed everyday and seemed completely random. I emailed support and got the worlds vaguest response. But now they’ve managed to make it even worse, I now have to pay this app coins for books I want to read (some books coming up to $15!)-this is in ADDITION to the $10 monthly subscription fee I’m already paying! That’s not unlimited. this app doesn’t know the definition of unlimited apparently. They do have a large selection of books that don’t require coins, but those are books that I would never care to read! Basically, anything new that people actually want to read will cost you the subscription fee PLUS $9-15 “this app coins”. I want a refund for this month. Let me know when you change it back to being truly unlimited, until then, it’s back to audible for this girl.
If you’re considering this app, just read the most recent reviews. All of the five star, great reviews you’re seeing are from before they changed hibooks . So disappointing.

by Mz Shayshay

I was really enjoying hibooks at first,I thought unlimited is GREAT! I go through audiobooks quickly as I always have them playing throughout the day whether I’m driving, working, cleaning, etc. So I browse through the library and save books Im interested in for the future so I can go right to it.
I noticed these “coins” and time clocks showing up and some books I had saved in my library I no longer could listen to for free. So I began downloading the book before I read them, with hopes that I would “get them” before I had to pay an additional fee. It worked for awhile but now nearly all the books I’m interested in, I have to pay an additional cost for. I don’t like that.

It’s not the “Netflix” way. Netflix doesn’t make you pay an additional cost to watch “new“ movies. They simply up their membership fees a couple of bucks and call it a day. But I guess that method did not seem practical to the “hi books” team. It’s unfortunate because I liked hibooks before I got, what I feel is pretty close to being, tricked or baited into believing the books on hibooks were unlimited. I have decided to cancel my subscription.

by Nana2HC

A month ago you would have gotten 4 stars from me. But within the last month something changed so that I can no longer go from one book to another without having to wait 8 to 12 hours between books I have previously downloaded. When I first started using your app 2 months ago, I was able to download all the books in a series and go straight from the end of one book to the beginning of another without waiting, but now I have to wait between books and when immersed in a series this really frustrates me. I love that your service is unlimited for the monthly fee, but I am unhappy with the change I am seeing now that causes me to wait between books.

Tonight I checked a book in my library and it showed I could read it in 29 days, but last night, I was able to download the book and it was available to read. Because it is the last book in the series I have been reading, I did not want to read it out of order and now that I am ready to read it, it’s not available, even though I was able to download it last night. That doesn’t make sense!

by Cassifish

I adored this app when I first found them. They had tons of great books, I could listen to something I’ve never heard of without paying $15 and hating it, and I could listen to an unlimited number a month! It was amazing! Buuut then things got weird. I had count downs on books I had preciously started listening to that said it was 24 days until I could listen to that book. I (like others) were told they were rotating their selection. I hesitantly took them at their word. Today I logged in to listen while I cleaned, now you have to buy these coins and pay per book if you want anything bigger names from the past couple of years. They are trying to be cute with their little coin system but ultimately they have just turned into audible, but at least audible gives you a free book each month and doesn’t expect you to only listen to older books. I would rather pay 1 mo they fee and get unlimited books than pay per book, specially when trying to discover new books.
I’ve immediately unsubscribed. So disappointed in their choices.

by Stolie77

I’ve been with them since it was Otto Radio. It used to be FANTASTIC! Unlimited books to listen to whenever/wherever. All for a small monthly charge. I had no problem paying it and would have upped my membership fee to keep it the same. I easily listened to several books a month. It was worth every penny. But now they’ve changed. The only unlimited books you can access are junk. No best sellers at all like they used to have. Just old books from a tiny inventory. Oh they still have other books. But now you’ve got to pay additionally for the privilege in “stupid coins” making it EXACTLY like Audible with LESS of a selection. Are you kidding me? At least audible gives you a book a month that you could actually want making the subscription pay for itself. I Cancelled this mess and if I were you I wouldn’t get sucked in and subscribe. They’ll change it again probably and take your money gladly. Rip off! You’re better off with Audible and going to the library for the free selection they have if that’s your cup of tea. What a joke. I want my money back.

by Runswithscissors74

When I first started using this about a year ago it was great. Although it did not have the same selection as audible, there are enough good books to keep me satisfied along with my audible subscription. Then a couple of months ago they changed everything. First it went to having a countdown clock were certain books weren’t available. Now everything has changed. Basically what they said is they have all these new books and an extensive library and you have to pay cash for those books on top of your subscription price. these books are not new. I have been looking at their selection for over a year. The books that have been marked up to pay cash for are the same books that were always there. There is basically zero selection that comes with your subscription now. I could find nothing that I wanted to read in my already paid for choices. The whole reason I loved this was because you’re basically paying to rent the books. I don’t read things twice so I wasn’t interested in owning them. Now it’s worse than Audible.

by Juneygal

I’ve had hibooks for a several months and if I had rated it within the first few weeks it would definitely have received 5 stars from me. I was thrilled to find an alternative to the expensive Audible and having unlimited access to all the books I wanted was like heaven. I found almost every book on my Audible wishlist, many of them brand new publications. A couple of months ago all of that changed. Most of the books I search for now are not available, and definitely not anything recent. Ive had to start listening to books that are 10 or more years old. The most annoying thing is finding a book I’m interested in and seeing some weird countdown clock on it telling me I have 19, 21, or 27 more days before it’s available. That never happened until just recently. My understanding was that there were no restrictions on how many books you could listen to. I would be willing to pay a little more to have unlimited access and the books I really want. If you’re content to read older books written by C list authors this is a good deal because the price is great. I’m very disappointed that this isn’t what it once was and I’ve got to decide it I even want to continue my subscription.

by Kenya Hudson

The Good: Audiobook selection is broad similar to the selection of the now-defunct audiobook coverage of TuneIn. hibooks ’s playback functions are standard and selections play in the background. There is a book discovery tab with categories of books including by release period and genre.

