Voice Aloud Reader vs Timbre

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/

Start with local tools, saved work and exports without purchasing. New installs receive a limited, nonrenewing allowance for supported online AI work. Ongoing online use uses the included online allowance. Usage figures are estimates; the amount of work available varies by request. Speechify charges $139 a year and its reviewers write "charged me 139 once my free trial was up… written in small print." Its HD voices are quietly capped at 150,000 words a month, which nobody tells you until you hit it. Timbre is $9.99 a month, and narration in your own voice is unmetered and has no cap at all. YOUR OWN VOICE, ON THE DEVICE, UNMETERED If you have set up Apple Personal Voice, Timbre narrates in it — locally, with no word limit and no monthly ceiling, forever. Nothing is uploaded. For anyone who has lost their voice or is preparing to, this is the entire point of the app, and it never draws on the monthly allowance. THE TEXT IS PREPARED BEFORE IT'S SPOKEN "$1.4M" is read as one point four million dollars. "3/4/25" is read as a date. Abbreviations are expanded, breath points are placed at clauses, and emphasis follows the sentence. This is the work that makes narration listenable, and most apps skip it. STUDIO VOICES WHEN A PROJECT NEEDS ONE A produced voice for the things you are giving to other people. Google Gemini studio voices use a included online allowance. Usage varies with the length of the text and generated audio. Local Apple voices do not consume this allowance. WHAT IT COSTS $9.99/month, or $89.99/year — $7.50/month. Available plans and current prices are shown before purchase. That is 35% under Speechify's annual. And ElevenReader Plus at $96 a year has no Personal Voice at all. Personal Voice narration is not counted against any of it. WHAT WE DON'T DO • No trial that turns into an annual charge. No small print — the renewal terms are on the paywall in the same size as everything else. • No undisclosed word ceiling. The included amount is printed on the plan. • No credits, no consumables. You are never charged for narration that fails. • No weekly subscription. One of 32 Lumen apps. Privacy Policy: https://lumen-api-oj1s.onrender.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/