Boasting a collection of 3000 plus bestsellers, this website is a heaven on earth for non-fictional book lovers. Blinkist is one of the most popular online platforms for the bookworms who love to feed on knowledge by reading books. The online books are available in both reading (text) format and audio format.
However, there are few downsides of this Blinkist app, for instance, it limits its language support to only English and German, and an exorbitantly priced upgrade. Besides, it also offers an insufficient number of abstracts for books based on history and psychology. And, that’s why readers are now looking for free alternatives to Blinkist that offer additional features at a pocket-friendly price.
Quick Overivew
Best Alternatives to Blinkist
We have created a list of some of the best Blinkist alternatives which are free and you can give a try to choose the best one:
StoryShots
Are you one of those who decide to read the summary of a book before you actually start a book? If yes, then this the right app for you. It gives you the key insights of the non-fiction books before you decide to read it completely.
Features:
- Offers you a detailed animated synopsis of the book content to help you remember the insights for longer, or for those who love to read through videos.
- It allows you to even listen to the audio summary while you are on the move.
- It offers the option to read at your own speed.
It has a wide collection of books that are handpicked from multiple sources like from a huge range of blogs, podcasts, and even YouTube channels.
Download: https://www.getstoryshots.com/
Price: Free version available; Upgrade priced at $2.49/month.
File size: 10 MB
Joosr
It’s a mobile phone app that provides summaries for the chart-topping non-fictional books across the world in 20 minutes. The 20-minute summaries inspire you and sharpen your knowledge on different subjects including business topics, self-improvement, and more.
Features:
- It offers a wide range of latest and well-known non-fictional books in both text and audio formats.
- A well-designed app that works with all major mobile phone platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows.
- It also features regular content (articles) on professional and personal improvement within the app.
It allows you to read both online and offline with an option to choose from audiobooks with audio synopsis of your favorite non-fictional books.
Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joosrb2c.android
Price: Free
File size: Varies with device
Bookbhook
It’s a unique platform that allows you to an insight into the latest books using mini chat stories from across the globe. It creates miniature chat stories based on the info chat title you select from the left column of the website.
Features:
- The notification books with summaries are reduced to mini content to help you read or listen to motivational books.
- You can read the synopsis of the latest books even when not online.
- It helps you to read book abstracts in both English and Hindi.
- It allows you to access books from their extensive library.
- Offers free audiobooks of higher and professional level.
- Provides book recommendations that come integrated with the software in the form of booklists that offers a summary instead of a review.
- Offers high-quality synopsis of the book content helping you to understand the essence of the non-fiction books.
Key points of the book are presented as knowledge nuggets that give a synopsis of the non-fiction books in flat 15 minutes. It goes for 25 minutes if it’s an audiobook.
Find also the best Epub Reader for your system.
Download: https://bookbhook.com/
Price: Free version available; Pricing starts from $4.63 for 3 months.
File size: 7.7 MB
Hardbound 3.0
If you are interested in learning something new instead of simply sticking to smartphones and being on social media, then this is one app that you must have on your iOS device. It offers stories in a visual format and allows you to read short non-fictional stories that are usually based on business, history, science, etc.
Features:
- It offers mini-stories that take minimum time to read, along with graphics, explanations, and texts.
- Shares a link to the latest edition every Thursday to keep you updated.
- It provides a synopsis of the most important news of the day.
- Shares visual summaries every Monday and Thursday.
The most important news of the day is different from what’s printed in the regular newspapers and can be on any interesting topic from politics to science.
Download: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1037112353?ref=producthunt
System Support: Apple and macOS
Price: Free
Instaread
Reading best sellers have never been so exciting before. Instead offers quick 15-minute summaries of your favourite book and also allows you to read premium content from its partners in audio or text formats.
Features:
- It allows you to unleash and explore the knowledge locked inside the best-selling books in the world.
- It helps you to get motivated by the best concepts from the top business leaders, health consultants, or political experts across the world.
- Facility to hear the book through audio while on the move.
- It offers a wide range of categories to choose from.
The app can be accessed on any device, be it mobile, desktop, or tablet. It offers unlimited access to over 1000 titles and their summaries on all these devices.
Download: https://instaread.co/
Price: Free trial available; Pro version starts from $4.99/month.
12min
This app is perfect for those who are running short on time. If you want to read a gist of the book and don’t have the time to read the entire stuff while on the go, this app will offer you a 12 minutes summary of the entire book.
Features:
- Creates a 12-min exclusive mini-book of the complete book for those short on time.
- It helps you to both reads and listen to your books in the form of text and audio.
- Collects the best concepts from a range of non-fiction books.
- It helps you to develop fresh skills for all spheres of life.
- It allows you to read anywhere you are.
It also speeds up your learning process and keeps you updated with the current market trends.
Check also the best Feedly alternatives here.
Download: https://instaread.co/
Price: Free trial available; Plans start from $4.99/month.
File size: 18 MB
Four Minute Books
This app features more than 600 book summaries from the world’s best-selling books and it helps you to learn 3 important lessons from each of the books in just 4 minutes.
