What Is the Best LibriVox App? 7 Apps for iPhone and Android Compared

HushBook is the best free LibriVox app for reading along with the text, because the same free LibriVox recordings play with every word lit up as the narrator reads. If you want a large catalogue to browse in audio only, with CarPlay and Android Auto, LibriVox Audiobooks by BookDesign covers that case, with ads in its free version.

Prices and features below were checked on October 30, 2026 on each app's official site or store listing.

What is the best LibriVox app?

For most listeners, HushBook, because it highlights every word on every LibriVox book you download from it. The others cover narrower cases:

• To read along: HushBook. Download any book from its LibriVox catalogue and each word lights up as the volunteer reads it.
• To browse a large catalogue in audio only: LibriVox Audiobooks by BookDesign, with ads in the free version.
• For no ads and no tracking on iPhone: LibriVox! by Krishna Sangeeth KS.
• For downloaded files: Smart AudioBook Player on Android, BookPlayer on iPhone.
• For no install: librivox.org in your phone's browser.

Is there an official LibriVox app?

No. In a September 2026 update, LibriVox wrote: "Our only official outlet is the LibriVox.org web site." The same post says that because its recordings are public domain, third parties, app developers among them, are "more than welcome to share and re-share them with the world." LibriVox said the same in 2011: "LibriVox itself doesn't produce any apps for the iphone."

Is BookDesign the same as LibriVox? No, though the name makes people ask; "Is bookDesign and LibriVox the same organization?" was posted on r/librivox in 2024. BookDesign's own About page says: "The LibriVox App is not affiliated with the LibriVox project." LibriVox's wiki said so too in 2020, adding that the app's owner is a LibriVox member.

HushBook is one of the third-party apps that use LibriVox's public catalogue. The recordings stay free, and HushBook adds the words on screen. Whether LibriVox itself is safe, legal and really free is covered in is LibriVox safe and legal.

Is the LibriVox app free?

LibriVox is. Its About page calls it "a non-commercial, non-profit and ad-free project." The apps built on it set their own terms:

• HushBook: free to download, with no ads and no account.
• BookDesign's app: free with ads. On iPhone, "Lifetime Ad-Free" is $24.99, and a separate Ad-Free app is $4.99.
• LibriVox!: free, no ads, optional tips.
• Fabuly and Lex: free, with paid Premium tiers.

Full US prices are in each app's section below. LibriVox lets anyone use its recordings "for whatever purpose you wish," so charging for an app is allowed, and every recording stays free at librivox.org. If LibriVox lacks your book, see how to listen to audiobooks for free.

Which LibriVox app shows the text while you listen?

Three apps in this list put text next to the audio:

• HushBook transcribes each book on your phone and highlights every word as the narrator speaks, on any LibriVox book you download from its catalogue. Press and hold any line to play from there.
• Fabuly lists "Read while listening on selected titles with synchronized text."
• Lex lists "Text-to-audio synchronization (read along)" for a catalogue that mixes human and AI narration.

The other apps play audio only. On librivox.org, each book page has an "Online text" link to Project Gutenberg, with nothing synced. The method step by step is in free read-along audiobooks; for apps beyond LibriVox, see the best apps to read and listen at the same time.

How to listen to LibriVox on iPhone

1. In Safari, no app: open librivox.org, find a book and tap a chapter's play button. LibriVox's help page says it plays each chapter "in your browser."
2. In an app with the catalogue built in: HushBook to read along word by word, BookDesign's app for a large list and CarPlay, LibriVox! for no ads, or Fabuly and Lex.
3. As files: on the book's LibriVox page, download the M4B (LibriVox offers one for "most of our books") or the MP3 chapters, save them to the Files app and import them into HushBook or BookPlayer. In HushBook, select all the chapter files and they import as one book. Our guide to putting audiobooks on iPhone covers the transfer, and how to play M4B files covers the format.

How to listen to LibriVox on Android

1. In Chrome, no app: the same play buttons on librivox.org work in any browser.
2. In an app with the catalogue built in: HushBook for every word on screen, BookDesign's LibriVox Audio Books, which lists Android Auto and Google Cast, or Fabuly.
3. As files: download the M4B or the MP3 chapters and play them in HushBook or Smart AudioBook Player. Smart wants each book in its own subfolder of a "My Audiobooks" folder.

Why does the LibriVox app lose my place?

