So I’ve had a few people ask me about book subscriptions and I hadn’t tried them for myself yet, but finally got around to a couple of those free trials. Check out my thoughts on the two services and how they compare.
Book Selection
Scribd – C+
Oyster – B
At first glance, they both seem to have a lot of the same stuff…if you like to just compare some bestsellers out there. However, I have particular genres I’m after, particularly Young Adult and Historical/Regency Romance. As far as YA material, Oyster hands down has a better selection and it recommended several YA books to me that I’ve really enjoyed. Scribd made up for its lack of YA content with its complete collection of Georgette Heyer’s novels which highly appeal to me. Overall, neither have quite enough of what I’m looking for in either genre. The library is still my go-to for books.
Search Function
Scribd – A-
Oyster – D
Hands down, Scribd wins this category. It has a easy to use search function on both its app and online. Oyster’s website lacks any search functionality at all. I even had my husband jump on to double check that I wasn’t missing something right in front of my face. It does have search capabilities within its app, but when I was first making up reading lists for my trial, I wanted the ability to look at all of the options online first. Some things just don’t work as well on a phone and this is one of them.
Ease of Use
Scribd – B
Oyster – A
This is completely preference based, but I found it much easier to navigate the pages in Oyster by sliding my finger up than in Scribd by sliding my finger from right to left. Although, after reading a book on Scribd and then going back to Oyster, it was really annoying that it automatically highlighted material when I accidentally swiped right to left. Also, I felt like the Oyster app did a better job of loading and saving my place when I switched back and forth using my phone and iPad.
With all of that said, I think there’s a player that will wipe out both of these subscription services when they come online and that’s Amazon. I will wait patiently until I see their service come out before I make any commitments to the others. I MUCH prefer reading on my kindle than on the brighter screen of my phone or iPad. And likely, since they already have the Amazon Lending Library in play, their materials will be much more varied than either Scribd or Oyster could compete with.
Have you tried out an online book subscription service? Which one is your favorite?
