Bookshare Reader vs VO Starter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bookshare Reader
Access a vast library of ebooks designed for individuals with reading barriers. Enjoy high-quality audio narration and customize your reading experience with adjustable fonts, colors, and speeds. Continue reading seamlessly from where you left off.
- Access millions of ebooks
- High-quality audio narration
- Customizable reading experience
- Adjustable font size and colors
- Follow along with highlighted text
- Offline reading
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Get the official Bookshare Reader app. Access millions of ebooks from Bookshare, the world's largest library of ebooks for people with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and physical disabilities. Listen to books in high quality audio and customize your reading experience in ways that work for you. Read bestsellers, new releases, textbooks and educational books, children’s books, young adult, mysteries, biographies, and more. Read your way with these customizable features: • Listen to books in high quality audio • Adjust reading speed, font size, and colors • Follow along with highlighted text • Navigate by page and chapter • Stop reading and pick up from your last spot • Download books and read offline To use Bookshare Reader, you must have a Bookshare membership. Learn more by visiting the Bookshare website.
VO Starter
This app offers a step-by-step guide to help new blind and visually impaired iOS users learn to navigate their devices using VoiceOver, Apple's built-in screen reader. Lessons are designed to be quick and easy to understand, making the learning process manageable.
- VoiceOver training
- Step-by-step iOS guide
- Quick and easy lessons
- For blind users
- For visually impaired users
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VO Starter teaches new blind and visually impaired iOS users how to use their device with Apple's built in screen reader, VoiceOver. Learning a new device can be challenging, and learning a new device and a new screen reader can take time and patience. VO Starter provides a step by step guide to learn to use the iPhone, while keeping lessons quick, and easy to learn.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: VO Starter at 67% against Bookshare Reader's 36%. VO Starter also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks) and rating (3.5 vs 3.3). Bookshare Reader's advantage is ratings volume (67 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
VO Starter holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bookshare Reader has 67 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Bookshare Reader's written reviews are positive against 67% of VO Starter's.
Bookshare Reader ships an update every 3 weeks, VO Starter every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bookshare Reader | VO Starter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (67 ratings) | 3.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.7% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 67 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 81 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Benetech | Techopolis Online Solutions, LLC |
Customer experience
Bookshare Reader
VO Starter
Bugs and requests
Bookshare Reader
Reported bugs
42 issues- Prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Library not syncing across devices
- Reading lists not syncing
- Reading progress not saved across devices
- Manga stuck on copyright page
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- Pages disappear during reading
- Trouble downloading books
- Frequent app crashes
- App won't load books
- App shuts down when typing
- App crashing repeatedly
- Books disappearing from library
- Cannot download added books
- Search tab closes the app
- Poor VoiceOver compatibility
- App crashes on any click
- Text-to-speech voice change kicks user out
- Copyright issues preventing audio playback
- Download errors
- Playback stops when screen is locked
- Clunky user interface
- Picture books not displaying images
- Unable to play videos from other sources
- Form controls not coded correctly for VoiceOver
- Cannot delete searched titles from library
- App requires screen to be on for reading
- Blank screen after orientation change
- Too many bugs and crashes
- Next chapter fails to load
- Blank white page after pausing and resuming
- Table of Contents only shows first few chapters
- App displays as phone screen on iPad
- Cannot access reading lists
- Synthesized speech has limited control
- Speech randomly cuts off
- Reading stops if phone ringer is off
- Pause/Play restarts from chapter beginning
- Text-to-speech voices do not indicate language
- Voice selection process is cumbersome
- No functional stop and start button
- Limited speaking speed options
- Paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
Requested features
38 requests- Fix prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Sync library across devices
- Sync reading lists across devices
- Save reading progress across devices
- Fix manga page navigation
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- Fix disappearing pages bug
- Improve book download reliability
- Fix app crashes
- Fix app shutdown when typing
- Improve VoiceOver compatibility
- Allow adjustment of speaking rate by specific value
- Make reading lists accessible
- Add highlighting for textbooks
- Improve navigation of Contents menu
- Highlight current location in Contents menu
- Include missing video content in textbooks
- Fix copyright issues for audio playback
- Allow background playback
- Add ability to listen to human-narrated audiobooks
- Add 'Read Now' for periodicals
- Add VoiceOver gestures for page turning
- Add percentage of reading completed on mobile devices
- Make downloaded books tab default on opening app
- Fix inability to delete searched titles
- Add 'where am I' feature (page/percentage)
- Fix blank screen after orientation change
- Make app accessible for students without teacher assignment
- Fix next chapter loading issue
- Fix blank white page after pause
- Fix incomplete Table of Contents
- Improve app scaling on iPad
- Fix inability to access reading lists
- Allow users to choose which word reader begins reading
- Fix paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
- Indicate language for text-to-speech voices
- Improve voice selection process
- Add functional stop and start button
- Increase speed options for text-to-speech
VO Starter
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bookshare Reader
No in-app purchases
VO Starter
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bookshare Reader free?
Is VO Starter free?
Which has better reviews, Bookshare Reader or VO Starter?
Do Bookshare Reader or VO Starter have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bookshare Reader or VO Starter?
Other comparisons