The Bad: The service represents itself as unlimited. For several months, it was. About 2 weeks ago, I began to notice meters for books indicating when I would be able to access them. These meters are not accurate. They may indicate 29 days.. and a few days later indicate 28 days. There is no prior indication of which books would be impacted or what specific number of books can be accessed in a time frame. These meters affect about 40% of the books on my saved list. There are books from major publishing houses that are not impacted as of now.

The Ugly: this app did not communicate any of these changes within hibooks . The meters popped up with no information or clarification. Now, they have a message on a blog post (still with no direct link or communication within hibooks ) claiming that the problem is temporary. I am less bothered by the meters than by the lack of communication about it.

by Blagg55

I rarely write reviews. I am writing this, because I used to really like this program. What brought me in was the flat monthly rate and unlimited audiobook listening. This was AMAZING! There was not anything else like it out there. I truly enjoyed the service. Then, all of a sudden they changed everything with no notice at all. They went from an “all you can eat buffet” to an “a la carte” model. It is now much more similar to Audible. What brought me here was the uniqueness in the business model, but not it is just like most other audiobook services. The coin system is confusing. They aren’t too up front with how it works and what you’ll get. I truly wish they could revert back to their old model. I would be happy to pay a higher subscription rate for that service. As it is now, it is close to audible and hibooks functions very well. There are no functional problems and the selection is pretty good. It is my hopes that this review can get the attention of the this app team and for you guys to strongly think about your model and what makes you unique. You had something really cool going.

by Maddie748

I jumped at the chance to listen to more books for less. I have audible and could easily listen to 3-4 books a month, so this seemed like a good choice. Unfortunately, it’s lacking some key features which make Audible so great. For one, they should add the ability to bookmark your location. I often use the sleep timer and it’s frustrating to have to try and find your place again the next morning. Also, the playback is not very smooth even when I have all of the chapters of a book downloaded. For example, in the most recent book I listened to, each “chapter” was short, and was only a part of each book chapter, so every few minutes I’d have to wait a bit while the music played before the next track would start playing. I’d also have to agree with other reviews which say the selection is not up to par with Audible. I don’t mind that I wouldn’t have the downloads forever like with Audible, but do mind that the selection is limited. Overall, it’s an ok app, but without improvements I’ll probably switch back over to Audible.

by Tatj11

I heard about this site and while I love my Audible account and utilize Libby too, I was wanting to get more selections in my month. hibooks is worth the money and has current NYT Bestsellers available right now to listen to. While I love it and have downloaded a lot; the search categories are clunky and need major updating. When I select my genre (example is "Literature/Fiction"), it takes me to the first of many pages of mixed types of this genre. Books such as, "Big Little Lies, Mr. Mercedes, and War & Peace". There is no sorting to help find authors or specific types of fiction. Instead, you must search through the many pages of what seem like random books to find what you are looking for. It is very frustrating. If you are like me and find a book in the middle of this search you will get kicked back to the start. Ughhh! While overall hibooks has awesome books and is much more user accessible than audible. I will likely use it only until my downloaded books are finished since searching for books is far to frustrating for me!

by Helmeczi, C

I have been with Audible for six years and loved them. However when I read that this was $5 cheaper a month and it was all the books I wanted to listen to in a month I took a chance. I’ve been with this app for five months now and this is the first month where the books I’m wanting to read cost more money. Actually what they cost is coins that I have to buy open the book to be able to read it. I got on this morning to write this review with complete intentions of putting “bait and switch” as my title for my review and someone had already beaten me to it so obviously I’m not the only one feeling this way. I have thoroughly enjoyed the books that I’ve read but high books doesn’t have near the selection that Audible has. I will be switching back to Audible and canceling my subscription at the end of this month. The three books I wanted to read cost extra money and of course they did it at the first of the month when my month subscription has just begun. Grrr!

by Sad Audiophile

I jumped at the chance to be able to have a service where I could get multiple, newer audiobooks in the month for a little fee. I did not realize that many of those audiobooks are free books available on multiple platforms. I also did not realize that there are levels of access. Of course after I subscribed to the $9.99 per month, the book I wanted to listen to was a “premium” title. The reason why Netflix is successful is because they curate their titles and rotate each month to give people access to even more (new/newish) titles throughout the year. I don’t know if that is the plan with this service, but it is more expensive with less quality titles choose from than I realized when I first signed up. Wishful thinking on my part, unfortunately the value and catalog is not really here.