European Alternatives to Kindle Unlimited
Looking for a European alternative to Kindle Unlimited? Amazon's Kindle Unlimited sign-up page on amazon.com is now headed Kindle+ and describes one subscription for ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and comics with no per-title cost, with a free trial. The page we read shows no monthly price before sign-in, and it links to Amazon's Conditions of Use and Privacy Notice on amazon.com.
The European ebook subscription services below publish their prices in euros or zloty, are run by companies in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, and range from full catalogues to academic and comics libraries.
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11 European Alternatives to Kindle Unlimited
BookBeat
Stockholm audiobook and ebook subscription from EUR 8.99
Storytel
Swedish listening and reading app with tiered plans
Nextory
Swedish ebook and audiobook subscription with a free trial
Skoobe
German ebook and audiobook flatrate, linked to tolino
Empik Go
Warsaw audiobook and ebook app with unlimited plans
24symbols
Madrid ebook subscription at EUR 8.99 a month
Perlego
London academic ebook library for students and researchers
tolino select
Booksellers' ebook subscription: four titles from forty each month
Izneo
Paris comics and manga subscription at EUR 9.99
Readfy
Free ebook flatrate app from Solingen
Beam
Bielefeld DRM-free ebook shop with series subscriptions
Key takeaways
- Kindle Unlimited is Amazon's reading subscription, and its sign-up page on amazon.com shows no monthly price before login.
- BookBeat publishes Basic at €8.99 and Premium at €10.99 a month, with 45 days free on its Dutch site.
- 24symbols from Madrid lists more than 500,000 ebooks for €8.99 a month with no commitment.
- Perlego from London is the study-book option, with more than 1.5 million academic and professional books.
- Beam from Bielefeld sells ebooks without DRM, which no other service on this page does.
Why people leave Kindle Unlimited
Kindle Unlimited is the reading subscription of Amazon, a company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The sign-up page on amazon.com is now headed Kindle+ and describes one subscription for ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and comics with no cost per title. A free trial is offered. The page we could read gives no monthly price before you sign in.
Because the price sits behind a login, a comparison with European services has to start from the other side: what each European service publishes openly. BookBeat, 24symbols and Izneo print their monthly amounts in euros on public pages, while Empik Go prints zloty. The Amazon page links to Amazon's Conditions of Use and Privacy Notice on amazon.com, which is where the contract and the data handling are set out.
People who look beyond Kindle Unlimited rarely complain about the size of a library. They want a contracting company in their own legal area, a bill without a surprise, a reading app that is not tied to one shop, or a catalogue in their own language. The eleven services on this page answer those wishes in different ways, and none of them is a copy of Amazon's bundle.
- The contracting party sits outside Europe The Kindle Unlimited page we read points to Amazon's Conditions of Use and Privacy Notice on amazon.com and names no European contracting company. The European services publish theirs: Newry Global Media S.L. in Madrid for 24symbols, Perlego Ltd in London, ONO SAS in Paris for Izneo, tolino media GmbH & Co. KG in Munich, BookBeat AB in Stockholm. A reader who wants the counterparty in a known legal area can check each one in an imprint.
- The price is not visible before sign-in On the page we read, Kindle Unlimited showed no monthly amount until you log in. The European services lay theirs out in public. 24symbols lists Premium at €8.99 a month, Izneo lists its Pass at €9.99, BookBeat lists Basic at €8.99 and Premium at €10.99, and Empik Go lists 49.99 zloty per billing period. Some services here do not show amounts either: Perlego, tolino select and Beam all leave them out of the pages we read.
- Your reading is tied to one shop and one device family A subscription from a retailer keeps you inside that retailer's shop and apps. Beam sells ebooks without DRM, so files are not locked to a reading app. tolino select and Skoobe work with the tolino reader and app, which belong to a booksellers' alliance rather than to one retailer. Readers who dislike the idea of one company controlling both the store and the device have a few other doors to try.
- One bundle covers everything, and some readers want a specialist Amazon describes a single subscription for ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and comics. European providers are often narrower. Perlego holds academic and professional books, Izneo holds comics and manga, 24symbols holds ebooks only, and tolino select holds forty curated titles a month. A narrow service can fit a student, a manga fan or a commuter better than a bundle in which most items never get opened.
