Is there a good app for listen to audiobooks?
Prime Gap: 20 apps already serve this, and 49 data points mined from real user reviews across 2 sources show where they fall short. Heavily used and done badly — the most disruptable kind of gap.
Data refreshed July 20, 2026 · scores recompute weekly as new reviews are mined, so re-check before you build.
Like music, the value is a licensed catalog, and Audible (Amazon) dominates distribution and publisher deals. A solo dev can't license the major publishers. The only sliver is public-domain audio (LibriVox, Project Gutenberg) — a real but much smaller, different product.
Moat: the licensed catalog is the product · why: Audible/Amazon dominate audiobook distribution · commercial catalog requires publisher licensing · only unencumbered source is public domain (LibriVox/Gutenberg)
What users complain about
The most common complaints behind apps that try to listen to audiobooks, mined and clustered from real reviews:
| Complaint area | Type | Mentions | What a user said |
|---|---|---|---|
| no audiobook sample preview | missing-feature | 2 | I can't play a sample of any audiobooks before I borrow them |
| mark audiobook as read/listened | missing-feature | 1 | the ability to mark an audiobook as read (listened to) |
| audiobook listening time limit | price | 1 | only got 15 hrs of audio listening time a month and got a pop up to spend an additional 12.99 |
| show series number for audiobooks | missing-feature | 1 | wished it would tell you what number the audiobook is when it’s multiple In series |
| cannot play audiobooks | bug | 1 | This thing won't let me listen to anything |
| limited audiobook library, requires separate app | missing-feature | 1 | The audiobook library is limited... you need to use a separate app to have a better experience |
| long wait times for audiobooks | reliability | 1 | Long wait for audiobooks and choices are limited |
| treat folder of files as one audiobook | missing-feature | 1 | no option for the player to use the whole folder as one audiobook |
| audiobook selection too small | missing-feature | 1 | the # of audiobooks needs to be expanded |
| audiobook player quality | ux | 1 | The audiobook player isn’t as good as Chirp |
| $200-300 to finish a story vs audiobook | price | 1 | It cost $200-300 to finish listening to a story. Much much more expensive than audiobook |
| long wait times for popular audiobooks | reliability | 1 | My only complaint would be the long wait on many popular audiobooks |
Apps that already serve this
| App | Rating | Ratings | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audible: Audiobooks & Podcasts | 4.9 | 5,550,193 | Free |
| Audiobooks by AudiobookSTORE | 2.9 | 1,541 | Free |
| Smart AudioBook Player | 4.9 | 195,549 | Free |
| ElevenReader: Read Books Aloud | 4.7 | 9,495 | Free |
| Listen Audiobook Player | 4.6 | 5,442 | $1.99 |
| Elisa Kirja – Audiobook, Ebook | 3.7 | 2,719 | Free |
| The Holy Bible - Audiobook | 4.5 | 6,826 | Free |
| Quinn - Audio Stories | 4.7 | 10,822 | Free |
Should you build it?
Heavily used and done badly — the most disruptable kind of gap. Opportunity here scores 75 out of 100 — a function of demand, how crowded the field is, and how badly the existing apps perform. Use the live map to compare it against adjacent tasks.
Who has tried building this
7 attempts, 5 active, anchored by 1.2k- and 762-star projects; vibrant space with real traction and live competition.
| Project | Status | Stars | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| geigi/cozy | active | 1,197 | Python |
| Listenarrs/Listenarr | active | 762 | C# |
| AlbanDAVID/Toutui | abandoned | 173 | Rust |
| Renji-XD/ttu-whispersync | active | 83 | Svelte |
| sudonitin/Audio-book-generator | stale | 72 | Python |
| sagarchaulagai/aradia | active | 69 | Dart |
| chrisurf/obsidian-voice | active | 67 | TypeScript |
Open-source projects that attempted this task — active ones show today's bar; abandoned ones are a signal to validate why earlier attempts died.
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