11 Best Book Summary Apps for 2024

Are you an avid reader looking for the best apps and websites for reading and exploring summaries of the greatest books? If yes, you should know that reading a book is a great habit to build your knowledge of the world and yourself.

A healthy intellectual mind needs a carefully crafted reading list to facilitate self-development and absorb the wisdom that lies between the lines. In the digital era, we are fortunate enough to have so many note-taking software, summary apps, and mind map tools to help us build this excellent habit.

Book summary apps are designed to help you save time and expand your knowledge. These applications cut through the fluff, helping you focus on the core concepts and get straight to the key points. Some book summary apps even offer audio versions of books, so you can read summaries anywhere you go.

That said, finding out what book summary app works can be more challenging than what you imagined at first. That’s why we decided to introduce some of the best book summary websites and apps that avid readers like you will certainly appreciate. Are you ready? Let’s begin:

11 Best Book Summary Apps To Learn Something New Every Day

Before introducing the best book summary apps, let’s review what we will be reading here. Some apps and websites listed below offer free book summaries, while others are paid. Most apps and websites offer free trial, but you still need to purchase a premium account to use all the features and access the entire library.

Moreover, each summary app has unique features. A good book summary app is the one that works best for you according to your taste and lifestyle. Some people like reading PDFs and Ebooks, while others prefer listening to audio books. Many of the apps and websites here provide book summaries in different formats.

Now without further ado, let’s review some of your best options:

1. BookStash

Bookstash offers free book summaries from famous authors and hundreds of industry leaders like Tim Ferris and Elon Musk. Most books on this website are non-fiction and focused on topics like productivity, leadership, management skills, and self-development.

Bookstash has curated an impressive collection of well-crafted summaries that will give you all the key ideas and core concepts of popular books. You can even highlight and save your favorite parts of the book & track your reading progress.

Bookstash is an excellent website for students, entrepreneurs, and startup owners who need a springboard to develop their own business, promotional website, or social network.

Pros

• Beautiful interface design
• Handy saving feature
• Simple, open-source, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform

Cons

• Relatively small selection
• No app version

Pricing: Free.

2. Sumizeit

SumizeIt is a fairly new book summary website that gained a lot of attention over the past couple of years. The extraordinary services and neat interface can attract anyone who wants to expand his/her knowledge in a user-friendly app.

SumizeIt is also available for Android and iOS, so mobile users can access a large collection of the best book summaries and read them anywhere. SumizeIt offers concise bestselling books, including all key takeaways from your favorite book.

SumizeIt has over 1000 books in its library and adds new books weekly. You can read each book summary in 10 to 15 minutes. Topics are widely varied, ranging from business to psychology, personal development hacks, sociology, and leadership.

If you prefer listening to book summaries in an audio format, Sumizeit can be your best companion during your drive home. This service offers book summaries in text, audio, and even video format. So you can ensure that even your coffee breaks are used to learn new materials and ideas.

Pros

• Sync with Kindle devices
• Weekly new summaries
• Audio summaries available

Cons

• Website reading experience isn’t great
• Some summaries are too concise
• Limited categorization

Pricing: Freemium. Starts from $4.17/mo.

3. Headway

Headway is a widely acclaimed app that offers concise summaries of the world’s best non-fiction books, making knowledge accessible and digestible for users on the go. With an extensive library, personalized reading recommendations, and daily insights, Headway caters to busy individuals who want to grow and learn without committing hours to read full-length books.

Headway is designed for those who value continuous self-improvement but struggle to find the time to read. The app distills complex ideas and key takeaways into 15-minute summaries, making it easy to incorporate learning into a busy schedule. Whether you’re looking to boost your career, improve personal skills, or stay updated with the latest trends and ideas, Headway provides a practical solution. Additionally, features like progress tracking, goal setting, and achievement badges add an element of gamification, making learning both engaging and rewarding.