What you have to replace, not just match
Replacing Kindle Unlimited means deciding which part of the bundle you actually use. Amazon describes ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and comics under one fee. BookBeat, Storytel, Nextory, Skoobe and Empik Go bundle ebooks with audiobooks, 24symbols is ebook-only, and nobody on this page matches the magazine part of the Amazon description as far as the pages we read show.
Language is the second thing to replace. The Nordic services are the biggest libraries by their own claims, with BookBeat and Storytel each stating more than one million titles, but the price and the catalogue differ by country site. Skoobe, tolino select and Beam are German-language, Empik Go is Polish-language, and 24symbols offers its site in six languages. Check that the books you read exist in your language before paying.
The third thing is your library on the Amazon side. Books bought from Amazon stay in your Amazon account and do not move to a European subscription. A subscription lends titles for as long as you pay, so what you borrowed on Amazon will not follow you. Beam is the one service here that sells files without DRM, which is the only route to a library you keep.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | BookBeat | Stockholm, Sweden | Dutch site: 45-day trial, then Basic at 8.99 EUR a month for 20 hours or Premium at 10.99 EUR for 100 hours; added profiles from 1.99 EUR | EU (Sweden) |
| #2 | Storytel | Stockholm, Sweden | Dutch site, billed per 30 days: Flex 7.99 EUR for 10 hours, Premium 9.99 EUR for 30 hours, Unlimited 13.99 EUR, Family from 18.99 EUR | EU (Sweden) |
| #3 | Nextory | Stockholm, Sweden | Dutch site: 14-day trial with 30 hours, then 6.99 EUR a month | EU (Sweden) |
| #4 | Skoobe | Hagen (registered seat), Munich (office), Germany | 30-day trial, then 17.99 EUR per 30 days for the audiobook plan; a combined reading and listening offer is advertised from 12.99 EUR a month | EU (Germany) |
| #5 | Empik Go | Warsaw, Poland | 7 days free; regular price 49.99 PLN per billing period, with 24.99 PLN for the first 4 periods for new users until 30 November | EU (Poland) |
| #6 | 24symbols | Madrid, Spain | Premium EUR 8.99 per month, no commitment (home page, 4 November 2026) | EU (Spain) |
| #7 | Perlego | London, United Kingdom | Monthly, semesterly (save 17%) or yearly (save 33%) plans; the amounts are not in the text we read | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #8 | tolino select | Munich, Germany | Described as an advantageous subscription price; the amount is not shown on the pages we read | EU (Germany) |
| #9 | Izneo | Paris, France | izneo Pass EUR 9.99 per month, no commitment, 10 days free (izneo.com/fr/abonnement) | EU (France) |
| #10 | Readfy | Solingen, Germany | Described as free on the home page; how the service is funded is not stated on the pages we read | EU (Germany) |
| #11 | Beam | Bielefeld, Germany | Series subscriptions with a chosen term; prices are not quoted from the pages we read | EU (Germany) |
How each alternative compares to Kindle Unlimited
Best for: Households that listen as much as they read and want separate profiles
BookBeat AB in Stockholm sells Basic with 20 hours for €8.99 a month and Premium with 100 hours for €10.99 on its Dutch site, after 45 free days. Against Kindle Unlimited, whose price is hidden until login, the plans are readable by anyone before registering. The company states more than one million audiobooks and ebooks.
The trade is the hour counter. Kindle Unlimited is described as a fee with no cost per title, while BookBeat meters reading and listening time on both plans. Extra profiles start at €1.99 and have their own hours. The Dutch plan requires residence in the Netherlands, and the page names both four and five as the family size.
What BookBeat does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A plain price list instead of an amount behind a login
- A 45-day trial on the Dutch site
- Extra profiles from €1.99 with their own hours
- A Swedish company named with a registration number
Where BookBeat is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Hours are capped, so a heavy reader can run out
- The Dutch plan needs a Dutch residence
- No magazines or comics are described on the pages we read
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. BookBeat lets a household budget reading time person by person.
Best for: Readers who also listen daily and want one tier without an hour limit
Storytel Sweden AB supplies the service, and Storytel NL B.V. sells it on the Dutch site. Flex costs €7.99 for 10 hours, Premium €9.99 for 30 hours, Unlimited €13.99 and Family starts at €18.99, each per 30 days. The vendor states more than one million titles. Unlimited removes the hour counter, which is the nearest thing here to a flat fee.
