Wishing for a thoughtful gift that travels and is actually useful? Headway Premium, the bite-sized learning app that condenses best-selling nonfiction into 15-minute reads and listens, is marked down to $39.99 from a list price of $299.95 with the code SUMMARY20—a discount, by my calculations, of about 87 percent.
The offering strikes a sweet spot for friends who are interested in learning more and busy professionals: it’s digital, practical, and designed to help people create a habit of daily learning without requiring hours of free time.
Why This Headway Premium Deal Is a Standout Value
On real value alone, that’s a significant markdown. Premium libraries for content platforms are not knocked down this many pegs too often, especially with the holidays here and now. The instant-delivery angle also matters. Gift cards and inflexible subscriptions can feel impersonal; a single-purpose learning app signals more thought and fits beautifully into the “new year, new habits” mindset.
And it is also reminiscent of how people cram learning now. We know most research indicates that people have little time for formal upskilling during their workweek, and so microlearning has boomed. The short formats minimize friction—people can complete a quick summary in between meetings or during the commute—and encourage streaks: users don’t need to reshuffle entire days around to keep a streak going.
What Headway Premium Includes in Your Subscription
Our catalog of 1,500+ high-quality titles covers psychology, business, science, self-development, and productivity. Each book is condensed into a bite-size summary (about 15 minutes to read or listen to) with clean visuals and takeaways you can skim in just a few seconds.
That includes the ability to access a personalized recommendation feed, keep track of your streaks, and use options for offline viewing on planes or on subways. It’s a bite-size model of storytelling that fits snugly around the U.S. average one-way commute time of just under 28 minutes, according to the Census Bureau, neatly rendering an otherwise humdrum drive or train ride into two sumptuously finished summaries.
Some popular books that are often covered on services like this tend to be highly publicized bestsellers like Atomic Habits, Deep Work, and The Power of Habit—things where there’s a framework and you can pull the advice out and then, invariably, when you apply it, “You’re twenty-five percent more productive!” or whatever.
Who Will Get the Most Out of Headway Premium
Headway is appropriate for learners who seek idea density minus the time and effort required to read an entire book. That includes managers getting a refresher on leadership models, founders trying to figure out go-to-market strategy, students skimming concepts before class, and job seekers making the most of those “one to five years of experience,” updating their skill sets to fill downtime.
If the target is inciting a reading habit, the streak mechanics assist. Behavioral scientists have long chronicled the power of small, consistent victories to help a new habit take hold; what’s 30 minutes if it’s a daily session that takes you only three-quarters as far, or for just twice as long?
How It Compares to the Competition and Alternatives
Headway’s closest rival is likely Blinkist, which has a much larger library and shortcasts; Shortform is known for in-depth guides that can run far longer than 15 minutes. Headway plays up gamified streaks, visual summaries, and a slick, mobile-first interface that’s welcoming to new users.
On app stores, Headway has an average score of 4 stars or more in both the Apple App Store and Google Play, reflecting high user satisfaction with format and interface. For others, it will depend on how much they are seeking brevity and momentum (Headway) versus catalog breadth (Blinkist) or depth (Shortform).
What to Keep in Mind Before Gifting Headway Premium
Summaries are fine for discovery and retention, but they are not substitutes for the full nuance of complex works. A volume like Thinking, Fast and Slow—the exhilarating novel of ideas that prods an uninspired reviewer to attempt such varying registers and access moods as these above, yes—benefits from slow reading over time, which a summary can’t let you in on. Best case: use summaries as an on-ramp, sampling widely before purchasing full texts for the titles that resonate.
It’s also a good idea to review redemption procedures for the recipient’s platform and confirm whether the plan auto-renews at full price. For the audio-favoring learner, type “Does your giftee listen to podcasts or audiobooks?” into Google and double-check that most super–AirPod-carrying listeners won’t ever leave home without earbuds; Edison Research’s recent audio habit studies show nearly everyone is listening on smartphones, and many of us have added podcasts to our routines.
Bottom Line: Is This Headway Premium Deal Worth It?
Priced today with code SUMMARY20 at $39.99, Headway Premium offers a strong value-to-price ratio for anyone looking to know more in less time, a rarity on the market. It arrives in the inbox immediately, prompts return use through streaks and recommendations, and turns a few spare minutes into meaningful progress. As last-minute gifts go, this is as timely (and actually useful) a gift as there could be.