Top 10 Ebook Subscription services
Updated: February 24, 2026 | Editor: Maria Lin
Cloud services that offer access to thousands or millions of eBooks for fixed monthly fee.
1
Amazon's subscription platform for e-books, audiobooks, selected magazines and periodicals, offering the largest selection (5 million digital titles) at a reasonable price (around $12/month). Kindle Unlimited offers many books in the $3–$8 range (if purchased individually) so if you read two or three books a month, the subscription usually pays for itself. Books can be read and listened to on Kindle e-readers or in the free Kindle app on your computer, tablet or smartphone. However, not all bestsellers or new releases from major publishers are available. The subscription operates like a "library" - you can have a certain number of books at a time (usually up to 20 at a time), return them and borrow new ones.
2
Kobo's service that lets you read and/or listen to an unlimited number of books for a flat monthly fee. Not all books in the Kobo store are included - only those participating in the Kobo Plus program. Book availability may also vary depending on your country and registration. The books you borrow through a subscription aren't yours forever: you can access them only while your subscription is active (like at a library). If you want to keep them forever, you need to purchase them separately. Kobo offers flexible subscription plans - separate for reading ebooks only or audiobooks only.
3
Everand (Scribd's spinoff) is a reading subscription service with millions of audiobooks and ebooks for €10.99 per month. Books can be read on multiple devices and offline. You can highlight text and take notes, change font size and color themes, set a sleep timer for audiobooks, add bookmarks and organize your reading into lists. The book selection is almost as wide as Kindle's, but it's slightly cheaper. It also features some exclusive releases by Roxane Gay, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, Chuck Palahniuk, and others. Some books on Everand have monthly limits, which is determined by each subscriber's individual reading/listening activity.
4
Storytel is an international audiobook streaming service (over 800,000 stories in 40 languages) that also offers access to 2,500,000 ebooks. It operates on an all-inclusive model: for a monthly fee of €9.99 per month, users gain unlimited access to the entire library. A family plan allows up to three users to listen simultaneously with a single subscription. Kids' mode containes only children's books and allows content restrictions. You can download audiobooks and ebooks for offline reading on your favorite devices in the app. You can subscribe to your favorite author, narrator or series and receive personalized recommendations based on your previous listening habits. In addition to classic and popular books, the app offers exclusive audio series and podcasts (Storytel Originals).
5
BookBeat is a European subscription service for audiobooks and ebooks that works similarly to streaming. You pay based on the number of hours of listening, starting at just £7.99 per month (e.g., 20/40/100 hours). If you run out of hours, you can upgrade to a higher plan or purchase additional hours. The service is popular in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Poland. With a BookBeat subscription, users have access to over a million books through a mobile app for iOS and Android.
6
Swedish subscription service for reading e-books and listening to audiobooks, Nextory has become popular in Europe, especially in the Nordic countries. It gives book lovers access to a vast digital library directly in the mobile app and offers audiobooks and e-books on a variety of topics and genres, from fiction to non-fiction. Books can be downloaded and listened to or read offline. Of course, there are bookmarks, progress syncing and reading settings. Nextory also offers personalized book recommendations based on your interests. You can create a family account with multiple profiles for family members.
7
Libby is a free app and web service (from OverDrive) for renting digital books from local libraries. Over 90% of public libraries in North America have OverDrive, and Libby can be found in 78 countries worldwide. You sign in using the library card you get from your local library. Books aren't freely available - you have to join a queue and wait for other users to make a book available before you can borrow it (as the library has a license for a limited number of copies). Libby has no paid subscriptions or in-app purchases. The app includes a book reader and audiobook player, and syncs your reading progress across devices.
8
24symbols is a cloud-based platform, and it’s perhaps the cheapest eBook subscription service on the list. Here, you’ll find an expansive selection of history novels, bestsellers, memories, fiction and non-fiction books, and even directories. You’ll also find comics and graphic novels.
9
Scribd is the world's largest digital library, where readers can discover books and written works of all kinds on the Web or any mobile device and publishers and authors can find a voracious audience for their work. Launched in March of 2007 and based in San Francisco California, more than 40 million books and documents have been contributed to Scribd by the community. Scribd content reaches and audience of 80 million people around the world every month.
10
Hoopla is a web and mobile library media streaming platform for audio books, comics, e-books. hoopla syncs across all your devices, so you can stream titles immediately or whenever you're in the mood.
11
An online subscription for all your academic books. Perlego study guides are created by Masters and PhD experts. Each one is designed to help you get to grips with key academic concepts and subjects — clear, simple, and effortless to understand, so you can get your research started.
12
Reading has never been more convenient. With a Bookmate subscription you can read thousands of books using a simple application for mobile or tablet, or on your computer. Read, build your own library, see what your friends are reading, explore everything which Bookmate has to offer!
13
Forgotten Books is the world's largest online library with 484,473 books available on demand. This website has been designed using the very latest technologies to provide our members with many features never seen before. More than just books; Forgotten Books also features advanced analytical data. Every single word, page and image inside each and every one of our 484,473 books have been analyzed, indexed and classified.
Latest news about Ebook Subscription services
10.04.26. Kindle Unlimited is ending its freemium service for magazines
Amazon is introducing significant restrictions in Kindle Unlimited for magazines in the US. Automatic delivery is ending: only the issues you select will be added to your library and automatic delivery of future issues will no longer be available. Magazines rented before April 22, 2026, will be removed from your Kindle library on July 22, 2026. Any magazines in your library at the time of the transition will enter a grace period from April to July and then be removed from your Kindle library. If you want to keep any of these issues, you can rent them individually in the new interface after April 22, as long as they remain available in Kindle Unlimited catalog. Anything rented in the new interface will remain in your library.
2025. Libby has revamped its Hold system
Libby, a popular online app for free access to books from your local library via e-reader or phone, has made significant changes to its hold system. In Libby, if the e-book or audiobook you want is already in use by other readers, you can place a hold on it. This means you join the queue and when it's your turn (the book becomes "available"), Libby will notify you that you can borrow it. How can an e-book be held? As it's not a physical book. The reason is that the library purchases the rights to e-books from the publishers with certain number of licenses (e.g., 3 copies). Previously, Libby allowed to "suspend" this hold for 7–180 days (thus you could stay in the queue but skip your spot while you are busy). Now the system has changed: if you suspend a hold, you must remove the hold yourself, otherwise it will simply "expire" in a year.
