Hooplavs
Libby
Libby: If you want unlimited borrowing with holds queues instead of a hard monthly cap
Hoopla
Free library streaming app with instant borrowing, capped by a monthly checkout limit set by your library
As of 1 September 2026, Hoopla is free to use. A library-card-gated app for ebooks, audiobooks, movies, music and comics that borrows differently to Libby: there are no holds queues because titles are always available, but your library sets a hard limit on how many items you can borrow per month, and every borrow costs the library money. Softwr lists it under Libraries. Hoopla is made by Midwest Tape, LLC, available on iOS, Android, Web, Roku.
Overview
What Hoopla does
Hoopla, from Midwest Tape, lets cardholders of participating libraries borrow ebooks, audiobooks, movies, TV, music albums and comics instantly, with no waiting. It also covers more media types than Libby, most notably streaming video and music, which Libby does not offer at all. The mechanic that defines it is pay-per-use licensing on the library side. Every time a patron borrows something on Hoopla, the library pays a licensing fee to Hoopla for that specific checkout, unlike the fixed-copy model Libby and most ebook platforms use. To control cost, participating libraries set a monthly borrow limit per patron, commonly somewhere between five and fifteen items a month, and that limit resets on a fixed date rather than by title availability. So the trade-off with Libby is inverted: Hoopla gives instant access but a hard monthly ceiling, Libby gives no ceiling on borrowing but unpredictable queues. Buyers are, again, anyone with a card at a Hoopla-participating library, and the practical decision is which app fits your reading habits: heavy readers who blow through a monthly cap quickly may prefer the unlimited-but-queued model of Libby, while someone wanting guaranteed same-day access to a specific title, especially video or music, will prefer Hoopla within their monthly limit.
What people use it for
- A patron who wants to watch a specific movie or listen to an album tonight without waiting in a queue
- A family wanting streaming video and music alongside books in one library-card app
- A light-to-moderate reader whose habits fit comfortably inside a monthly borrow cap
- Someone using a Roku or Fire TV who wants library video content on the living room screen
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Hoopla.
- The monthly borrow limit is a hard cap, so a heavy user runs out of checkouts partway through the month and simply cannot borrow more, unlike a queue they can wait out.
- Borrow limits and even Hoopla availability itself vary by library and can be reduced if a library needs to control its licensing costs, sometimes with little notice to patrons.
- Because libraries pay per checkout, a library under budget pressure may cut its Hoopla limit or drop the service entirely, which is a risk outside the app.
- The video and music catalogue is decent but noticeably smaller than Netflix or Spotify, so it is a supplement, not a replacement, for those services.
- Audio and video quality and metadata are sometimes inconsistent, particularly for older or niche titles licensed from smaller distributors.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Hoopla
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- HooplavsStorytel
Storytel: If you want unlimited audiobook and ebook access for a flat subscription with no library or monthly cap
- HooplavsEverand
Everand: If you want unlimited reading and listening without needing a library card at all
Pricing
What Hoopla costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Hoopla
Free
- Free with an eligible library card
- Monthly borrow limit set by your library, commonly 5 to 15 items
- No holds queues, instant availability
Capabilities
Features
Instant borrowing
No holds queues; titles are available the moment you request them
Video and music
Movies, TV episodes and full music albums, not just ebooks and audiobooks
Monthly borrow cap
A fixed number of checkouts per calendar month set by your library
Comics and graphic novels
A comics catalogue alongside standard reading formats
Kids mode
A restricted, ad-simplified interface for younger users
Offline downloads
Borrowed titles can be downloaded for offline access during the loan period
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Hoopla have holds queues like Libby?
No, everything is available instantly, but your library sets a monthly limit on how many items you can borrow.
What happens when I hit my monthly limit?
You cannot borrow anything further until the limit resets, usually on the first of the next month.
Does Hoopla include movies and music, not just books?
Yes, that is one of its main differences from Libby, which only offers ebooks, audiobooks and magazines.
Keep looking
Where to go from Hoopla
- Hoopla alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Hoopla pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Hoopla badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Libraries softwareThe full category
- Best Libraries softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Libraries software for
Compare Hoopla with
- Libby
- PDAL
- Leafmap
- daisyUI
- Vuetify
- ArchivesSpace
- CONTENTdm
- Omeka
- DSpace
- VuFind
- CollectiveAccess
- Evergreen ILS
- FOLIO
- LibraryThing for Libraries
- Mantine
- SirsiDynix Symphony
- Leafmap
- OCLC WorldShare Management Services
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Hoopla, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Hoopla
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Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Hoopla
Put it head to head with anything we hold
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