Comparison

Voice Aloud Reader vs Proximum

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Voice Aloud Reader

This application transforms written text into spoken words, making it ideal for those who are busy or have difficulty reading. It supports a wide range of document types and languages, offering a customizable listening experience.

Highlights
  • Reads text aloud
  • Supports various document formats
  • Over 40 languages supported
  • Customizable reading speed, pitch, and volume
  • Customizable interface and read modes
  • File sharing via iCloud/iTunes
Features
Read full description

Listen to anything, anywhere. The app reads aloud text documents, e-books, websites, and printed books—perfect for commuting, multitasking, relaxing, or making written content easier to access. Designed for all users, including blind and low-vision users, with support for VoiceOver, Larger Text, sufficient contrast, and Reduced Motion. Use iCloud or iTunes to share files between your computer and the app. VOICES SUPPORT Choose from 40 languages, listen in different voices BOOKS SUPPORT Supports the most popular text formats CUSTOM INTERFACE Customize the font and the read mode at your own discretion CUSTOM SETTINGS Change pitch, volume, and speed of reading Supports text-to-speech in the following languages: English, Chinese, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Catalan, Afrikaans, Danish, German, Russian, Finnish, Haitian Creole, Dutch, Czech, Latvian, Romanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Slovak, Swahili, Turkish, Welsh, Spanish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Hindi, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Proximum

Features
Read full description

Proximum puts your next events where you actually look — the Home Screen, the Lock Screen, and StandBy — in a clean, customizable widget. No app to open, no clutter. Just what's coming up. It reads every calendar already on your iPhone, so iCloud, Google, Exchange and Outlook all show up together the moment you grant access. Nothing to configure, no extra sign-ins. THREE WAYS TO SEE YOUR DAY • List — a dense, glanceable agenda grouped by day • Spotlight — your next event front and center with a bold countdown • Timeline — a vertical time-spine with a live "now" marker SMART, AT A GLANCE • Automatic event icons — flights, workouts, birthdays, meetings, calls and more • A free/busy summary line: how many events today and when you're next free • A live progress bar on whatever's happening right now • Relative countdowns ("in 25m") so you always know how long you've got WIDGETS FOR EVERY SPACE • Home Screen — small, medium and large • Lock Screen — inline, rectangular and a countdown ring • StandBy — glanceable on your nightstand • A "+N more" row so a packed day never gets cut off awkwardly MAKE IT YOURS • Six hand-tuned themes, or build your own colors • Recolor every event to match the theme, add an ambient glow, or keep your calendar colors • Choose how many events, how many days ahead, and the density • Group by day; sort by time, duration or title • Font design and text size — including Easy-to-Read Times • Pick exactly which calendars appear, and mute events by keyword • Every widget can override the defaults with its own look A BEAUTIFUL IN-APP AGENDA Open Proximum for the full, scrollable version of your widget feed — the same curated events, grouped by day, with rich detail a tap away. PROXIMUM PRO — OPTIONAL, ONE-TIME Unlock once and keep it forever. Never a subscription. • One-tap Join — Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, Whereby and more, straight from the widget • Leave-by travel alerts — Proximum works out when you need to head out for your next event and tells you before you're late • Live Activity — your next event on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, counting down • Week at a Glance — a heat-map widget showing how busy your next seven days are • Day briefing and double-booking alerts, written entirely on your device • An optional morning digest notification, at a time you choose PRIVATE BY DESIGN Proximum reads your calendars read-only and renders them on your device. Your events are never uploaded, there are no accounts and no Proximum servers, and there is no tracking or advertising. What's on your calendar stays on your iPhone. Leave-by travel alerts are opt-in and off by default. Turn them on and your location and your event's address are used to ask Apple Maps for an ETA — exactly like asking for directions. Proximum never receives, stores or transmits that anywhere else. BUILT FOR iOS Native SwiftUI and WidgetKit, designed for iOS 17 and later. Light and dark, Dynamic Type friendly, and fast. Add Proximum to your Home Screen and always know what's next.

Screenshots

Voice Aloud Reader4 screens
Proximum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Voice Aloud Reader at Free against Proximum's $0.99. Proximum's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). On in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Voice Aloud Reader is free to download; Proximum costs $0.99 up front. Voice Aloud Reader sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Proximum sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Voice Aloud Reader ships an update every 2 months, Proximum every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Voice Aloud Reader versus Proximum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVoice Aloud ReaderProximum
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.6 (19K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews58.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings19K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size74 MB4 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperMarcin OlawskiLuca Bellintani

Bugs and requests

Voice Aloud Reader

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Randomly jumps to different sections of text
  • Struggles with formatting of multi-column documents
  • Occasional crashes when switching between apps

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add bookmarking/resume functionality
  • Improve voice quality and pronunciation
  • Allow custom voice speed increments
  • Implement a way to delete documents from library
  • Add support for iBooks library integration

Proximum

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Voice Aloud Reader

Subscriptions1
  • Pro + Premium Voices 1m3 Days trial$9.991 Month
One-time3
  • Premium OCR 100$0.99
  • Premium OCR 800$1.99
  • Pro version$8.99
1 purchases

Proximum

One-time1
  • Proximum Pro$2.99

Questions

Is Voice Aloud Reader free?
Voice Aloud Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Proximum free?
Proximum costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Do Voice Aloud Reader or Proximum have ads?
Voice Aloud Reader shows ads; Proximum does not.
Which is updated more often, Voice Aloud Reader or Proximum?
Voice Aloud Reader ships an update every 2 months, and Proximum every 3 days. Most recently, Voice Aloud Reader was updated on November 13, 2026 and Proximum on November 10, 2026.

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