Shortform vs. Headway vs. Blinkist: Which is The Best in 2024?
This is the decision I faced back in 2022, when I wanted to start learning from the ideas of the best non-fiction books: “Should I go with Shortform, Headway or Blinkist?”
And, after days of research and testing, I ended up going with Shortform—which I’m still using to this date! The main reason I went with Shortform back in 2022, is that they offered more in-depth summaries.
Buuut. It’s been 2 years now since I made that choice. So, I think it is time for me to make a new research and find out which is the best book summary platform overall in 2024. And this time I’m gonna document all my research here! So if you are in a similar situation like me, I guarantee this will save you a ton of research time.
Before the Research…
In order to make an accurate and complete comparison, I’ve signed up to Headway and Blinkist (I’m already a subscriber of Shortform) to experience everything for myself, rather than just comparing their marketing brochures.
Luckily, Blinkist has a 7-day free trial for their annual subscription plan. But the Headway app doesn’t have any free trials, so I did have to pay for it right away.
Research Day #1: Book Summaries
After comparing a few summaries, it’s clear to me that the information in all these platforms is extremely high-quality, and they all have a significant breadth of content (with 1,000+ book summaries).
So, my research here won’t be on these aspects, but rather on the depth and structure of the summaries (which I found to be the key differentiation between these platforms).
To illustrate my research, I will take the bestseller book (and one of my all-time favorite books) Antifragile, written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. And I will compare the summaries of this book.
Shortform Summary
Shortform summaries have a one-page summary—which is sort of like a quick overview of the whole book. But it also has a full study-guide of the book, with chapter breakdowns where you can learn the key ideas of every single chapter of the book.
They also add clarifications and counterpoints to the summary…
They have exercises across the summary…
And you can also download any summary as a PDF (so you can read without internet).
Headway Summary
In the case of Headway, a summary is a list of “key points”, which are sort of the key ideas of the book.
And they also have a list of “insights”, which are basically one-liners that kind of summarizes the key points themselves (exactly… the summary of the summary!).
So, for the book Antifragile, they have a list of 7 key points and 8 insights.
Blinkist Summary
Blinkist summaries, which they call “blinks”, are structured very similarly to Headway. A summary is a list of “key ideas”, and they share a “final summary” at the end.
In the book Antifragile, they have 10 key ideas and the final summary at the end.
🥁 And the Winner for the “Book Summaries” Category is…
Shortform is the clear winner for book summaries, since they go way beyond just offering a list of overall ideas (as Headway and Blinkist do).
Shortform has (1) Summary per Chapters, (2) Clarifications and Counterpoints, and (3) Exercises.
(1) Their Summary per Chapter is great because it preserves the original structure of the book, which makes the summary closer to the actual book experience. And this also makes Shortform summaries much richer than the others — which means that it will give you a deeper understanding of the ideas of the book.
(2) Their Clarifications and Counterpoints are a useful addition because authors might be biased or ignore the nuances of a specific issue (or simply make mistakes). It fosters a scientific approach on the summaries (the Scientific Methodology is based on a culture of criticism and testability) and it follows perfectly on one of my all-time favorite quotes: “One should not read like a dog obeying its master, but like an eagle hunting its prey.” - Dee Hock (founder of Visa)
(3) Their Exercises across the summary are also a great way to reflect on these ideas and see how they can apply to your own life context.
Additionally, Shortform is the only platform that lets you download their summaries in PDF. Personally, this is very important to me because I frequently lose internet connection on my routinely commutes, and I can’t think of something worse than staring at the phone for minutes while the app is trying to load the content 😂.
I’ve actually talked to the team at Shortform and they agreed to give us a 20% discount on the Annual Subscription by signing up with this link!
Research Day #2: Beyond Book Summaries
Shortform, Headway and Blinkist all offer more than just book summaries.
Let’s explore the additional services they provide and see how they compare to each other.
Shortform (Beyond Book Summaries)
Collections → A Collection is a curated list of book summaries that help you improve at a particular skill, or make you more knowledgable on a topic.
Master Guides → These are compilations of ideas from several books to give a comprehensive guide (with differing viewpoints) on a single subject for a deeper understanding.
Articles → Articles on the latest trends and news, which you can also filter by topic.
Podcasts → Here you can find a list of Podcasts, and for each Podcast they have summaries of the episodes. I manually counted how many Podcasts they have included in the list, and I got to 263 Podcasts — which means they likely have 1,000+ summaries of episodes. This is a recent feature and it’s still under development.
Shortform AI → It’s a browser extension that summarizes everything on the internet, from articles and emails to YouTube videos, at a click of a button.
Headway (Beyond Book Summaries)
Collections and Challenges → Similar to Shortform, Headway also offers curated lists of book summaries, either to improve a specific skill or to get better at a particular area.
