Scribd Review: Why Book Lovers Need to Download Scribd

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Scribd is an audiobook and ebook subscription service that is rapidly gaining popularity. However, to those new to the world of audiobooks, Scribd may be unfamiliar.

In my Scribd review, I will outline what is available on the app, whether it offers good value for money and a comparison against other similar digital reading subscriptions.

Now let me give you a bit of background as to how I discovered Scribd.

I had always been a fervent believer that physical books were superior to ebooks and I hadn’t been able to get into audiobooks since I was a child. In my mind, nothing could beat the feeling of holding a really great book in your hands and flipping each physical page to the end.

RELATED: 7 Reasons to Always Carry a Book With You

Then in December 2018, I signed up for the Scribd free trial.

And my reading habits completely changed.

In fact, in the years since, I’d say I’ve read many more digital books (ebooks and audiobooks) than I have physical.

That’s all thanks to Scribd. I’ve been addicted ever since I first downloaded it!

Sign up for the Scribd free trial and get free books now!

Now let’s get back to my Scribd review to find out exactly why Scribd is so good.

What is the Scribd App?

Scribd is a digital reading subscription service offering audiobooks, ebooks, magazines, podcasts, academic papers, sheet music, user-uploaded content and more. They’ve been around since 2007 so they’re by no means a new player on the market, but their service has changed over time.

It’s often referred to as the Netflix of books because for a monthly subscription fee they offer access to all of their digital content. As a huge binge-watcher, I have always liked this comparison.

Another reason I think this comparison is appropriate is that I think Scribd now is comparable to Netflix in its infancy. It’s hard to imagine now, but when Netflix first came out, there were limited options as to what to watch and they did not offer any new releases.

However, people learned that to choose from what was available instead of coming to a platform like Netflix with a specific film or television show in mind.

This is exactly how I learned to love Scribd. I spend a lot of time browsing for titles and always manage to find something that I want to read. As Scribd continues to grow in popularity, I hope the range and quality of content will improve too so it can truly live up to its title as the “Netflix of books”.

What is available on Scribd?

Scribd offers a wide range of different digital reading media, as described above. It’s worth noting from the outset that Scribd does not offer the latest releases. It’s not the platform you’ll come to if you want to read something on day 1 of its release.

In terms of book genres, they’ve got everything on Scribd. General fiction, chick lit, thrillers, young adult, romance, non-fiction, personal development. Every genre under the sun can be found on Scribd.

They’ve also got a selection of book “snapshots” which are quick book summaries. These capture the essence of some of the most popular books and essays and are perfect for those who want to learn the basics of these titles without reading the work in its entirety.

If you’re looking for a digital reading service you may not be interested in hearing about things like documents and sheet music.

However, these sections are well-populated too and I was surprised to find the sheet music section filled with pieces for piano and guitar from Mozart to Taylor Swift! From Claire de Lune to “Let It Go” from Frozen, this is a great repository for music lovers.

Scribd Price

Scribd currently costs £7.99 ( or $8.99) and with that, you get almost unlimited access to their library of digital books. You’ll find out why I say almost a bit further down.

With both audiobooks and ebooks on here, I find that I am constantly consuming their content and can get through up to ten books per month. Scribd completely changed my reading habits and has allowed me to read so much more, which, as a book blogger, I am very grateful for.

How Many People Can Use One Scribd Account?

Scribd content can be accessed and saved to multiple devices so whether you want to share this with your family or have seamless integration between your devices, Scribd has got your back.

You can save titles to up to four devices and open titles on up to six. This is the case for most titles but if you find additional restrictions it may be because some publishers have a different agreement with Scribd.

I use Scribd on my personal phone, work phone, family iPad and Macbook and it syncs perfectly across all four. It will offer you the option to jump ahead if you’ve read a bit more on one of your other devices and have opened the same book on a different one now.

Scribd Free Trial

The only way to find out if Scribd is for you is to actually download it and try it yourself. Luckily, they offer a 30-day free trial so you can do this for free. To create your Scribd free account, head to their website here and enter your details.

The Scribd free trial is what absolutely sold this service for me. During my free trial, I listened to and read around 10 books. In one month. There were so many titles on here that I’d been “meaning to read” over the past decade and they were all here in one place.

It’s amazing for people who don’t care about reading the latest releases but just want good books.

Remember that if you don’t want to continue your trial after the initial 30 days, you will need to cancel your membership.

I’ve seen some people claim that Scribd is a “scam” because it charges you even after the free trial is over but I can assure you, it is not a scam. If you forget to cancel and accidentally get charged, contact Scribd’s customer service immediately and they will be able to help you.

How do you pronounce Scribd?

And finally, the question I’m sure you’ve all been wondering: how do you pronounce Scribd? Is it “scribed” or “scrib-d”?

Thankfully, Scribd themselves have clarified this and stated that Scribd rhymes with “ribbed”.

I’m not going to pretend like this didn’t surprise me!

