Great Courses Plus vs Audible

If you love reading books and listening to audiobooks, then you must have already heard about Audible.

It’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest providers of audiobooks. It’s a big part of the Amazon corporation where you can buy audiobooks or get them as part of your Audible subscription.

There was a lot of hype about this platform, and after trying it out, we can say we truly loved it. Did you know you can access some Great Courses Plus courses on Audible, too?

So what are the differences between Great Courses Plus vs Audible? We’ll talk about the synergy of these two platforms here, and how they stack up against each other.

Great Courses Plus vs Audible: Summary

What is Audible?

Audible is Amazon’s audiobook service with a monthly subscription system that gives you access to more than 200.000 different audiobooks on the platform.

For the monthly subscription, you’ll be able to access all of the Audible Originals for free! That’s neat and all, but do keep in mind that you’ll still have to pay for most audiobooks that are not a part of the Audible Originals system.

However, the subscription will give you a nice little discount when you try to purchase an audiobook. In addition, you also get one or more monthly credits. And one credit allows you to purchase an entire audiobook, regardless of how expensive it is.

Among the audiobooks on Audible, you’ll find a wide array of courses from The Great Courses in their audio version only, to be exact. If you have the subscription to Audible, some of these courses can be really affordable and worth it.

Alternatively, you can purchase a course with credits. I recommend that you spend your credit very carefully, as you only get one (or two for the Platinum plan), and it will buy you even more expensive Audiobooks or courses for free.

Audible’s Pricing Explained

Subscription plan

• Audible Gold – Monthly
  • $14.95 – note: price may vary
  •  1 Credit every month
• Audible Gold – Yearly
  • $149.50
  • 12 per year
• Audible Platinum – Monthly
  • $22.95 per month
  • 2 per month
• Audible Platinum – Yearly
  • $229.50
  • 24 per year

Try Audible and Get Two Books Free

So what do you get for the money?

With the Gold plan, you’ll get 1 credit each month, or 12 credits per year. This means one free audiobook of your choice completely free every month!

That way, you can get one course from The Great Courses platform completely for free – every month! Yes, it’s only the audio version of it, but considering the full price of some courses, it’s completely worth it.

At the same time, members will get nice discounts on all purchases. So if you love audiobooks and are an avid listener of your favourite audiobooks, then getting a subscription with Audible is a fantastic idea.

Pros of Audible

So why should you choose Audible and buy courses from The Great Courses platform there?

• You get one audiobook or course every month for free with credits. This is a huge offering Audible is offering compared to The Great Courses Plus. While you will get all the courses for the subscription fee on The Great Courses Plus, you can watch all courses. But, the Audible subscription is cheaper, and there’s often a 2-for-1 offering here, so you can get two courses for the price of one credit often. It can save you muchos dineros in the long run.
• It’s cheaper than Great Courses Plus. You get a 30-day free trial on top of the already lower price, which makes the subscription worth it. Audible costs $14.95 per month, while Great Courses Plus costs $20.
• Your audiobooks and courses will stay with you even if you cancel the subscription. Compared to Great Courses Plus, where you instantly lose access to courses when you unsubscribe, this is a great offering.
• They are great if you prefer the audio format. Not everyone watches courses, and these courses by Great Courses Plus are very appropriate for listening, too.
• You get access to numerous other audiobooks for the price of the subscription.

Try Audible and Get Two Books Free

Cons of Audible

We’ve talked about the good things, but what are the bad things compared to The Great Courses Plus?

• The courses you access here are in the audio version only. Keep that in mind here: when you buy a course through Audible from The Great Courses platform, you will only get the audio version of it. And that sucks if you’re someone who likes to watch videos while listening to the narrator.
• You have to pay to access some courses. After you’ve used your credits, you’ll have to pay for some additional courses. It will be a much-discounted fee, though. Also, not all courses from The Great Courses Plus platform are on Audible.
• If you don’t intend to listen to at least one audiobook per month, then it’s not worth it. Save your money in that case, although do use the 30-day free trial fully to see if you’re into audiobooks and audio courses.

Try Audible and Get Two Books Free

About Great Courses Plus

The Great Courses Plus is a part of the Teaching Company’s portfolio of learning platforms. The other platform, in this case, is The Great Courses. The company was established in 1990 when it first began selling courses on tapes.

Much has changed since then. They’ve moved to CD and DVD courses and in the last decade, to online courses.

The Great Courses Plus is a subscription-based platform where you can watch all the courses on the platform for the price of a monthly subscription. The Great Courses is different in this regard – you have to buy courses individually in order to benefit from them and watch them.

Try Great Courses Plus Free for 30 Days

Pros of Great Courses Plus

What are the pros of Great Courses Plus compared to Audible?

• You will have access to video content, too. One of the biggest differences between Great Courses Plus and Audible is that you can watch the videos compared to Audible where you can only listen to the audio.
• You can access all the courses for a monthly fee. All of the courses on the platform are accessible if you subscribe to the plan ($20 per month). However, they don’t stay in your library once you opt out – this makes it the Netflix of learning.
• It’s better if you’re a visual type of person. Some people just can’t imagine themselves listening to an entire course.

Try Great Courses Plus Free for 30 Days

Cons of Great Courses Plus

The subscription costs more. Yes, it’s only a few bucks ($5 more actually), but on the long-term, that can actually amount to quite a lot.

• There are some older courses from Great Courses on Audible that are not on Great Courses Plus. After scrolling through a long list of courses on Audible, I actually found out that not all courses that are there are also on Great Courses Plus – something to keep in mind.
• You lose access to courses once you opt out. There’s no going back here – as soon as you cancel the subscription, you’ll lose access to all of the courses on the platform. Kinda like Netflix.

How to Access The Great Courses on Audible?

Accessing courses from Great Courses Plus on Audible is easy. Here are the steps you need to take.

1. Type “The great courses” in the search bar of Audible. Or go to “Browse” in the top navigation bar, and find “The Great Courses” under the “Lists&Collections” section.
   
2. A list of courses from The Great Courses will appear. To really make sure it’s from the Great Courses, you can click on a course and click on The Great Courses name, which should be under the “author” section.
   
3. Once you click on the author, you’ll be able to see all the courses on Audible by the Great Courses. From there, you can sort the courses in any way you want. Some courses also come with an Audible subscription.

And that’s how you see all the courses from The Great Courses on Audible.

Which is Best For You?

The be-all-end-all, definite answer here is:

It depends.

I know, I know. But it really DOES depend on what sort of content you like. If you prefer to watch videos when you go through courses, then I recommend going with Great Courses Plus. You’ll have access to the whole library of courses for the money.

However, if you are more of an “audible” person and you prefer to listen, then Audible is perfect for this. You can access some great courses from the Great Courses platform for credits, and some are even free. And you can stack up courses for long after you’ve unsubscribed from the Audible plan, too.

I recommend that you try out the Audible platform and The Great Courses Plus platform first and find a course there to see which type of format suits you best.

Extra Resources

If you want to know more, check out these articles:

• MasterClass vs Great Courses Plus
• Great Courses Plus vs Coursera
• Great Courses Plus Review