Reviews of Booksonic - Audiobook Streamer

By: Popeen

List of user reviews and ratings for Booksonic - Audiobook Streamer

Total ratings

4.41 (Rating count: 325)

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Review summary

Booksonic is appreciated for enabling personal audiobook streaming with simple server setup, automatic bookmarks, and integration with third-party players. However, multiple users face reliability issues especially with large or single-file audiobooks, frequent loss of playback position, and occasional login or network problems. The app struggles with M4B file support and can be crashy or tricky to configure. Despite these issues, users praise the app's concept, developer responsiveness, and active updates.

Pros

Supports managing and streaming personal audiobook libraries via own server.
Simple design and automatic bookmarking features.
Works well with small or chapter-split audiobook files.
Good integration with third-party audiobook players such as Smart Audiobook Player or Listen.
Active development and responsive developer with helpful documentation and community support.

Cons

Unreliable playback with large single-file audiobooks causing freezes, hangs, or stopping prematurely.
Does not correctly remember or sync playback position and progress across devices or server.
Issues with login errors related to network configuration, especially loopback connections on Wi-Fi.
Lacks proper handling and playback support for M4B files and large MP3 files without manual conversion or splitting.
App can be crashy, buggy, or difficult to configure initially, especially server setup and network ports.

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User Reviews

Recent rating average: 2.90

All time rating average: 4.41

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3% (2)

Date	Author	Comment
2024-10-19	Br*****	Was working great and then just stopped and says my user name and password is incorrect. I'm moving to Audiobookshelf anyways but this speeds my migration up.
Was working great and then just stopped and says my user name and password is incorrect. I'm moving to Audiobookshelf anyways but this speeds my migration up.
2024-03-04	Da*****	It's just an objectively worse version of audiobookshelf (which is free) both in terms of the app and the backend. Edit: Since the dev actually reads it and responds, I think it's only fair to elaborate to make the feedback more constructive. The two main issues I've encountered were a) reliability (playback just stopping and not working anymore, sometimes the app losing where I was in the book and starting over from the beginning) and b) the fact that it did not sync the playback web and phone.
It's just an objectively worse version of audiobookshelf (which is free) both in terms of the app and the backend. Edit: Since the dev actually reads it and responds, I think it's only fair to elaborate to make the feedback more constructive. The two main issues I've encountered were a) reliability (playback just stopping and not working anymore, sometimes the app losing where I was in the book and starting over from the beginning) and b) the fact that it did not sync the playback web and phone.