---
source_url: "https://ananight.com/kobo-plus-vs-kindle-unlimited/"
title: "Kobo Plus VS Kindle Unlimited | Blog Post"
mirrored_at: 2026-08-22T01:09:29.462Z
host: ananight.com
cited_in_42a: true
mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/ananight.com/kobo-plus-vs-kindle-unlimited/index"
---

> **Original source:** https://ananight.com/kobo-plus-vs-kindle-unlimited/

### First, let’s start with the free trial

As many other subscription services, both Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus have a free trial period where you can check out the subscription and figure out if it’s something for you. They do it in very different ways. No, not for the readers. For the authors.

Authors in Kindle Unlimited get paid for the pages read by anyone using the free trial because Kindle Unlimited roualties are paid from the total pool of money made on the subscriptions per month. KU takes this pool of money (the Global Fund) and then they divide the money between the authors corresponding to how many pages in their books have been read.

Kobo Plus on the other hand? They don’t pay the authors whose books have been read during someone’s free trial. Now, you might think that’s completely bonkers (maybe a little?), but Kobo has a very valid point in doing it this way. You see, there’s a bunch of scammers that use the free KU trial to ‘read’ books, either their own, or those of whoever hired them, or maybe even the person they want to get banned from publishing with Amazon. What does this do exactly? It makes the person whose book they’re ‘reading’ earn more money without anyone having to pay for the KU subscription.

Kobo has decided to combat this scam by just not paying the authors for the free trials. Is this good or bad? That’s debatable, really. Is it good to stop scammers? Yes. Is it great for authors? No, probably not. One thing, though, if you’re a smaller/newer author in Kobo Plus, you’re not likely to be the reason someone tries out the free trial. That will most likely be a bigger author whose bottom line won’t be as affected by it.