Review Insights · Google Play
Storytel - Audiobooks & Books
Storytel Sweden AB · 510,671 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
510,671 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 48 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"books"
14 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No good books" - The old ways 1
2
"listen"
11 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "doesn't let me listen just shows the offers" - Shraddha Kulkarni
3
"book"
10 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No good books" - The old ways 1
4
"doesn"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "doesn't let me listen just shows the offers" - Shraddha Kulkarni
5
"audiobooks"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Just Two Stars Because You Guys Don't Have Latest Audiobooks And Audiobooks With Duet Versions. Duel Versions Are Really Boring." - Prakash Dalvi
6
"read"
5 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "very bad you cant listen or read it without pay money it's not at all free" - Nisaflx410
📋 All 48 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
The new dialogue when sleep timer expires is broken and annoying. There is no way to just dismiss it without it then changing the current time, it skips back. Broken and unintuitive.
it is 🤢🤮 .
doesn't let me listen just shows the offers
No good books
app is not working
Too slow even with 5G internet.
Very annoying bug: the book suddenly jumps back many hours and its a pain scrolling back and forth trying to find out where I was
very bad you cant listen or read it without pay money it's not at all free
App is in English but I can't choose any English speaking country for where I live. Device language is in English, Google maps shows me in England so my GPS is locating me correctly.
Switched from KukuFM to Storytel for Malayalam audiobooks hoping for better quality, but both platforms feel the same now - overrun with pulp fiction at the expense of real literature. And even the few good titles are let down by poor narration from people with no dubbing or storytelling skills. Please invest in curating quality content and hiring narrators who can actually bring a story to life.
uses ai, disgusting
Be careful, don't listen to books that are popular. Disappeared in the middle of listening, suddenly have to pay per book, even with their best subscription. You are better off buying books another place!
what kind of e-reading app does not have United States as a country or even Canada?
u must pay to listen a little books
you can't listen to audiobooks for free
poor fast forwarding back experience. the player stalls, doesn't work and is super laggy when clicking -15s. don't recommend, such simple functionality is a no-brainer in most modern apps. I have proper internet connection. so that's not the case
There is no table of contents in the audiobooks - how is this is even possible - with 15 hours text length! I've tried to change an interface language which is not English for some reason, there is no such option, but the support keeps telling me to go to setting, where it's possible to change the language of the BOOKS, NOT THE INTERFACE. For this idiocy I'd give you negative stars, if it'd be possible. I am going to Reverend
I've been trying to continue a book for 2 hours but it keeps reading me the previous book, in fact, every. single. book in that series are now the same book!
it is a great app, with a lot of books, and great UI. But they use a scamming approach: I've paid for 10 hours a month and started a 6 hours long book on 1.75x speed. half way through the book, the app told me that my time is up, and i need to pay more, which is a plain lie. I'm disappointed.
not worth it!!! EVERY SINGLE audiobook i wanted to listen to IS NOT AVAILABLE IN USA! So, unless you're not in America, this app is NOT worth it. I can get every single one of the audiobooks they actually do allow usa to listen to on audionest. so, thanks but no thanks. what a waste of time I put into researching this app. they made it seem like you could actually listen to graphic audio versions of audio books. BIG FAT NOPE!!!
cancelled after a few years. the fact that there are books on storytell that ask you to pay extra on top of the membership is outrageous. also 90% of the books are pdfs stolen from the internet.
The price keeps increasing while the app stays the same - how hard is it to make the speed controls more granular and allow for e.g. 0.95x ?! The book selection used to be good. Now even though I have an unlimited subscription, I have to pay for some books separately? €25 for a book that just costs them storage space? I think I'll be returning to audible soon, at least that money grab has a better catalogue :/
It is not organized at all. The same books are repeated, and there is nothing new.
तिच ती पस्तके चांगल्या लेखकाची पुस्तके ऍड करा
doesn't support Arabic language . not fair at all
ogólnie aplikacja jest 10/10, jedna z niewielu z której korzystam codziennie ale po ostatniej aktualizacji jak próbuje odtworzyc audiobooka to wyrzuca mnie na sam początek książki! prosze naprawcie to tak nie da sie korzystac z niej !
Saknar "Furthest page read"!! Sjukt irriterande när ens barn råkat röra progress bar i en lång bok jag lyssnar på. Varför kan den inte minnas position i boken per device eller åtminstone visa ett par förslag på sektioner man lyssnat på senast? Funderar på att prova en annan tjänst då Storytel känns som de vill straffa de som delar ett konto inom familjen.
for everyone in the USA there are not many book you can listen to because of region lockouts otherwise it would be amazing
very disappointed, the audiobook chapters are shuffled not able to understand which is the part I am hearing 👎🏻
Not in English
Be aware when subscribing that the most popular content in the app may not be available depending on your region!Even Lord of the Rings was blocked.
First, I notice that storytel is charging me monthly for premium. Mind you, I only took the free trial and cancelled instantly after. Well, I try cancelling, but I can't do it from the app so I gotta go to the website. The website keeps telling me that my account doesn't exist. Well, I go and change my password, now I know my gmail and password for 100% certain. Now it's telling me that I can't log into my account whatsoever. so essentially, I can't cancel my subscription WHICH I NEVER AGREED TO
Why it isnt free, should everyone like to read or listen be rich? There is teenagers dont have money!
The books don't even load up! you have to wait for a long time...my grandfather can reach america at such a long wait time...and I've got 5g and WIFI and this thing is like noo I don't see wifi...I wanna just sleep in peace so my son doesn't bother me but nooo this app sucks
doesn't work at all. even 1 star is too much!
very slow. takes so long to download the books. I canceled a few minutes after I subscribed. I guess I'll just stick to actual books or e-books.
does not make any sound
it said that it international for use but it not which is a huge disappointment... looked like a really nice app too
No possibility of searching a certain book. You have to manually scroll through all books and hope you will find the book you want... very poor app.
The player is problematic oh why, it drives me crazy. Sometimes I just want to go back a few minutes and listen a part again BUT NO it doesn't allow me and it even starts playing ahead in the audio. I spent minutes to try to fix this problem and get back to where I was listening to the track. I had enough, canceling. Let me know when you fixed this issue.
Just Two Stars Because You Guys Don't Have Latest Audiobooks And Audiobooks With Duet Versions. Duel Versions Are Really Boring.
no no
Reasonable selection of books, however many of the books that I want to read or listen to need to be purchased on top of the expensive subscription fee I wonder what happens to books purchases after unsubscribing? Also the chapters are not the same as the book's chapters and the timer is broken, when restarting the app starts a few chapters before where you left off.
limited book then why to pay or subscribe
Edit April 02 2026 So, I came back after a pretty long break from this app, and to my utter disappointment, things are actually getting worse instead of better. Especially in that, if I haven't made up my mind what I want to read, lord help me, I get submerged in recommendations for genres and styles I want NOTHING to do with. If I'm looking for a specific book, there's a 50/50 chance of finding it here. That's not good odds. I can go on, but that's liable to lead me into giving a 1 star rating.
the app works, its nothing exciting, very bare. it has a lot of books but could do with more modern "classics" like Twilight. you dont get an email back after a suggestion, which is a shame. some sort of data to see your listening total time would be a cool extra even though it would be limited to the browser.
There are only English and Spanish languages. If I want to listen in french or Bulgarian??
doesn't work in US
Sentiment summary
86%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
13%
Negative (1-2★)