Compared with Amazon's bundle, Storytel adds Synced Listening, which highlights text while it is read aloud, and a Kids Mode that restricts the library to children's books. The 30-day billing cycle means more than twelve charges in a year, and the Unlimited price appears next to a 50 percent offer that lapses.
What Storytel does better than Kindle Unlimited
- An uncapped tier at a stated price
- Synced Listening for follow-along reading
- Kids Mode with a restricted library
- Two contracting entities named in the terms
Where Storytel is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Billed every 30 days, not per calendar month
- The lower tiers count hours
- The regular Unlimited price is hard to separate from the discount
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Storytel is the one service here that shows the text while the audio plays.
Best for: Individual readers on a Dutch or Nordic storefront watching the monthly bill
Nextory AB, based at Norrtullsgatan in Stockholm, quotes €6.99 a month once a 14-day trial with 30 hours has run. That is the lowest entry price among the Dutch storefronts we checked for this category. The vendor claims a catalogue of 1.4 million books, and the menu includes children's books and a section of easy-reading titles.
The home page we read shows one price and no tier table, so the hour allowance after the trial is not stated. The family option needs a separate profile for each user and a shared household, which rules out a relative who lives elsewhere. Prices on other country storefronts were not compared.
What Nextory does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A €6.99 entry price on the Dutch page
- A 14-day trial with 30 hours included
- An easy-reading section and a children's menu entry
- A Swedish contracting company with an organisation number
Where Nextory is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- No tier table, so hours after the trial are unclear
- Family plan limited to one household
- The 1.4 million figure is a vendor claim
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Nextory quotes the cheapest entry price of the Dutch pages we checked.
Best for: German-language readers who want a fixed monthly fee and tolino compatibility
Skoobe GmbH, seated in Hagen with an office in Munich, treats a title as a loan: you borrow, return it and borrow the next, with up to 10 on loan at once. The main page claims more than 600,000 titles from over 5,000 publishers, and the audiobook plan lists 100,000 audiobooks without an hour limit for €17.99 per 30 days after 30 free days.
Skoobe works inside the tolino app after linking a Thalia account, according to its privacy text. The pages quote a reading and listening subscription from €12.99 a month beside the €17.99 audiobook plan and do not say which tier covers which part of the catalogue, so confirm that at checkout. The site and support are German-language.
What Skoobe does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A loan model with 10 titles borrowed at once
- Compatibility with the tolino app
- Managing directors named in the imprint
- A 30-day trial on the audiobook plan
Where Skoobe is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- German-language service only
- The tiers behind €12.99 and €17.99 are unclear
- The audiobook count is smaller than the Nordic libraries
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Skoobe is the service that lets you read inside a tolino app you may already own.
Best for: Polish readers who already shop at Empik and want one login for everything
Empik S.A. in Warsaw, entered in the National Court Register under KRS 0000636785, runs Empik Go. The regular price is 49.99 zloty per billing period, with 24.99 zloty for the first four periods for new customers until 30 November, and 7 days free. The vendor describes 240,000 titles, an offline mode and podcasts without a limit.
Empik Go is the one service here that sits inside a retail site: gift cards, student pricing and its own GoBook readers are part of the menu. The plan list names one Kindle device outside the device limit. A billing period is not a calendar month, the interface is Polish only, and the headline price depends on a promotion that expires.
What Empik Go does better than Kindle Unlimited
- Prices published in zloty with plan lengths of 30 and 360 days
- A one-off payment option
- Podcasts included without a limit
- An offline mode listed in the plan description
Where Empik Go is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Polish-language only
- The promotional price lapses on 30 November
- Billing periods do not line up with calendar months
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Empik Go is the only entry here run by a high-street book retailer.
Best for: Readers who never listen and want a single ebook price in several languages
Newry Global Media S.L. in Madrid offers 24symbols as one ebook plan at €8.99 a month with no commitment, according to its home page of 4 November 2026. The site states more than 500,000 ebooks, sorts them from romance to university textbooks, and runs its interface in six languages. A gift subscription is linked from the top menu.
Next to Amazon's bundle, 24symbols is narrower: audiobooks are limited to a free section, and the pages we read show no trial length, family plan or student price. Data hosting is not stated. The number of ebooks per language is not broken down, so check your own language before paying.
