AudiobooksNow vs Prologue

AudiobooksNow lets customers buy audiobooks individually or join an optional Club Pricing Plan for discounts. Purchased titles remain in a customer’s library without an active plan. The service lists a catalog of over 480,000 audiobooks and supports listening on the web, Android, and iOS. Customers can stream on the website or download purchases; the help center says over 95% of titles are DRM-free and available as MP3 files, while some titles require DRM and are limited to app or website streaming. Bookmarks sync across listening locations, and fully downloaded audiobooks can be played offline after signing into the app. Free Android and iOS apps are listed, with Android Auto and CarPlay support respectively. Monthly Club Pricing costs $4.99 a month after a 30-day free trial and discounts the first audiobook each month by 50%, with 35–40% off other eligible titles. Annual Club Pricing costs $35.99 a year and discounts any 12 audiobooks by 50%, with 35–40% off other titles. Club enrollment and Club Price purchases are unavailable in the Apple iOS app but can be completed on the website. AudiobooksNow says it is available worldwide, though title availability can vary by country.

Prologue is a self-hosted audiobook player for Plex and Audiobookshelf libraries. It can connect to either service or both, with offline downloads, collections, series, bookmarks, a reading list, statistics, and playback history. Playback controls include per-book settings, sleep timers, smart rewind after pauses, Voice Boost, and an equalizer. The maker lists iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Siri, widgets, and CarPlay support, with macOS also listed as a platform. Apple Watch can stream books being read or on the reading list, download books for offline listening, and use widgets and complications. Prologue says library data remains on your devices and that it does not store or handle Plex or Audiobookshelf passwords; access tokens are stored on-device. It collects pseudonymous usage and Apple Ads attribution data, and uses Sentry for crash reports that may include device and operating-system details. The App Store listing requires iOS 26.5 or later and lists iPad, Mac with Apple M1 or later, Apple Vision, and Apple Watch compatibility.