Store reviews of BookDesign's LibriVox app point to three causes:

• Bugs after updates. An App Store reviewer in October 2024 reported "chapters restarting halfway through." On Google Play in August 2026, a reviewer wrote that saved books vanished: "as soon as I close the app and come back they are all gone." BookDesign replied in October that its updates "should've resolved some of the issues," and its Android release notes list "Fixed playback jumping back after rewinding."
• Falling asleep. A 2023 App Store review says the book "often continues to play for some time after I have fallen asleep."
• Switching books. A 2025 reviewer had "a hard time finding the previous book" after listening to another.

What helps: a sleep timer, a bookmark when you stop, and an app that saves progress for each book. Smart AudioBook Player says "The progress is saved independently for all books."

HushBook puts it in one line: "Read while listening, and never lose your place." Its Smart Rewind backs up 3 to 20 seconds when you press play, depending on how long you were away, and its sleep timer can stop at the end of a chapter. With the words on screen, you can see exactly where the narrator is.

HushBook: best for reading along with the text

HushBook is a free read-along audiobook app for iPhone and Android that highlights every word as the narrator speaks. It works with audiobooks you already own, transcribed on your phone, and thousands of free classics are built in.

• Word-by-word highlighting synced to the narration, at any speed from 0.5x to 3x
• Free public-domain classics from LibriVox and the Internet Archive, in six languages, with a 30-second sample before you download and filters for language and length
• Download a book and the transcription starts on its own
• Your own MP3 and M4B files, transcribed on the device
• No account, no ads, no cloud upload; works offline after a one-time engine download

Price: Free to download. No account, no ads.

Get it at hushbook.app.

LibriVox Audiobooks by BookDesign: a large catalogue, with ads

The App Store listing puts the count at 45,000 free audiobooks. That count reaches past LibriVox: the Android listing describes "the LibriVox collection, thousands of old time radio dramas, and many other collections." LibriVox's own homepage lists 21,867 cataloged works.

• Browse by author, narrator or genre, and build your own collections
• Downloads for offline listening, a sleep timer and bookmarks
• CarPlay on iPhone; Android Auto and Google Cast on Android

Price: Free with ads. iPhone: $1.99 a month, $9.99 a year or $24.99 "Lifetime Ad-Free", or the $4.99 Ad-Free app. Android: in-app purchases from $0.99 to $9.99, or the $4.99 Supporter app.

Catch: The free app "Contains Advertising," and its App Store privacy label lists coarse location used for third-party advertising. A Google Play reviewer in June 2026 described "screen-enveloping Temu ads with teensy exit buttons."

HushBook plays LibriVox books with no ads, no account and no cloud upload.

Get it on the App Store or Google Play.

LibriVox! by Krishna Sangeeth KS: an ad-free player, iPhone only

Its App Store listing describes human-narrated audiobooks from the LibriVox collections and promises "No subscriptions," "No ads" and "No tracking." Its description calls the app Libris.fm.

• LibriVox and Internet Archive audiobooks, all human narrated
• Variable playback speed, skip controls and background playback
• Curated collections, plus live search added in March 2026
• A privacy label that says the developer does not collect any data

Price: Free. Optional tips of $0.99 to $9.99.

Catch: iPhone and iPad only, with 19 ratings so far, and the listing does not mention offline downloads.

HushBook runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, and every LibriVox book you download plays offline.

Get it on the App Store.

Fabuly: curated classics, synced text on selected books

Fabuly's App Store listing counts over 20,000 classic audiobooks and says that "Many free audiobooks in Fabuly come from public-domain sources such as LibriVox and Gutenberg."

• Free Mode with "no ads, no listening limit"
• Synchronized text on selected titles
• Search by title, author or narrator, and continue where you left off
• iPhone, iPad and Android

Price: Free. Premium in-app purchases of $2.99, $19.95 and $39.99 on the US App Store.

Catch: Offline downloads, the sleep timer and remastered audio are Premium, and synced text covers "selected books," not the whole catalogue.

HushBook syncs the text on any LibriVox book you download from its catalogue, and its sleep timer can stop at a chapter's end.

Get it at fabuly.io.

Lex: reading and listening in a browser, with AI narration mixed in

Lex Reader puts ebooks and audiobooks in one app. Lex's blog says it "combines 30,000+ LibriVox audiobooks with full-text ebooks"; LibriVox's homepage lists 21,867 works, and the App Store listing describes the 30,000+ as "human & AI-narrated audiobooks."

• Ebooks and audiobooks in one library, with text-to-audio sync included free
• A web reader at lex-books.com, with progress that syncs across devices
• Speeds from 0.5x to 3x and a sleep timer
• No signup required to start listening, per Lex's blog

Price: Free. Lex Premium is $9.99 a month after a 7-day free trial.