What 24symbols does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A published price of €8.99 a month
- No commitment to stay
- Interface in six languages
- A Spanish company with a stated registry entry
Where 24symbols is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- No paid audiobook tier
- No trial length shown on the pages we read
- Data hosting is not stated
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. 24symbols is the only ebook-only flat plan here with a published price.
Best for: Students and researchers whose reading list is textbooks and professional titles
Perlego Ltd in London states more than 1.5 million books, grouped by topic from architecture and law to medicine and study aids. It offers monthly, semester and yearly billing, with savings of 17% and 33% on the longer cycles, and says you can cancel anytime and read to the end of the cycle. The interface comes in five languages.
The server-rendered pricing text we read gave no amounts, so no price is quoted here. The offer is aimed at academic and professional reading, not bestseller fiction, which is where Kindle Unlimited is more useful. Perlego is a UK company, outside the EU but with an adequacy decision, and its data hosting is not stated.
What Perlego does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A catalogue built around textbooks and professional titles
- Semester billing that matches a study term
- Institution licences for schools and universities
- Cancellation with access to the end of the cycle
Where Perlego is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Little general fiction
- No prices in the text we read
- A UK entity, outside the EU
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Perlego is the only service here that sells a semester plan.
Best for: German readers with a tolino reader who prefer a short curated list
tolino media GmbH & Co. KG in Munich publishes tolino select for the tolino booksellers. Every month booksellers name forty titles and the subscriber chooses four. The October 2026 list was grouped into crime, novels and romance, with sample chapters for some titles. A free first month is offered and the subscription can be cancelled monthly.
Against Kindle Unlimited the idea is the opposite of a catalogue: you get a limited, guided choice. The pages we read give no amount, and the contract runs through the bookseller you pick, so the price may only show in that shop. The privacy text lists third-party tools such as Facebook Pixel, Google Ads and Matomo.
What tolino select does better than Kindle Unlimited
- Titles chosen by booksellers, with sample chapters
- A free first month
- Monthly cancellation
- Readable on tolino devices, webreader and app
Where tolino select is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Only four titles a month
- No price on the pages we read
- Third-party trackers named in the privacy text
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. tolino select gives a small shortlist where Amazon gives a whole shelf.
Best for: Comics and manga readers who want the comics part of the bundle only
ONO SAS in Paris, registered at RCS Paris B 522 564 392, publishes Izneo. The izneo Pass costs €9.99 a month with no commitment and 10 days free, and it gives ad-free reading of a selection of several thousand albums. Readers use the website or the Android and iOS apps, and single albums can still be bought outside the Pass.
The Pass replaces only the comics part of Amazon's description. The legal notice names Amazon Web Services as host, without a region, so a reader leaving Amazon should know the host is an Amazon company. The site is mainly French, with the English catalogue in a separate section, and the Pass covers a selection, not the whole shop.
What Izneo does better than Kindle Unlimited
- A comics-only Pass at a stated €9.99
- No advertising
- A 10-day free trial
- A French company with a register number and share capital
Where Izneo is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- No novels
- Hosted on Amazon Web Services
- The site is mainly in French
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Izneo is the only service here that holds comics and manga as its whole offer.
Best for: Readers who want to test a flatrate on a phone without paying
readfy GmbH in Solingen, entered at Amtsgericht Wuppertal under number 27672, runs Readfy. The home page calls it the free ebook flatrate and states more than 70,000 ebooks, with apps for Android and iOS, an offline reading feature and reading lists made by users. It is the only free option on this page.
The pages we read do not explain how the service earns money, and they do not say whether ads or a paid tier exist. The terms are dated March 2016 and list a Dusseldorf address and court, while the imprint names Solingen. No desktop reader is described, and hosting is not stated.
What Readfy does better than Kindle Unlimited
- No subscription fee stated on the home page
- More than 70,000 ebooks stated
- Offline reading in the apps
Where Readfy is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- The funding model is not stated
- Terms from 2016 differ from the imprint on address
- Phone and tablet apps only
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Readfy is the only service here that is described as free on its home page.
Best for: Readers of serial novels who want files they keep on any device
BEAM Shop GmbH in Bielefeld, registered at Amtsgericht Bielefeld under HRB 43148, sells ebooks without DRM and subscriptions to series such as westerns, science fiction serials and romance. New episodes can be downloaded right after release. A subscription runs for a chosen size and does not renew automatically when it ends.