Sign up for the Scribd free trial and get free books now!

Scribd Review

Scribd App Interface

The Scribd app interface is one of the reasons I think Scribd is superior to some of its competitors. It’s really easy to navigate with tabs across both the header and footer for your ease.

The first page lists the titles you’ve saved followed by curated recommendations according to what you’ve already read. See why people call it the Netflix of books? this is both a blessing and a curse as this feature means that my “saved” options are simply overflowing with titles I want to read!

You can choose to scroll specifically according to the media you are interested in i.e. audiobooks, books, magazines and more. There’s also a tab for the most popular reads so you can see what everyone is getting their hands on.

If you select a title you are shown details about the book such as page length, reading time, publisher, release date and more. You can also write your own review and read reviews by other Scribd users.

If you keep scrolling, other titles by the same author are listed as well as related books. They even link to related podcast episodes and news articles! The seamless integration between different media and parts of the app is all part of the reason why I love Scribd.

If you search by genre, you’ll find that there are curated reading lists by Scribd, authors and other notable figures in that genre. I love book lists so this is incredibly handy for me when I’m looking for titles similar to ones I’ve already read.

Plus, it includes a concise paragraph about why it was chosen so no need to click through to each one to read more. These are kind of like Scribd’s in-app blog posts.

What’s more, you can curate your own lists, just for your reference, so you can organise all those saved titles and better manage them.

Scribd App Reading Experience

The Scribd app reading experience is customisable so you can change the font, the alignment of the text, the line spacing, the scroll direction, the font size, the background colour, the brightness and more. Every edit you could possibly want to make, you can make.

You can add highlight your favourite quotes and add notes to your books, which all appear under the “notebook” tab so you can easily scroll through them later. You can even turn your highlighted quote into a shareable square image with Scribd’s branding on it.

It’s easy to move between chapters, to skip backwards and forwards and you can also adjust the reading speed of audio content.

My favourite feature, which apps like Audible lack, is Scribd tells you what percentage of the book you have completed as well as how much time there is left or how many pages there are. Whilst Audible will tell you the latter, it does not tell you the former, which I find very useful and motivating.

Is Scribd Unlimited?

Ah. Now here’s the rub.

Whilst Scribd gives the illusion of being completely unlimited, people who use the app a lot may find themselves faced with some titles greyed out if they consume too much content. If you go on Scribd’s website, you’ll see that whilst they use the word “unlimited”, it is followed by an asterisk explaining this caveat.

Can you read and listen offline?

You can listen to Scribd titles offline but only if you download them to your device first. The app does not automatically download your saved titles so you’ll have to remember to do this yourself at home.

I’ve found myself frustrated by this a number of times when I’ve got on the London underground and found that I can’t access the book I was hoping to listen to because I forgot to download it first.

Downloads are very quick, so sometimes I’ll manage to speed download a title using the underground wifi when we make a stop. But I’d recommend downloading any titles you think you’ll want to read that week in advance, at home, to save your data.

Can I keep all my downloaded content?

You have access to Scribd and your downloaded content for as long as you are a subscribed member (or for as long as it is available!). This means if you cancel your membership, you immediately lose access to all of the books etc. that you downloaded.

Is there a Scribd Alternative?

If you’re looking for other sites like Scribd, the one that will first spring to mind is Audible by Amazon. It’s the most recognisable audiobook service provider and has been for a number of years.

However, more recently, a number of alternative audiobook services have begun to gain popularity and Scribd is one of them. But who wins in the battle between Audible vs Scribd?

Scribd vs Audible

I go into the Scribd vs Audible argument in dept in a previous blog post but I’ll summarise the main pointers here.

Audible is unparalleled in terms of content as it has all the latest releases on day one of publication and they’ve always got the best narrators and editions.

However, Audible will only offer you one audiobook per month for the same price as Scribd offering you “unlimited” books. The price difference is stark so for those on a budget, Scribd may be the better option.

Additionally, Audible offers only one kind of content, and that’s audiobooks. With Scribd, you can consume a wide variety of different media, which may be more appealing.

READ MORE: Scribd vs Audible

Scribd vs Kindle Unlimited

In terms of ebooks, you may find yourself wondering about Scribd vs Kindle Unlimited. I’ve tried the Kindle Unlimited subscription before and was nothing but disappointed. It didn’t have any popular titles that I wanted to read and it seemed to be mostly filled with books you’d find on the bottom rung of the charity shop bookshelf.

Whilst Scribd doesn’t have new releases, it does have lots of popular content and titles that are instantly recognisable to you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for Kindle Unlimited.

So what are you waiting for? Download the Scribd app, free of charge, now and start reading and listening. I promise you won’t regret it.

Sign up for the Scribd Free Trial here and get your first 30 days free.

Love this post? Check out these:
Audible vs Scribd
Kindle Unlimited vs Prime Reading
Paperback vs Hardcover Books

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