Everand: Audiobooks & Ebooks

Review by eFreeware

Buying audiobooks and ebooks one at a time adds up quickly, and library holds do not always line up with the moment you actually want to read. A subscription that bundles listening and reading into one monthly payment solves that problem for people who finish several titles a year. Everand, from Scribd, Inc., is built around exactly that idea: a single subscription covering both formats.

The app itself is free to download, carries no ads, and includes in-app purchases. It has been on Google Play since February 2012 and now sits past 10 million installs with a 3.5 average from more than 614,000 ratings. Those numbers describe a service with a long history and a large audience rather than a new experiment, and the subscription model is the whole point of the product.

Listening through a book without losing your place

The audiobook side is where I would expect most subscribers to spend their time, and the developer has packed in the controls that matter for long listens. You can change the narration speed, set a sleep timer for winding down at night, adjust skip intervals, and add bookmarks. Progress and time display can be customized too, which is a small thing until you are deep into a twenty-hour title and want the remaining time rather than the percentage.

Downloads let you listen offline, so a flight or a long drive does not interrupt a book. Because titles you have unlocked stay available while your subscription is active or paused, going back to a favorite chapter or restarting a series does not cost another unlock.

Reading, annotating and shaping the page

On the ebook side, Everand covers the basics a regular reader would ask for and a few extras. You can download books for offline reading, make notes and annotations, and add bookmarks. Font size, typeface and background color are all adjustable, and page scrolling can run horizontally or vertically depending on what feels natural to you.

The catalog behind those features is broad. The developer lists The New York Times Best Sellers across genres including romance, mystery and crime, science fiction and fantasy, young adult, biography and memoir, business, history, self-improvement, cooking and poetry, among others. Curated collections and personalized recommendations are part of every plan, which is the usual way a service this size helps you decide what to open next.

What appeals to me about the structure is that reading and listening are not separate purchases. A title you unlock can be read on a quiet evening and listened to on a walk the next day, and the app is available on web, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, CarPlay and Android Auto. Moving between a phone, a car and a browser without re-buying anything is the practical benefit of a subscription like this.

Fable Plus and the reading habit around the books

Fable Plus comes with any Everand plan, and you pay nothing more for it. Fable is the developer's sister app, a reading companion rather than a library, and it handles the habit side of things: tracking your streak, setting personal goals, and showing stats and insights about how you read. It also connects you with other readers so you can see what they are enjoying.

The integration is meant to keep your Everand activity in Fable without manual logging. I can see this being genuinely useful for someone who likes the accountability of a streak or enjoys comparing notes with a reading group. For a subscriber who just wants the next book, it is a bonus sitting alongside the main service rather than a reason to subscribe on its own.

Choosing a plan and starting the trial

Getting started means picking one of three plans. Standard costs $11.99 a month and unlocks one title per month; Plus costs $16.99 and unlocks three; Deluxe costs $28.99 and unlocks five. All three draw on a catalog of 1.5 million bestsellers and new releases, so the difference between them is how many titles you can unlock, not what you can reach.

There is a free trial, and the length depends on where you sign up: 30 days through the developer's website, or 7 days through the app store, and both include one free title. The Deluxe plan is purchased on the website and then used in the app, which is worth knowing before you go looking for it in the store. You can upgrade, downgrade, pause or cancel at any time, and subscriptions renew monthly unless canceled at least 24 hours before the next billing date.

You can try titles and keep a wishlist before you pick a plan. That is a sensible way to test whether the catalog matches your taste before the first payment lands, and it costs nothing to do.

The reader this service fits

Everand makes most sense for people who get through books steadily and want both formats under one roof. If you listen on the way to work and read in the evening, or you switch between an ebook at home and an audiobook in the car, the combination is the selling point. The offline downloads and the spread of devices support that kind of mixed routine well.

The unlock system is the part I would think hardest about. One title a month on the Standard plan suits a slower reader who also dips into samples and previews; three or five a month suits someone who finishes books quickly and would otherwise be waiting. Because unlocked titles remain available while the subscription is active, a heavy reader can build up a personal shelf over time rather than losing everything at the end of each month.

The 3.5 average rating across a large body of reviews suggests a service with plenty of satisfied subscribers and a fair number of critics, which is typical for subscription reading platforms where the value depends on how much you use it. Anyone who reads a handful of books a year will likely find the monthly cost hard to justify against buying the specific titles they want.

What the subscription really costs you

The main trade-off is the unlock model. You are not getting unlimited access to 1.5 million titles for one price; each plan gives you a set number of unlocks per month, and the catalog is what those unlocks draw from. A reader who wants to move through many books in a month will need a higher tier or patience.

The price is also a recurring commitment rather than a one-off purchase. At $11.99, $16.99 or $28.99 a month, the service only pays off if you are actually reading and listening enough to use your unlocks. The free trial softens the risk, but the renewal terms are strict about the 24-hour cancelation window, so it is worth setting a reminder before the trial ends if you are unsure.

A reading subscription worth trying if you finish books

Everand is a well-established option for anyone who wants audiobooks and ebooks in one subscription with offline access and a broad catalog. The audiobook controls, the ebook customization and the device coverage are all aimed at people who read regularly, and Fable Plus adds a habit-tracking layer at no extra cost. I would treat the 30-day website trial as the fairest way to judge whether the catalog and the unlock pace suit you.

It is best suited to steady readers and listeners who will use at least one unlock a month and value switching between formats. If your reading is occasional or you prefer to own individual titles outright, the monthly cost and the unlock limit will feel like more structure than you need. For everyone else, it is a reasonable way to keep a full shelf within reach.

What's new in version 16.24

This update includes general bug fixes and performance improvements. We've updated our Terms of Use. You'll be asked to review and accept the new terms before continuing to use the app.