Beam is a shop, not a catalogue flatrate: each series is subscribed and paid for separately, and the pages we read quote no prices. Files that carry no DRM are not locked to a reading app, which is the reverse of borrowing. The privacy text names Google Analytics, hosting is not stated, and the shop is in German.
What Beam does better than Kindle Unlimited
- Files without DRM that are not locked to an app
- Subscriptions that do not renew automatically
- New episodes ready on release
Where Beam is a step down from Kindle Unlimited
- Not a catalogue flatrate
- No prices in the pages we read
- German-language shop with Google Analytics named
Standout against Kindle Unlimited. Beam is the only entry here where you end up owning the files.
What actually breaks when you switch
Nothing transfers automatically. Reading history, bookmarks and highlights stay in the Amazon account, and each European service starts with an empty shelf. If you annotate heavily, export your notes or finish your current books before cancelling. Cancel Kindle Unlimited yourself and check what happens to borrowed titles; the page we read does not describe the terms.
The second break is billing. Storytel and Skoobe bill every 30 days and Empik Go bills per period, so the yearly cost is not twelve times the headline price. Several services, among them BookBeat and Empik Go, run promotions that lapse. Write down the regular price on the trial day, and set a reminder before the first charge.
Is there a European ebook subscription with a catalogue as wide as Kindle Unlimited?
No page we read gives a number for Kindle Unlimited, so a size comparison would be a guess. The largest figures stated by European services are 1.5 million books at Perlego, more than one million titles at BookBeat and Storytel, and 600,000 titles at Skoobe. These are vendor claims, they count different things, and they include audiobooks and academic titles.
Size matters less than overlap with your reading. A 500,000-title ebook library at 24symbols can serve a Spanish reader better than a larger library built around Nordic languages. Open each service's catalogue in your own language and search for ten authors you read before paying.
Which European service is the closest to Kindle Unlimited for ebooks only?
24symbols is the plainest match: ebooks only, one paid plan at €8.99 a month, no commitment, and six interface languages. It has a free audiobook section but no paid audio tier, which suits a reader who never listens.
If you want ebooks and audiobooks in the same app, BookBeat, Storytel, Nextory, Skoobe and Empik Go all offer both. Their plans meter hours or cap titles in different ways, so they behave less like a flat reading fee than 24symbols does.
Which one to pick
For a reader who wants ebooks and audiobooks from one Nordic company, BookBeat and Storytel are the nearest in shape, and Nextory is the cheaper entry on the Dutch pages. For ebooks only, 24symbols is the plainest answer at €8.99 a month. Skoobe suits German readers who own a tolino device, and Empik Go suits Polish readers.
Specialists fit specific lives: Perlego for study, Izneo for comics and manga, tolino select for a curated shortlist, Readfy for trying a flatrate at no cost, and Beam for owning DRM-free files. Many readers will end up with one general service and one specialist. Amazon's bundle stays stronger on breadth of formats, and none of these services matches the magazine part as far as the pages we read show.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the reader. BookBeat and Storytel fit people who want ebooks and audiobooks from a Swedish company, 24symbols fits an ebook-only reader at €8.99 a month, Perlego fits students and researchers, and Izneo fits comics and manga. Empik Go suits Polish readers and Skoobe suits German ones. Pick on language and format, not on a general ranking.
The Amazon sign-up page we read mentions a free trial but shows no monthly price until you sign in, so we cannot quote an amount. European comparisons: Skoobe offers 30 days, BookBeat 45 days on its Dutch site, Nextory 14 days, Izneo 10 days, Empik Go 7 days and tolino select one month.
Books you bought stay in your Amazon account. A European subscription is a separate catalogue, and you cannot move purchased Amazon files into it. Keep the account if you want to reopen what you bought. Beam sells ebooks without DRM, so what you buy there is not locked to one app.
Readfy from Solingen calls itself the free ebook flatrate on its home page and states more than 70,000 ebooks, with apps for Android and iOS. The pages we read do not say how the service is funded, and its 2016 terms list a different address than its imprint. Check the current imprint before creating an account.
The pages we read describe apps, web readers and tolino devices rather than Kindle support. Empik Go lists one Kindle device outside its device limit on its plans, and Beam sells DRM-free files that you can move to a reader yourself. For any other service, check the device list before subscribing.
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