Everand: A Review

What is Everand?

Everand is a website and app (iOS, Android) with ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, magazines, and sheet music. It has a competent search engine allowing you to search across content categories or filter your search. You can download content for use offline. Everand includes support for lists so that you can categorize content for future reference.

What are the benefits of using Everand?

Everand is similar to Libby, an app for accessing local library titles. The advantage that Everand has over Libby: no holds! If they have the license for the content, it’s immediately available to you. The disadvantage is that Everand’s library may be more limited, especially in terms of newer or more popular titles.

Like your library, the knowledge stored on Everand can be of great value for your growth needs. I’ve been using Everand for years (previously as Scribd), and I’m often pleasantly surprised by the breadth of content available. It’s usually the first place I’ll look when I start researching a new topic, and unlike Libby, Everand will also return results for magazine articles and podcast episodes devoted to the topic. I’ve used Everand for research on my book, travel destinations, parenting ideas, recipes, workout inspiration, and more.

How does Everand work?

You can start searching and browsing even without an account, so if you have some ideas on what you’d like to read or research, you can start right away looking into whether their library includes the content you are hoping to consume. Once you start the free trial and create an account, you’ll find an intuitive interface for performing a range of actions.

What are the costs of using Everand?

Currently, Everand is an $11.99/month service. I was able to sign up for a bi-annual payment that brings the cost down, but I wasn’t able to confirm if they’re still offering annual or bi-annual plans at a discount. (Let me know if you have info on this.)

Overall, Everand can be a great resource for serving your growth needs.

Here are some of the things I love about Everand:

• For me, it’s a great value. I probably average about one audiobook per month and one ebook every other month. I’ve done the cost analysis, and I use it frequently enough that I save money.

• Having the ability to search across books, podcasts, and magazines makes it a handy research tool.

• The site saves your highlights and notes in books in your reading history even if you haven’t saved the book to one of your lists. I wouldn’t rely on this entirely as they are constantly adding/removing content from their library, and they may have limits on how long they’ll hold onto those highlights. However, for research purposes, this stored history has saved me on more than one occasion!

• The lists feature is a useful way of categorizing content for future reference.

Here are some of the things I would like to see improved:

• An ever larger library! I seem to have better luck finding audiobooks than ebooks, which is something to keep in mind in your cost/benefit calculations.

• The iOS app can be a little buggy at times, especially with first loading content in the built-in reader/player.

• I’d love to see the kids content expanded, especially for picture books/early readers. Everand does have a lot of kids content, but rarely the books I’ve searched for (e.g. Llama Llama, Dragons Love Tacos, The Day the Crayons Quit). However, there are other ebook services that specialize in children’s books, so I can understand Everand not going after that market.

Overall, I would recommend Everand to frequent readers and listeners who like to explore a variety of topics.