Downpour.com

I can download (most) as mp3's for my old school player. Or listen using this app and it keeps track of where I am with no glitches. (5 stars given in 2023.) Now it's 2025, and I've entered the world of Bluetooth. Of 5 different kinds of audio apps on my phone, it's the only one that consistently locks up, restarted, & loses its place, especially if connected to a car. I have reloaded it 3 times. Maybe they can fix the gliches and go back to 5 stars. I still like Downpour's selection & prices.

It reminds me of how apps and websites used to be, simple and to the point. It does what I want, without the obsessive need for permissions, tracking, and ad injection some apps demand. It's not perfect, but I'm rounding up gladly. And every time I've had either issue, or casual inquiry, I've been given an informed answer kindly and quickly. And I'm a big fan of the DRM-free downloads as well, for commonplace hardware situations that otherwise don't support apps it's helpful.

I need to preface this by saying the service itself is fantastic, and it's the only place I'll likely buy audiobooks from moving forward. Their support has also been quite helpful. The service is 5/5 stars. Unfortunately, the listening experience has not been great. The Android app is buggy and routinely has issues (when I'm going 75mph on a Texas highway...). The online reader isn't much better. They also don't have chapter names or a way to override them with their own. 2/5 stars for that.

Have liked the app. There seems to be a rewrite that doesn't work and just installed. All my 30 plus books need to be reloaded. The timer doesn't work. The speed of reading doesn't stay at the setting. Of course no way of contacting company. Downpour got back to me but problem still persist. They tell me to reach out to customer care. Which I have. But they cannot seem to fix the issue. I would love to buy more books but as long as the reader is not working correctly it is not worth it

I was a big customer years back but stopped as prices rose and selection declined, but I'm back! Selection is now great and prices are good. Prices are a tad more than the major competitor, but that is more than made up by being DRM free! You can use this app to listen, or you can use any app you want! I buy my books from downpour and consume them in Audiobookshelf. If you aren't comfortable seeing that up, I highly recommend Listen Audiobook. Big thanks to downpour for being DRM free!

I've been a happy Downpour customer for years now. The app works well, but I wish there was a way to tweak the controls. If I am hands free, the back button goes back to the start of the track, which hurts when you want to replay the last minute but instead takes you back to the start of an hour long track. Would be nice to be able to specify its the 30 second backup instead.

This is a poorly designed app. I it doesn't show how much total time elapsed for an audiobook. Therefore, no way of knowing how much is left. The book I listed to was not chapterized (Blood and Iron) so I couldn't easily find my place in the actual book to continue reading along. You cannot slightly increase or decrease the speed of the narration. Only huge amounts of 25% at a time. Needs to be redesigned completely. Not good!

The forward and back track buttons are too big. They should rarely be used compared with the skip forward/back buttons, which should be bigger. This is poor ui design. A notification bar would be nice for skipping and pausing control. Finally, when forward and back are pressed via an external remote (Bluetooth), it should skip, not go to to the next track/chapter. Improve these things and it's 5 stars. I'd use the Smart Audiobook app, but the title I'm listening to has DRM.

This is a very straightforward app. Buy an audiobook and listen to it. It does what it's supposed to do well and consistently. The standout feature is not in the app, though - the ability to download DRM-free MP3s of your purchased audiobooks. This clearly sets Downpour apart from other audiobook services.

Great service and worthy of your support. Most purchases are DRM free, so you can listen in, for example, Smart Audiobook Player (IMHO, the best audiobook reading experience). Or you can stream from their app - which you'll have to do if there's DRM (which they'll clearly warn you about). No Audible Originals, and they don't have the depth of Audible, but excellent. And someone has to chip away at that monopoly by offering something extra, which they do. They also offer a credits subscription.

Update! Great service for purchasing audiobooks. Their selection is very similar to Audible, but is DRM free. This app is a great way to listen to audiobooks purchased through their service and syncs where you left is with the website player so you can move between devices easily. Previously the app had a weird issue that appears to be related to corrupt user data. Once I cleared the data (uninstalling doesn't do this) it worked perfectly.

Downpour app does have the ability to adjust playback speed but only at specific speeds. This should be changed to allow the playback speed to be adjusted to any point in the range, as all other such apps do. If this is too difficult, at least the app should add points between .75 and 1, such as .8 and .9. Currently there is only one speed below 100%. A bug in how the playback speed setting works is that if play is paused or stopped, playback speed reverts to 100% and user must reset.

Solid alternative to audible, doesn't seem as greedy and allows you to have your account on multiple devices. Downsides are is the library is slightly more limited (still a huge selection) and it's buggier. Most recent update is causing me to periods reset my progress to 0 on the book. I'm listening to, and needing to often refind my place gets tiresome

The app is simple to navigate and use. I easily purchase, download and listen to my books. I love that they are open with no DRM allowing me to play them on my audio players as well, not just what supports their app like with competing platforms. My only wish is for Android Auto and Chromecast support for easier listening in the car and house.

App works well and the service is good. You can see % completed from the book info page (click the three dots andnselect book info). The speeds are in .25 increments, which is fairly standard. You can download the audio files and play with other applications if you want, mp3 download is from the website.

The thing I appreciate most about Downpour is their policy of "You bought it, you can download it and listen to it on whatever device you like." Yes, this app is great, but Downpour is the only audiobook company I've found that doesn't leash their customers to an app to listen to their books. Highly approve and recommend.

I like the Downpour store because it lets me download books DRM-free. I don't enjoy this app much: it seems geared towards managing my library of books rather than playing them. So when I open the app it warns me if I'm offline: why?! I don't need to be online to listen to downloaded books. It also defaults to showing my library rather than my currently playing book. Also, there's no 'shake to reset sleep timer' feature. So as an audiobook player it does the job, but isn't a joy to use at all.

DRM free audio books. Can stream or (pre) download via the app. Which means you can listen while offline. Or you could use another player to listen to your audio books. That alone is worth 5 stars. It also does background audio, meaning you can listen while the app is minimized or the phone is locked. Those are all the things I care about and the app does them all, so I'm happy!

Really easy to use app, that has a great selection of books. I love the app but wish the tokens were a little cheaper to buy as I'm spending a fortune on books haha. Saving my life at the moment because i am not sleeping. I can just listen, relax and enjoy a good book, while closing my eyes. I would totally recommend this app as its cheaper than Audible, as you can buy tokens.

My main issue, even when you are logged in, is it doesn't tell you which books aren't available in your region (the website does). It would be handy to have a download status bar show up under the thumbnail of the book cover image instead of having to go into the chapters list to see the status of the book download. I wish the sleep timer had a 10 minute or custom option. I do like the quality of the audio, the ability to skip forward and back, & the ability to download to external storage.