Catch: Offline mode is a Premium feature, and because the catalogue mixes human and AI narration, a book may not be a LibriVox volunteer recording.

HushBook plays the original volunteer recording from LibriVox, with each word lit up as the reader speaks.

Visit lex-books.com.

Smart AudioBook Player and BookPlayer: players for downloaded LibriVox files

Smart AudioBook Player (Android)

"The app is designed specially for playing audio books," says its Google Play listing.

• Progress saved separately for every book, with a playback history
• Speed control, bookmarks and an automatic pause if you fall asleep
• A character list you can build yourself
• "NO ADS!"

Price: The full version is free for 30 days, then the app drops to a basic version. The full version is a one-time in-app purchase.

Catch: You copy each book into its own subfolder yourself.

HushBook needs no folder setup: select all of a book's chapter files and they import as one book.

Get it on Google Play.

BookPlayer (iPhone)

BookPlayer is an iPhone player for M4B, M4A, MP3 and FLAC audiobooks you add yourself.

• Import with AirDrop, the Files app, zip files or your own Audiobookshelf or Jellyfin server
• Chapters, smart rewind, a sleep timer, CarPlay and an Apple Watch app
• Open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0

Price: Free. Pro is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year.

Catch: It needs iOS 26 or later, and it has no LibriVox catalogue, so you fetch every book yourself.

HushBook has thousands of free classics built in, each with every word highlighted, so there is nothing to fetch yourself.

Get it on the App Store.

No app: librivox.org in your browser

LibriVox audiobooks "are free for anyone to listen to, on their computers, iPods or other mobile device," says its homepage, which listed 21,867 works in 49 languages, read by 14,951 volunteers, on October 30, 2026. Each book page has chapter play buttons, a zip of the whole book, an M4B for most books and the "Online text" link.

Catch: You play one chapter at a time, with no synced text. New to classics? How to read classics without getting bored suggests short first books, and how long is an audiobook lists running times.

HushBook downloads the whole LibriVox book from its catalogue and syncs the text word by word to the volunteer's reading.

How we chose

We started from the apps that AI answer engines, Reddit threads and app stores name for LibriVox questions. An app made the list if it plays LibriVox recordings, from a built-in catalogue or as files, and was updated in 2026. On October 30, 2026 we read each app's US App Store or Google Play listing and official site, and compared text, ads, price, offline downloads and platforms.

HushBook is our app. We ranked it first because it highlights every word on every LibriVox book you download from it, and seeing the text is what this comparison weighs most. The rest follow, each for a narrower case: a large catalogue with ads (BookDesign), no ads or tracking (LibriVox!), text on some books (Fabuly), text with a mixed human and AI catalogue (Lex), then players for your own files.

What we could not confirm

• Lex's Android, Windows and macOS apps: its site lists them, but we found no Google Play listing. Its App Store purchase list shows Premium at $4.99 and $39.99, against $9.99 a month on its site.
• How many Fabuly books have synced text, and the billing periods of its Premium purchases.
• The exact price of Smart AudioBook Player's full version (Google Play lists $0.99 to $4.99 per item).
• What each of BookDesign's Android purchases unlocks.
• Whether LibriVox! offers offline downloads.

Sources

• LibriVox, homepage and catalog statistics
• LibriVox (September 16, 2026), "LibriVox API Update"
• LibriVox, "About LibriVox"
• LibriVox, "Help: How to Listen or Download Audio Files"
• LibriVox (November 9, 2011), "iPhone Apps for LibriVox"
• LibriVox Wiki, "Choosing a Digital Audio Player"
• LibriVox, Pride and Prejudice (Version 2) catalog page, with the "Online text" and M4B links
• HushBook: Audiobook Read Along on the App Store
• HushBook on Google Play
• LibriVox Audiobooks (BookDesign LLC) on the App Store, with reviews
• LibriVox Audiobooks: Ad-Free (BookDesign LLC) on the App Store
• LibriVox Audio Books (BookDesign) on Google Play, with reviews and release notes
• BookDesign, "About the LibriVox App"
• BookDesign, catalogue page for a title in its Old Time Radio collection
• r/librivox (July 2024), "Is bookDesign and LibriVox the same organization?"
• LibriVox! (Krishna Sangeeth KS) on the App Store
• Fabuly: Classic Audiobooks on the App Store
• Fabuly on Google Play
• Fabuly, official site
• Lex Reader (LexBooks, Inc.) on the App Store
• Lex, "Lex Premium"
• Lex Blog (March 15, 2026), "Best Free Audiobook Apps in 2026"
• Smart AudioBook Player on Google Play
• BookPlayer on the App Store