Voice Dream vs VDWrite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Voice Dream
Transform digital and scanned text into natural-sounding speech with advanced AI. Listen to PDFs, web pages, emails, and books with customizable voices and reading styles. Supports numerous document formats and cloud services.
- AI Text-to-Speech
- Supports PDF, Web, Email, eBooks
- Customizable voices and languages
- Built-in scanner for paper documents
- Speed-reading and distraction-free modes
- Cloud service integration
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Apple Design Award Winner! Voice Dream - Read Aloud lets you listen to PDFs, textbooks, Web pages, emails, and books using advanced AI Text To Speech! Featured by Apple as Best New App and App of the Day in 81 countries. Voice Dream - Read Aloud is also part of App Store Permanent Collections in Education. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Both experts recommend Voice Dream Reader as the best app in the text-to-speech space.” - Wired “This app is one of the best educational finds of my entire career.” - Forbes “As a user myself and as a mother of a child with dyslexia, I am blown away by the features of Voice Dream.” - Quartz “Voice Dream Reader is hailed by many as the best mobile text-to-speech (TTS) app.” - Examiner ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Text-to-Speech - 36 built-in iOS voices in 27 languages are also available for free. - 200+ additional premium voices in 30 languages from Acapela, NeoSpeech and Ivona available. - Correct pronunciation with your own pronunciation dictionary. - All voices work offline and play in the background even with the screen locked. Supported Document Formats - PDF, Plain text, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, RTF, and Google Docs. - Textbooks - Web articles. - Bookshare Books. - EPUB eBooks. (DRM-free books only. Kindle, iBooks and most commercial eBook platforms are not supported.) - DAISY text-based books and audiobook. - Audiobooks in MP3, MP4 or zipped MP3 format. - Rich text and image support for all documents. Built-in Scanner - Scan paper documents with the camera for text-to-speech. - State-of-the-art A.I. is fast and accurate, even in poor lighting conditions. - Works entirely on device: No need for internet and your data stays private. - Only languages using Latin alphabets are currently supported. Reading Styles - Tee-up a list of articles and play while you drive, walk or run. - Spoken word is highlighted to improve comprehension and retention. - Auto-scrolling and full screen, distraction-free mode to help reader focus. - Finger reading. For beginners to read by at running a finger under each word. - Pac-Man. Harvard and MIT developed speed-reading method for everyone to read at 2x speed with no loss of comprehension. - High contrast and large font size for low vision readers. - Optimized for VoiceOver, Braille and switch control. Tools - Recognize text for scanned PDF documents. - Bookmarking, text highlighting and annotation. Highlights and notes can be exported. - Full-text search. - Built-in dictionary. - Automatically skip text in PDF header and footer. Content Sources - Native support for Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote. - Native access to Bookshare. - Safari extension to save Web pages and Web addresses. - Support for Box and OneDrive via iOS Document Picker. Library Synchronization - Your entire library, including folders, reading locations, bookmarks and annotations are synchronized across all your devices using iCloud Drive A subscription is required to access the app. A free trial is offered to new users. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula
VDWrite
This writing app offers text-to-speech proofreading to catch errors, a word finder for better vocabulary, and an active outline for organizing and restructuring documents. It's designed to help users write more effectively and efficiently.
- Text-to-speech proofreading
- Phonetic and meaning word search
- Active document outline
- Voice dictation support
- iCloud synchronization
- Cloud storage integration
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Voice Dream Writer helps everyone write better: Text-to-speech proofreading reduces mistakes, phonetic and meaning search help you use the right words, and an active outline helps you organize and improve the structure of your writing. • Featured in the US App Store Education Collection. • "Voice Dream Writer's technically designed for people with reading disabilities, but it's useful for just about anyone who needs a little help proofing." - Lifehacker Text-To-Speech Proofreading. Professional proofreaders recommend reading out loud as the best way to catch mistakes. Like a personal proofreader, Voice Dream Writer reads your writing using text-to-speech, so you can easily spot awkward sentences, grammatical errors and typos. Also, it can read words and sentences as you type or voice dictate. This way, you can type faster because you no longer have to look up to check the text you just wrote. Word Finder. Voice Dream Writer helps you find the right words using phonetic search and meaning search. For example, search for "inuf" phonetically, and you will find "enough", and search for "Fast Africa Cat" by meaning and you will find "Cheetah." Word Finder also shows you the dictionary definition of a word as you type without you having to select anything or open another program. Outline. As you write, Voice Dream Writer automatically creates an outline of headings, paragraphs and sentences. The Outline helps you structure your document better by giving you an always-on overview. You can also quickly navigate to a section in a long document without endless scrolling. Finally, you can drag and drop elements in the Outline to organize your writing. No more selecting, cutting and pasting large blocks of text. Besides these unique features, Voice Dream Writer also comes with everything you would expect from any great writing tool: • Comprehensive settings for text appearance • Uncluttered writing area • Search for text • Search for misspelled words • Word count • Synchronize and backup with iCloud • Import and export for Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box • Preview and print with multiple themes • Markdown support for formatting • Export to Microsoft Word format (compatible with Apple Pages) • Support for Bluetooth keyboard The app is not only fully accessible, it was designed with students and adults with print disabilities in mind. There are special tools for VoiceOver users to manage the cursor, select text, and find and correct misspelled words by stepping through them. Voice-based Proofreading and Phonetic Search are invaluable for people with dyslexia. Also included is the research-proven Dyslexie font. Voice Dream Writer will continue to evolve. We would love to hear from you!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: VDWrite at none against Voice Dream's 18. VDWrite also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (68% vs 43%). Voice Dream's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (14K vs 65). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Voice Dream sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. VDWrite asks for nothing beyond the download.
Voice Dream holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Voice Dream has 14K ratings behind it against 65, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 43% of Voice Dream's written reviews are positive against 68% of VDWrite's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Voice Dream ships an update every 3 weeks, VDWrite monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Voice Dream | VDWrite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (14K ratings) — better | 4.1 (65 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 42.5% of reviews | 67.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 14K — better | 65 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #198 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 267 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Voice Dream LLC | Opus Noma LLC |
Customer experience
Voice Dream
VDWrite
Bugs and requests
Voice Dream
Reported bugs
3 issues- Inconsistent behavior when importing files
- Unreliable iCloud syncing
- Jumps in playback position
Requested features
4 requests- Improved table of contents and navigation
- Ability to annotate and highlight text
- Syncing across multiple devices
- Better support for mathematical content
VDWrite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Voice Dream
- Monthly Subscription14 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Annual Subscription3 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Annual Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$59.991 Year
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Annual Subscription$59.991 Year
- Annual Subscription3 Days trial$59.991 Year
- Annual Subscription1 Month trial$79.991 Year
- Annual Subscription7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Premium3 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Annual Subscription7 Days trial$89.991 Year
- Will (Acapela US English Voice)$4.99
- Julie (NeoSpeech US English)$4.99
- Kate (NeoSpeech US English Voice)$4.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Paul (NeoSpeech US English Voice)$4.99
- Salli (Ivona US English Voice)$4.99
- James (NeoSpeech US English Voice)$4.99
- Hugh (NeoSpeech US English Voice)$4.99
VDWrite
No in-app purchases