Pros

• Wide Selection of Summaries: Access to a vast range of non-fiction book summaries covering various genres and topics
• Personalized Experience: Tailored recommendations based on user preferences and reading history
• Daily Insights: Bite-sized daily highlights to inspire and motivate users
• User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive design making navigation and reading enjoyable
• Offline Access: Download summaries for offline reading, perfect for those with limited internet access
• Audio Option: The app provides audio summaries, allowing users to listen while commuting or doing other tasks

Cons

• Subscription Model: Some features and summaries require a premium subscription
• Non-Fiction Focus: Primarily focuses on non-fiction, which might not appeal to fiction lovers

Pricing: Headway app plans are available at 12.99 US$/month, 29.99 US$/3-month, and 89.99 US$/year.

4. Blinkist

Blinkist is perhaps the most famous book summary app in the market, available for both Android as well as iOS users. Blinkist offers the key ideas and concepts of a book in a very short summary. App creators claim that reading each summary will take about 15 minutes for an average reader.

The app design is very minimalistic, and UI is extremely user-friendly. Everything, from visual elements to web components and summaries, is concise and to the point. You may not find many customization settings and options on this app, but as far as reading is concerned, that’s a good thing; it helps you stay focused on your learning process.

The navigation bar is highly intuitive, simple, and easy to understand. Page loading speed is fast, and you can find many useful features on the app to help you have a distraction-free experience. Blinkist offers offline reading features as well, and you can download the audio to listen wherever you are, even when you don’t even have an internet connection.

Blinkist has an impressive collection of books on various topics, including technology, leadership, science, education, creativity, economics, communication skills, health and nutrition, politics, philosophy, history, and more.

Pros

• Huge selection of book summaries
• Short casts — podcast summaries
• Free trial available
• Original content

Cons

• Not all book summaries are of equal quality
• There is no scrutiny, review, or interpretation of the books
• Some summaries may feel a bit repetitive

Pricing: From $6.50/mo with discount.

5. Instaread

Instaread is another great book summary app where you can enjoy audio and text summaries of many bestselling books. Instaread is available for desktop, Android, iOS, and tablet users. The user interface and device responsiveness are among the great features that distinguish this application from many other apps in the market.

Instead partners with a professional team of book experts and analysts who read and summarize books in a clear and straightforward tone. That’s why you can guarantee that after reading each book’s summary, you will have an accurate picture of the main ideas and concepts.

You can choose your books from the various categories of business, politics, social science, history, health, fitness, and more.

Pros

• Instaread Originals – short books on different subjects
• Reading and listening time estimators
• Online and offline access on various devices

Cons

• Fewer book summaries than on Blinkist for the same price
• Limited categories

Pricing: Starting at $7.99/month.

6. Mentorist

Mentorist book summary app focuses on best-selling books on various subjects, such as business and economics, leadership, personal development, and self-help. Unlike many other summary apps, Mentorist is concerned with the practical aspect of learning and provides useful tips to implement the knowledge you gain from book summaries.

Business owners and managers can use Mentorist to receive advice and ideas from leaders and legends in different industries. Mentorist provides over 200 bestsellers in around 11 categories, helping you create an organized reading list on any topic that interests you.

Mentorist also offers interactive features so you can complete book-related assignments and activities and collect points. This app is available on iOS and Android for free.

Pros

• It helps build a reading habit
• Convenient progress tracker and persona notes

Cons

• No original content
• Not the best in-app reading experience

Pricing: From $12/month.

7. StoryShots

StoryShots is a popular book summary app that offers numerous book summaries in text, audio, and animated formats. StoryShots has curated a comprehensive library of summaries from non-fiction books on many subjects.

This app promotes fast and deep learning by providing key insights and ideas in each book. StoryShots’ mission is to help people expand their knowledge regardless of their budget, time, or learning style.

Google, the Guardian, Apple, and various thinkers and industry leaders, including Steven Pinker, Nami Zarringhalam, and Naithan Jones, have suggested StoryShots as a top educational app.

