If you've searched for free audiobooks, you've probably found LibriVox. You may be wondering how AudioAZ is different. The short answer: most English audiobooks on AudioAZ are LibriVox recordings. LibriVox makes them; AudioAZ is one of the places you can listen to them, with a different set of tools around the player.
What LibriVox is
LibriVox is a non-profit, volunteer project started in August 2005 by Hugh McGuire. Volunteers choose public-domain books, mostly texts from Project Gutenberg, and record them chapter by chapter. The finished recordings are released into the public domain and hosted by the Internet Archive. LibriVox is ad-free and funded by donations.
What AudioAZ is
AudioAZ is a free listening site and app for public-domain audio. It brings together LibriVox audiobooks, other free recordings, podcasts and archive audio in one catalog, and in several languages, including a large Vietnamese collection. You can listen on the web or in the iOS and Android apps without creating an account.
Side-by-side
| LibriVox | AudioAZ | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Account needed | No | No (optional, to sync and save books) |
| Where the recordings come from | Recorded by LibriVox volunteers | Mostly LibriVox, plus other free sources |
| Listen in the browser | Yes, per chapter | Yes, continuous player with speed control and sleep timer |
| Mobile apps | Third-party apps | Own apps for iOS and Android |
| Download whole book | Yes (MP3 zip, M4B, RSS, torrent) | Streaming |
| Book summaries | Short volunteer blurbs | Blurbs, plus original summaries for popular titles |
| Curated lists | Limited | Collections by genre, age and level |
| Podcasts | No | Yes |
| Ads | None | Some pages show ads |
| Languages | Many | English, Vietnamese and others |
Which one should you use?
Use LibriVox if you want to download complete books as files to keep forever, put them on an MP3 player, or volunteer as a reader. LibriVox is also the place to see every recording of a book and who read each chapter.
Use AudioAZ if you mostly want to press play and listen: on the web, in an app that remembers your place, with suggestions for what to listen to next. It's also useful if you want lists like free horror audiobooks or audiobooks for English learners, or listen to podcasts and Vietnamese audiobooks in the same app.
Many people use both. If you love a recording you found on AudioAZ, consider donating to LibriVox. The volunteers are the reason any of this exists.
Frequently asked questions
Is AudioAZ the same as LibriVox? No. They are separate. LibriVox records the audiobooks; AudioAZ is an independent listening site and app that includes many of those recordings, because LibriVox releases them into the public domain.
Are the recordings the same quality? Yes. For LibriVox titles it is the same audio. Quality varies by volunteer narrator on both sites. If a book has several recordings, AudioAZ lists them under "Other versions" on the book page.
Is it legal to listen? Yes. Both sites offer books that are in the public domain in the United States. See Are LibriVox audiobooks free? for details, including books that may still be under copyright in other countries.