“You canceled Netflix?” My wife looked at me like I had suggested we start bathing in the river. “And Hulu. And Audible.” She was not thrilled. But we were spending nearly $45 a month on streaming services we barely used, and I was tired of opening my credit card statement and feeling resentful.

The replacement was something already in my wallet: a library card. Specifically, the apps that come with it.

Libby: Free Audiobooks and E-Books

Libby connects to your library system and lets you borrow audiobooks and e-books directly to your phone. The selection is surprisingly good — I found recent bestsellers, the same titles I was paying Audible $15 a month to access one credit at a time. You can place holds on popular books (there is usually a wait), but for backlist titles and older releases, they are available immediately.

The audiobook player is solid — variable speed, sleep timer, bookmarks. I have listened to twelve audiobooks this year through Libby and spent exactly zero dollars.

Kanopy: Free Movies and Documentaries

Kanopy is like Netflix for libraries. It has a rotating catalog of independent films, documentaries, classic cinema, and educational content — not the latest Marvel movie, but genuinely good stuff you would not find on Netflix anyway. Most libraries give you 10-15 free plays per month. That is roughly one movie every other day. More than we were actually watching on Netflix.

Kanopy also has Great Courses — the full lecture series from The Teaching Company that normally sell for $30-80 each. Cooking, photography, history, science. All free with a library card.

Hoopla: Movies, Music, and Comics

Hoopla is the third pillar. It covers movies, TV shows, music albums, and graphic novels. Unlike Libby, Hoopla has no wait times — everything in its catalog is always available. The trade-off is a monthly borrow limit (usually 5-10 items). Between Kanopy and Hoopla, we had more to watch than Netflix and Hulu combined.

The One Downside Nobody Admits

The wait times on Libby for popular new releases can be weeks or months. If you want to read the book everyone is talking about right now, you will wait. But if you are like me and your “to-read” list is already thirty books deep, there is always something available immediately. I just read whatever is ready and keep my holds list full in the background.