Blinkist (Beyond Book Summaries)
Guides → These are like mini-courses to help you improve at a particular skill. It’s all audio-based and honestly… it’s really cool!
Collections → Similar to Shortform and Headway, Blinkist also offers curated lists of book summaries.
🥁 And the Winner for the Category “Beyond Book Summaries” is…
We have seen that all these three platforms offer curated lists of book summaries to help us improve at a specific skill or just become more knowledgeable at a topic. And they all do a pretty good job at this.
But only Shortform and Blinkist offer more than just curated lists, so we can already take Headway out of the race here.
Besides the curated lists, Shortform offers Master Guides, Articles, Podcast summaries, and a tool to summarize anything on the internet. While Blinkist offers audio-based mini-courses. So, unless you absolutely love this feature from Blinkist, Shortform has much more to offer.
Personally, I enjoy the Master Guides because it offers a practical guide (based on many books) to implement the knowledge on a particular area. And I also like to read Shortform’s news Articles because each article is based on a variety of sources (just like a research paper), thus it’s significantly less biased than an article from any news outlet.
In contrast, I prefer to listen audio from podcasts and videos. Thus, I personally wouldn’t use Blinkist’s audio-based mini-courses.
So, at least for me, Shortform’s value proposition here is much better than Blinkist’s value proposition.
Research Day #3: User Interface
Desktop Interface
Shortform and Blinkist have a great desktop interface. They are very intuitive and easy to navigate.
On the other hand, Headway does not support desktop interface — you can only use it on the mobile app.
Mobile Interface
Shortform, Headway and Blinkist have beautiful and intuitive mobile apps.
🥁 And the Winner for the Best User Interface is…
I will give the same winner spot to both Shortform and Blinkist, since they both have a flawless User Interface for both desktop (with their website) and mobile (with their phone app).
But of course, if you are only gonna read summaries on the mobile app, then Headway is also right up there!
Research Day #4: Audio Version
Shortform, Headway and Blinkist all offer an audio version with their book summaries.
But… Which sounds the best?
In this area of research, you will also be the judge! Because I’ve recorded an audio sample of the summary of Antifragile (all samples were recorded at 1x speed).
Shortform Audio
Headway Audio
Blinkist Audio
🥁 And the Winner for the best Audio Version is…
I don’t know about you, but my favorite audio was from Blinkist. It just sounds the most natural and I liked the narrator style. Shortform’s audio was also pretty good. But in the case of Headway, I didn’t like the audio.
Personally, I don’t really care about this feature because when I want to listen to something I typically listen to podcasts — and nowadays there are so many good ones! My two favorite ones: The Diary Of A CEO, and Founders.
Research Day #5: Price
Shortform Pricing
It was very straightforward to find the pricing. They have a direct section on their website.
How much does Shortform cost?
Monthly Subscription for $24 per month.
Yearly Subscription for $197 per year (equivalent to $16.42 per month).
For both of these plans, you can use a 5-day free trial.
Headway Pricing
They don’t tell you the pricing right away. They first make you fill out a 5 - 10 min questionnaire, then they ask for your email, and only then they show you the prices.
I really didn’t like that I had to first invest so much time to find out the prices! But I went through the process and bought the monthly plan.
How much does Headway cost?
Monthly Subscription for $29.34 (or €26.92) per month.
Quarterly Subscription for $53.36 (or €48.96) per quarter — equivalent to $17.78 per month.
Yearly Subscription for $141.44 (or €129.78) per year — equivalent to $11.78 per month.
There is no free-trial for any of the subscription plans, but they give you a 51% discount on your first subscription payment (if you pay it in less than 10 mins).
Blinkist Pricing
The experience here was the same as with Headway. If you want to know the cost, you first have to fill out a 5 - 10 min questionnaire and enter your personal data. So, I did just that and finally got to the meat.
How much does Blinkist cost?
Monthly Subscription goes for $14.20 (or €12.99) per month.
Yearly Subscription goes for $87.50 (or €79.99) per year — equivalent to $7.29 per month.
They offer a 7 day free trial for the yearly subscription, but not for the monthly subscription. And they give you a 51% discount on your first subscription payment (if you pay it in less than 20 mins).
🥁 And the Winner for the Price Category is…
In this comparison, Blinkist is the cheapest service.
But if we adjust the price to the value proposition of each service — which I think is the correct way to compare it — then the results are different. Below I share with you my conclusion on which is the best book-summary app in 2024 (the app with the highest Value Proposition / Cost Ratio).
Conclusion: Who is The Best in 2024?
It seems to me that Shortform and Blinkist are significantly better than Headway — for the simple reason that Headway offers less than the others, for a similar or even more expensive price. Headway is only available as a mobile app, their summaries are quite basic, and they don’t offer anything that Shortform or Blinkist aren’t already offering.