Features:
- Publishes a new book summary every day that is available for free.
- It allows you to read mini book synopsis even when you are not online.
- Lets you read the high-quality summaries in English and it helps you understand the essence of the books.
It offers a wide range of non-fiction book summaries in its library and helps you develop reading habits.
Download: https://fourminutebooks.com/
Price: Free.
File size: 4.4 MB
Bookcase
Looking for some courses that could be beneficial for your professional life? This ap offers summaries of non-fiction books, mainly business, that help you to learn through an hour-long video, podcast, Q&As, and more.
Features:
- It offers a wide collection of courses that are growing each day along with practical tools to expand your knowledge.
- It helps you to learn through business books and collaborative problem-solving.
- It allows you to enhance your professional skills and increase your retention power.
It turns the non-fiction books into fun through interesting chores, by setting and making you achieve goals and perform exercises for each book in the list.
Download: https://www.bookcademy.com/
Price: Free.
Quiddity
This is available as a mobile phone app for your Android and iOS and is known for offering you a gist of the book. You get the key points and the essence of the non-fiction book in text or audio format.
Features:
- Available on mobile devices making it easier to access even on the move.
- It allows you to explore books and learn more.
- It helps you to read and listen to summaries of 150 plus books with new titles being released each month.
It helps you cultivate your professional skills as well as personal aptitude as you learn from the best-selling non-fiction books from all across the world. The books are from different subjects including management, leadership, self-development, politics, science, history, social sciences, and so on.
Download: https://www.quiddityhub.com/
Price: Free version available; Plans start from $20/month.
File size: 47 MB
Snapreads
If reading non-fiction books are your passion, this is another great alternative to Blinkist that helps you to get the key insights into your favorite books.
Features:
- It offers key points and summaries from a large collection of non-fiction best-sellers.
- It helps you to read the gist of the books in flat 15 minutes.
- The summaries are available in both text and audio formats.
- Helps you read or listen to your favorite books even when on the go, and allows you to change between audio and text formats, easily.
- Offers books on business and economics with inputs from leaders in the league.
Publishes new books daily and offer suggestions based on your earlier preferences.
Official link: https://snapreads.com/
Price: Free
SparkNotes
This app offers an extensive collection of study guides that may help to write an exam, prep for the finals, or just to gain knowledge on certain subjects.
Features:
- Offers access to literature guides right away, as many as 600 of them and counting.
- It provides complete access on the move, and even when offline.
- It helps you take a quiz on all titles.
- Allow you to configure the size of your text and use the dark mode.
It also offers guides for other subjects like Math, History, Science, Film, etc., and displays the complete text of all Shakespeare plays alongside the English translations.
Download: https://www.sparknotes.com/
Price: Free trial available; Pricing starts from $0.99/month.
File size: 36 MB
Spreads
This is a heaven on earth for the non-fiction book lovers and an able alternative to the Blinkist. It offers the gist of the books that are handy, applicable, and convenient to read.
Features:
- Releases two books each month.
- Features books from non-fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction categories.
Encourages reading habits by summarizing the non-fiction best-sellers in easy to understand the gist. This helps you to read and understand the essence of the books in minutes.
Download: https://sipreads.com/
Price: Free
BookRags
This is a unique educational website that offers all that you need in the literature to be able to learn and teach. From study guides or lesson plans to author biographies, essays, and even homework help, it offers all the material to be skilled in literature.
Features:
- It offers short and crisp book summaries and deep research on more than 4000 literature books.
- It comes with an index of characters and their details along with a section dedicated to important quotes.
- It features an extensive collection of eBooks (more than 10,000) and with 8400 BIOs in its collection.
Interesting Fact:
The descriptions are written by experienced teachers and writers, and it offers free access to around 157 most popularly taught titles from the study guides.
Download: http://www.bookrags.com/
Price: Free version available; Pricing starts from $3 for three days access to essays.
GetAbstract
Perhaps among the ones that feature the largest collection o book summaries, this app is a perfect contender for the best alternative to Blinkist. It offers takeaway from over 20,000 non-fiction books, articles, and even video discussions, and helps you to read the summaries in just 10 minutes.
Features:
- Offers a list of topics (business, leadership, science, health, technology, and more) arranged by experts.
- It provides personalized suggestions on what to read based on your reading history.
- It offers the option to read and listen to summaries while on the move.
It allows you to read in different languages including English, Spanish, French, Chinese, etc., both online and offline. Best of all, you are even allowed to share the summaries with your Kindle.
Download: https://www.getabstract.com/en/
Price: Free trial available; Plans start from $99/Year.
File size: 9.9 MB
Conclusion
Blinkist is undoubtedly one of the most popular methods to read the gist of your favorite books from a wide collection, but when looking for an alternative these apps serve you the best with a wide collection of non-fiction book summaries to read for free. Yes, you can subscribe to the premium versions of some to unlock more books or features, but the services they offer at no cost are pretty competitive. So, if you want to quickly read a book while you are on the go, simply get one of these apps and start reading summaries and gaining knowledge in the shortest possible time.
