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Kobo Plus is fairly new to the market for reading subscriptions. It works the same way as Kindle Unlimited. It’s great for people with Kobo ereaders, but at the time of writing, there aren’t many ways to get it. At the moment, it is only sold in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal. No word yet on whether it will be rolled out to other markets, but if you live in one of those countries and have a Bluetooth-enabled Kobo ereader, it’s a cheaper way to read than buying ebooks, especially if you read a lot.
Amazon’s ebook membership service and Rakuten’s Kobo Plus are different in some important ways. First of all, Kobo Plus doesn’t have any limits like Kindle Unlimited, which lets you “borrow” up to 10 books from its library of over a million titles. You can download as many titles from the whole library as you want at once, and you don’t have to “return” any to add more at a later time. Still, you won’t “own” the files because you don’t buy them outright. If you end your Kobo Plus membership, you won’t be able to read the books you’ve already downloaded.
Kobo Plus Specifications
Kobo Plus is an ebook membership service that provides users with limitless access to a large range of ebooks as well as audiobooks at a reasonable price. You are free to terminate your subscription at any time, and it is compatible with Kobo ereaders, tablets, and smartphones.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Books | Access to over 1 million ebooks and audiobooks |
| Availability | Available in selected countries |
| Downloads | You can download up to 10 books at a time |
| Devices | Works with Kobo ereaders, tablets, and smartphones |
| Offline reading | You can read books offline on your Kobo ereader or the Kobo app |
| Cancel anytime | You can cancel your subscription at any time |
Kobo Plus review: Library
Kobo Plus has one big edge over its competitor: it has more than a million ebooks, and some of them also have audiobooks. On the Kobo Plus app, you can download every ebook. This is different from Kindle Unlimited, which only lets you download a few of its one million titles at a time. And while the Amazon alternative only lets you borrow up to 10 books at a time, Kobo Plus doesn’t have this cap.
There are titles in every genre, but the best way to look through them is on a web browser or the Kobo mobile app, which both have a list of genres you can use to narrow down the collection. If you want to look around on a Kobo ereader, you can only choose from 20 titles in five categories: “most popular,” “new,” “page turners,” “hidden gems,” and “crime, mystery, and thrillers.”
If you’re looking for something special, you can use the Kobo Store’s search bar on the ereader under the Discover tab and then select “Kobo Plus” from the drop-down menu. During our tests of the service, we used the Kobo smartphone app to add books to our Kobo Plus library, which we could then read on the Libra H2O and Kobo Sage tablets. This problem is not unique to Kobo’s platform.
Kobo Plus review: User experience
Signing up for Kobo Plus can be done in a variety of ways, including on computers, phones, and Kobo ereaders. During testing, the app was found to be the most convenient option due to its user-friendliness; however, the ereader option is still a viable choice despite the difficulties associated with book discovery. The fact that Kobo Plus is compatible with Kobo devices gives it a distinct advantage over competitors like Scribd and contributes to the service’s widespread popularity.
When compared to other ebook subscription services, it stands out due to the extensive library it offers, which includes not only films and sheet music but also podcasts and videos. The accessibility of the subscription service is simplified by the fact that it is displayed prominently on the home screen of the Kobo app for smartphones and tablets, which mirrors the availability of the service on the Kobo website.
How Does Kobo Work?
You get limitless access to both ebooks and audiobooks, and the selection of titles that are available to you occasionally shifts. If you come across an ebook right now and make the decision to store it for later, there is a possibility that the ebook will no longer be available in the catalog. There is a possibility that the selection will shift, but in addition, new titles will be presented.
an assortment of electronic books and audiobooks. My investigation revealed that there is no “throttling.” The term “throttling” refers to the process through which usage on Scribd is restricted after a predetermined number of titles have been seen. My understanding is that you are permitted to download one frontlist or almost frontlist title, and that after that, you will only be able to access backlist titles for the remainder of the billing cycle. You won’t be able to see any of the more recent releases in your library, and the selection won’t be refreshed until the following billing cycle. To be fair, however, Scribd does offer titles from the frontlist.
It would appear that this restriction does not apply to Kobo Plus purchases at all. Nevertheless, it seems that the titles are from an earlier time. Authors such as Ian McEwan, Elena Ferrante, Alice Hoffman, Patricia Highsmith, and Barbara Freethy are just few of those whose works may be found as ebooks and audiobooks on Kobo Plus.
What Kinds Books Are Included in kobo plus?
Kobo Plus, just like other subscription services, offers a large selection of ebooks in genres such as romance, suspense, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. These works are classified as works of genre fiction, which is widely acknowledged to be an essential component of this subscription-based business model. It’s possible that this is due to the fact that genre fiction is typically consumed in a short amount of time, making a subscription service appealing to consumers of this type of book. Kobo Plus is the perfect service for someone like you if they read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
Despite the fact that genre fiction accounts for the majority of its sales, Kobo also sells modern or general fiction, Kobo’s own editions of classic works (known as Kobo Edition), comics, manga, graphic novels, biographies, and memoirs, as well as original titles created by Kobo. These are arranged in lists, and if you wish to look through ebooks according to category, you can quickly access that list from here.
Price and availability
Kobo Plus is limited in availability compared to Kindle Unlimited’s global availability. Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal were the initial launch countries in 2020; Australia and New Zealand followed in 2021. As of April 2023, it has reached both the United States and the United Kingdom.
In light of this growth, Kobo has introduced three tiers to its subscription service: Kobo Plus Read is for only reading ebooks, Kobo Plus Listen is for exclusively listening to audiobooks, and the whole Kobo Plus platform grants access to both.
All three tiers cost the same each month in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia:
- Kobo Plus Read: $7.99 (or £8.49 or CAD$11.99)$9.99 / AU$13.99
- Kobo Plus Listen: $7.99 (£8.49) (CA)$9.99 / AU$13.99
- Prices for Kobo Plus: $9.99 (GBP / CAD)$12.99 / AU$16.99
Kobo Plus is still essentially an ebook-only membership platform in New Zealand, with a monthly fee of NZ$14.99. There is no way to subscribe to a plan that includes both reading and listening, and the price for the audiobook-only option (which is not called Listen) is NZ$13.99. Even said, Australia has had both the Kobo Plus Read and Listen options since August 2023, so it’s probable that New Zealand will have them soon.
We think the full-fat Kobo Plus is the most cost-effective option when compared to other subscriptions, but the individual Read and Listen plans are attractively priced, especially in the US (where Kindle Unlimited costs $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$13.99). In the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, you can obtain both ebooks and audiobooks with one subscription, making it more cost-effective than signing up for Kindle Unlimited and Audible separately.
Final Words
Kobo Plus is designed for those who already have a Kobo ereader in their possession. Think of it as a supplementary service to the primary Kobo store that you frequent. It is geared toward bookworms who don’t have a particular work in mind that they want to read and readers who aren’t picky about the books they read. As long as they can get their taste of fantasy, science fiction, or romance, it doesn’t matter what the titles are or who the authors are. On the other side, users who are looking for front list titles, the newest releases, or big-name writers should not sign up for Kobo Plus.
Kobo Plus review: The good and The bad
Signing up for Kobo Plus is quite simple, regardless of whether you do it on your desktop computer, using the mobile app, or on a Kobo ereader. In the course of our research, we found that using Kobo provided the best overall experience.
The Good
- Ereader support
- Growing library
The Bad
- Currently limited catalog