Blinklist made a big splash on the corporate scene a few years ago by condensing popular nonfiction and business books into 15-minute summaries. It enabled busy professionals to extract key value out of dozens of useful and inspiring titles. Blinkist isn’t free of issues though. For starters, pricing is inflexible and though there’s a discounted yearly plan, users who want more flexibility will have to shell out nearly $10 monthly. This is why users are looking for Blinklist alternatives.
Moreover, some topics like history and psychology have a relatively limited number of summaries to read. We’re bringing you a curated list of top Blinkist alternatives. These apps were developed using the tried and tested formula Blinkist took but with some additional features like more niches, adding multimedia components, enhancing accessibility, and more.
Also Read: 10 Audible Alternatives that are Cheaper than Audible
Blinklist Alternatives
1. Joosr
Perhaps 15-minute reads are too condensed for you. This is the idea Joosr went with taking the Blinkist formula and extended it (literally) by 25 percent. All book summaries in Joosr’s library are 20-minute reads. That extra five minutes can be important when trying to get a handle on more complex titles like Ha-Joon Chang’s Economics. Joosr has a much smaller book selection than Blinkist with just over 250 titles. However, in our opinion, they’re generally better structured and that extra time and content gives you the space to understand a book instead of just making a passing reference with it.
Joosr isn’t entirely without its drawbacks, though. While the summaries are more detailed, the app’s text-to-speech capabilities leave a lot to be desired. Joosr audiobooks just aren’t enjoyable because of the virtual narrator’s robotic accent and tone. The Premium plan offers unlimited access to Joosr’s ebooks at $5.99 a month. Prime plan at $6.99 gives you access to unlimited audiobooks as well. There is a free trial available.
2. 12min
12min did exactly the opposite in an attempt to be a more viable Blinklist alternative. They summarized books down to 12 minutes. The Brazil-based developers of 12min claim that because their book summaries are so well synthesized, using 12min is the equivalent of reading/listening 3 books a day. The book selection on 12min is at 900 so far.
It is growing really fast and the app is really well-designed. It adds to the reading experience. Compared to Joosr, there are more general-interest titles in the 12min collection such as Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens. Pricing is reasonable too with a single annual subscription of 70 dollars which works out to a little less than $6 per month. There is a 3-day trial.
Also Read: How to Cancel Audible Subscription on App
3. Bookbhook
Bookbhook literally translates as “Bookhungry” in Hindi. The India-based book summary app takes the Blinkist approach and remixes it to deliver a more engaging experience. Bookbhook delivers 3000-word book summaries in a chat format. The interface resembles common instant messenger apps like Whatsapp.
Bookbhook tries to recreate the experience of getting quick notes on a book from a friend. We’re quite impressed with Bookbhook’s engaging UI. They have over 300 titles to select from, across a wide range of topics including current affairs and environment. Bookbhook is unique in that unlike other Blinklist alternatives, it’s entirely free.
Install Bookbhook: Android | iOS
4. Snapreads
The name of this app makes it sound like Snapchat for books and, in a way, that’s exactly what it is. An on-demand snippet of nonfiction bestsellers, condensed so that you won’t have to read the entire book. You can also listen to these books.
Snapreads has a selection of over 600 books condensed into 15-minute reads. While it does cover multiple genres, their memoir and biographies section are particularly interesting, bringing the key life highlights of inspiring people to the fore. Snapreads has a monthly plan of 14.99 with the first month as free. A bit on the expensive side.
Install Snapreads: iOS
5. getAbstract
getAbstract is laser-focused on business-oriented books. Unlike other Blinklist alternatives on this list, you’ll not find a wide range of topics to read. However, getAbsract goes deep with over 20,000+ offerings across over 350 categories from leadership to corporate culture, that specifically pertains to business. getAbstract’s summaries are pretty short at 10 minutes.
While this is enough for generalized self-help books, we can’t help but wonder how much value getAbstract provides when covering complex topics like artificial intelligence. There’s a Starter plan at $90 which gets you to access to a smaller selection of 5000 titles. Full access will cost you $250 per year.
Some cool features include the ability to change font size, dark mode, and speed to change reading and listening experience. Another feature is the ability to create your own channels or follow popular authors to receive latest updates.
Install GetAbstract: Android | iOS
6. Four Minute Books
Four Minute Books is a site rather than an app but completely free with no ads. It has a wide selection of titles to choose from clocking in at over 500 books with 3 new titles added each week. As the name suggests, Four Minute Books’ summaries are on the shorter side. Nevertheless, reading through some of their summaries, we got the impression that their content team has a great understanding of the source material. Not exactly a Blinklist alternative as it appears they have some form tie-up with Blinkist, with a special Blinkist discount offer.
You can look at Four Minute Books as a kind of gateway to Blinkist offering even more condensed summaries.
Visit Four Minute Books
7. StoryShots
StoryShot is easily one of the best Blinklist alternatives in the market right now. It has a UI that is fluid, easy on the eyes, and accessible. It comes with animated summaries that you can watch to better understand about the book. You can then listen to the audio or read the summary. It also has one of the biggest libraries in the book summary apps.
As if all of this was not enough, most of the content is free to consume and subscription is priced at just $1.99/month. That alone makes it worth the trouble but StoryShots has already won a number of accolades and awards around the world. StoryShots has some of the best content and one look at it will tell you how much thought went into creating the content.
Install StoryShots: Android | iOS
8. Instaread
If there is one app that can match the UI, experience, and collection of StoryShots, it is Instaread. One of the best Blinklist alternatives, easily. The main selling point is the fact that Instaread summarizes not just bestselling books but also NYT articles, columns and Harvard articles. That’s a lot of value right there. To top it all of, subscription begins at just $2.99, making it very competitive.
You can also listen to these articles and summaries. The library is currently small at 1000+ books but is growing quickly. The team also publishes original content from time to time. All their summaries, audio or text, follow the same 15-minute concept popularized by Blinklist.
Install Instaread: iOS
Wrapping Up: Blinklist Alternatives
These were my picks for Blinkist alternatives which you can try to quickly read up on your favorite books. Joosr, while decent comes with its caveats like the robotic narration. Four Minute Books doesn’t have its own content but has plenty of affiliates. Snapreads condenses your large books into 15-minute reads. If you found this feature interesting, you’ll want to check out our feature on the Top ePub Readers for Windows—these will help you get the most out of your digital reading experience.
