BookBeat Reviews 19

Marketing very aggressive to obtain sign up. I honestly don’t remember signing up and spotted a charge on my card several months later. I raised asking to refund. They refused although I had not used it. Deathly silence from marketing once they started deductions- not one confirmation to say I was a member or anything about their services. I suspect hoping I would not notice. I can’t comment on quality of service as I never used it. Other review give clarity . Take care you don’t inadvertently give any payment details.

Doesn’t have the books I’m currently reading in the library.
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I downloaded the BookBeat app in June as I was looking for an alternative to Audible. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that the library was extremely limited and did not include any of the titles I was interested in. I purchased a single audiobook and listened to it, but when I searched for another, there was again nothing I wished to read.

Three months later, BookBeat began charging me for a subscription without any prior notification or consent.

This has been a disappointing experience overall — both in terms of the limited content available and the lack of transparency around billing. I would not recommend BookBeat.

Tried their free trial, list of crime novels very limited both by books and authors. Looked up authors I liked but had to pay extra to listen to those books .Canceled my subscription immediatly

BookBeats has a variety of options of what audio books to reads from fantasy to non-fiction books.

Also has a free trial so if you are uncertain about if BookBeats is for you try the free trial like I did.

I also greatly appreciate that Bookbeats processed a refund when I accidently forgot to cancel my free subscription, I really am relieved and appreciated that.

I found it to be a waste of money. Despite paying a subscription, I was never able to listen to any books I was interested in as you have to separately pay for these. So I was really disappointed and frustrated! There are definitely other better options out there.

The app is user friendly and easy to navigate.

I have been charged £6.99 for June and again for July…. they state Listen 60 days for free — I haven’t used it in the 60 days and received no notification I had joined. If it’s 69 days free why have they taken 2 payments from paypal within the 60 days?????Customer service has ignored my emails to refund and having said a manager would get back, noone has got back as promised…. they have taken my money for a free trial and i’m not happy…… it’s a false statement of free trial and they did not send me a welcome letter so I didn’t know i was signed up to a con !!!!!!!

Overall, I would say this is a pretty decent app, and it's nice that there are other options besides Amazon/Audible because I don't believe they should have the monopoly (especially after their AI audiobook narrators news).

PROS:
- User-friendly app that's easy to use. I also like the countdown of hours you have left each month
- Accessibility is also pretty good
- Reasonable catalogue and lots of new releases
- I actually think the price is pretty decent (obviously it cannot compare to the fact you get access to the Plus catalogue on Audible)
- I haven't used this feature, but I like that there are options to read some books as well
- Easy to cancel subscription

CONS:
- Catalogue is still not the biggest, and there are quite a few authors which I couldn't find on BookBeat
- The biggest con for me was that a lot of new releases (and some which aren't even new( have to be *purchased* separately, regardless of if you have a subscription. This was the biggest turn-off for me, and I feel like this defeats the point of having a subscription. Why am I paying for a monthly subscription to then not have access to all the books, and am having to buy them separately?

So, I tested this app for a few months, and appreciated the subscription offer which was a good deal, but because of the last con, unfortunately it's not my new go-to audiobook app.

Excellent app which works seamlessly . Much better value than Audible because you are paying for hours, allowing you to listen to more books per month for the money.
Another nice feature of the app is offering up the next book in the series for you to download, saves you the hassle of trying to find the right book.
Easy to change or cancel subscriptions .
There really aren't any negatives with Bookbeat and it does make you question some of the silly low star reviews .
Edit 11/11/2025
Due to Bookbeat being greedy and attempting to increase the monthly subscription by a whopping 18% , I have now cancelled my subscription , as i would advise others to do , both with this company and others that try and cynically increase payments.

Great concept for an audiobook subscription, you get to listen here and there without necessarily having to pay for books individually and commit to them. Really great app, you can tell they’ve put a lot of thought into the playback controls. The only flaw in my opinion is that you can’t see the names of the chapters in the table of contents (they’re just called track 1, track 2 etc…). If and when they fix this they’ll definitely deserve 5 stars from me

I am a member of Audible but found a free trial of Bookbeat on Moneysupermarket so thought I would try it.
It didn't have several books I wanted buy did find a couple I was interested in. I downloaded them and incase I forgot to cancel the free trial in 90 days, you get to listen to 40 hours with this timescale, I did so immediately.
I then found out that Bookbeat doesnt work the same as Audible and as
soon as you cancel your subscription
you loose all access to your books which is useless ☹

I don't get the bad reviews, the app is great. Easy to use and you can try out as many books as you like as you're paying for hours not individual books. There is less choice than audible but better value for money.

Awful app. No way to sample a book before downloading. I cancelled my subscription and lost the 20 hours I already paid for. Stay away.

. I keep receiving emails with a "come back to bookbeat for £1 " offer. I've clicked on the link to do so but have been charged 14.99 for a month's premium. I don't want this and would appreciate if you can stop the payment. I've gone into my bookbeat account and cancelled straight away but it says I have until 31st July. E mailed numerous times over 4 days and still no response. Awful customer service

It's a fantastic app with over 800,000 titles. The code 75daysfree can get you 75 days for free.

Great app! Was so easy to find books and also the subscription is so cheap

I really like this application. Glad I found a way to consume books again in a more suiting way than with ´traditional´ books.

Great app with so much good content, and you can freely choose between all the books and jump from book to book.

Not offering to select region in app when creating account. In addition you have significant security flaws in you account management system (no confirmation for deleting account or doing anything related to your credit card). otherwise you generally should polish your app and make singing up A LOT easier.