So, is Headway worth it? Based on my 5-day research, it is not. At least not when we have better options such as Shortform or Blinkist.
Therefore, the real contest is: Shortform vs. Blinkist.
But… Which is better?
Well, if we focus on the core offering of these platforms — which are the book summaries — Shortform is definitely the winner. Because Blinkist only offers an overall summary of the book (displayed as a list of “key ideas”), but Shortform goes way beyond that… It not only offers an overall summary, but also makes a summary for each chapter of the book, adds clarifications and counterpoints, contains exercises across the summary, and even lets you download the summary as a PDF.
Regarding the extra features, we have seen that Shortform offers Collections, Master Guides, Articles, Podcast summaries, and a tool to summarize anything on the internet. While Blinkist offers Collections and audio-based mini-courses. So, unless you absolutely love this audio-based mini-courses feature from Blinkist, Shortform has much more to offer here too!
Here’s a final list of all features:
In conclusion, Shortform is the Premium book-summary app in the market. It offers much more in-depth summaries, and many extra valuable services. For that reason, I think Shortform’s higher prices are fully justified. So, if you are serious about learning from the best non-fiction books, I would go with Shortform!
I talked to the team at Shortform and they agreed to give us a 20% discount on the Annual Subscription by signing up with this link!
Key Takeaways - Shortform vs. Headway vs. Blinkist
Since I’m making a comparison of book summary apps, I thought it would be appropriate that I also add a summary of this article 😂.
So, here’s a condensed review for each platform:
Shortform Review (Key Takeaways)
Shortform has a Monthly Subscription that goes for $24 per month, and a Yearly Subscription for $197 per year (equivalent to $16.42 per month). For both of these plans, you can use a 5-day free trial.
It’s available on desktop (as a web) and also on the phone (as a mobile app). Both interfaces are exceptional and intuitive to use.
It’s the only platform that…
Makes a Chapter Breakdown of the book, and gives you a summary of each chapter of the book (although they also have a one-page summary of the entire book). This is great because it gives you a more in-depth summary, which gives you a better understanding of the ideas in the book.
Adds Clarifications and Counterpoints across the summary. The benefit here is that it gives you a wider perspective on the ideas of the book, and it mitigates potential errors or biases from the book author.
Contains Exercises across the summary. Which is very helpful because it makes you reflect on how you can apply the ideas of the book to your own life.
Lets you download the summary as a PDF. This is great to read in places with poor internet connection.
Creates Articles on the latest news and trends. I really like these because each article is based off many sources (like a research paper), which makes it way less biased than an article from any news outlet.
Creates Master Guides, which are compilations of ideas from several books to give a comprehensive guide (with differing viewpoints) on a single subject for a deeper understanding.
Offers summaries on Podcast Episodes.
Offers an AI browser extension that summarizes everything on the internet, from articles and emails to YouTube videos, at a click of a button.
There is an audio version for all the book summaries. The audio sounds pretty good.
They have curated lists of book summaries to help you improve at a specific skill or learn about a topic.
Based on my 5-day research, this is the best book summary app in 2024!
I talked to the team at Shortform and they agreed to give us a 20% discount on the Annual Subscription by signing up with this link!
Headway App Review (Key Takeaways)
Headway has a Monthly Subscription that goes for $29.34 per month, a Quarterly Subscription for $53.36 per quarter (equivalent to $17.78 per month), and a Yearly Subscription that goes for $141.44 per year (equivalent to $11.78 per month). They don’t offer any free trials.
It’s available exclusively as a mobile app phone. The app is extremely intuitive and easy to use.
A book summary consists of a list of “key points”— which gives you the key ideas of the book. The information is high-quality.
There is an audio version for all the book summaries. But when I tested this feature, it didn’t sound good.
They have curated lists of book summaries to help you improve at a specific skill or learn about a topic.
Blinkist Review (Key Takeaways)
Blinkist has a Monthly Subscription that goes for $14.20 (or €12.99) per month, and a Yearly Subscription for $87.50 (or €79.99) per year — equivalent to $7.29 per month. They offer a 7 day free trial for the yearly subscription, but not for the monthly subscription.
It’s available on desktop (as a web) and also on the phone (as a mobile app). Both interfaces are outstanding and intuitive to use.
A book summary consists of a list of “key ideas”— which gives you the key ideas of the book. The information is high-quality.
It’s the only platform that offers audio-based mini-courses (called “Guides”) to help you improve at a specific skill. The audio sounds really good and they have a big library of these mini-courses.
There is an audio version for all the book summaries. The audio sounded incredibly!
They have curated lists of book summaries to help you improve at a specific skill or learn about a topic.