Pros

• Excellent, in-depth book summaries
• Categorization based on time length, categories, and language of the summaries
• Lifetime access to all the summaries and advanced features on the premium version

Cons

• Disruptive ads in a free version
• Only non-fiction books are available

Pricing: Freemium. Plans from $19.99/annually.

8.12min

12min is another excellent book summary app that allows you to grasp some useful knowledge from a wealth of bestseller books. This app offers great summaries, and creators claim users can learn the key insights of each book in around 12 minutes -hence the name.

12min has gathered a team of professionals to read, summarize, and create easy-to-understand summaries of the bestsellers that all readers can use. This app offers both the text and audio versions of a summary, which can be picked depending on your preferred learning style. 12min is available for free on all Android or iOS devices.

Pros

• Regular updates to the book library
• Device responsiveness
• Excellent user interface

Cons

• No web reader is available
• Expensive annual plan

Pricing: Freemium. Annual plans from $109,90.

9. Shortform

Shortform is one of the best book summary apps, offering summaries of more than 1000 bestselling non-fiction books. Shortform is well-known for its ability to translate complex ideas into simple and easy-to-understand language.

Shortform covers a wide array of categories, including business, management, finance and investment, career, productivity and self-help, entrepreneurship, and more. Shortform also offers guides, exercises, and questions that will give you a deeper understanding of the content you are reading.

Pros

• Smart, critical analysis of books
• Great book recommendations engine
• Note sync with Notion

Cons

• No original content
• Limited titles compared to other apps

Pricing: From $16.42/mo.

10. getAbstract

getAbstract is one of the most creative, well-designed, and user-friendly summary apps that offers summaries of the world’s best books, podcasts, and articles. Book summaries on this app are available in multiple languages, including German, English, Russian, Chinese, etc.

getAbstract has collected more than 25000 summaries, making it one of the largest digital libraries in the market. Most of the summaries are also available in both text and audio formats.

You can easily switch between different categories and read book summaries on subjects such as leadership, management, career, personal development, workplace skills, and more. getAbstract provides 3 days of free and full access to its online library to help you decide whether it’s a good fit for you.

Pros

• 25,000+ book summaries (the most on this list)
• Multi-format book summaries (ePub, PDF, audio, Kindle format)

Cons

• Expensive personal subscription
• A limited number of summaries available for free members
• Not all summaries get a 5/5 in terms of giving the key insights of the book.

Pricing: From $29.90 per month.

11. Readingraphics

ReadinGraphics is one of the most innovative book summaries apps, offering the best business and personal development books for entrepreneurs, industry leaders, corporate executives, and professional business owners.

ReadinGraphics is the first and probably the best infographic book summary app in the world. Unlike many other book summary apps, ReadinGraphics focuses on the graphic representation of the books.

ReadinGraphics’s developers and many neuroscientist believe that graphics, images, and visual elements, in general, will significantly optimize the learning, memorization, and recall process. However, all summaries are also available in audio and text formats as well.

Pros

• Succinct visual book summaries
• Perfect choice for visual learners

Cons

• Clunky design at times
• No mobile apps

Pricing: From $ 14.14/mo.

To Sum Up

You can search more and find many other book summary apps and websites on the internet, but here we handpicked the best ones for you. It’s really difficult to pick one app as the best book summary app because the best app is the one that meets your personal interests and needs and fits your learning style.

We recommend checking out all the apps and websites on the list for yourself, exploring their libraries, and testing their user interface and reading features. Once you have done your research, you can make your final decision and start reading summaries of your favorite books.

Comparison Table

• BookStash – best free book summary app
• getAbstract – best for personal development
• Sumizeit – best for micro-course learning
• Blinkist – best for nonfiction books
• Headway – best for book summary app
• Instaread – best for fiction books
• ShortyShots – best for reading summaries of novels and stories.