Comparison

VoiceTra vs Tabist

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

Head to head
About

VoiceTra

This app translates spoken words into multiple languages, offering both voice and text input. It's designed to facilitate communication for travelers and visitors, with features like instant translation direction switching and a user-friendly interface.

Highlights
  • Speech-to-speech translation
  • Supports 33 languages
  • Text input option
  • Instant translation direction switch
  • High-precision speech recognition
  • User-friendly interface
Read full description

VoiceTra is a speech translation app that translates your speech into different languages. VoiceTra supports 33 languages and can be downloaded and used for free. With an easy-to-use interface, you can also check if the translation results are correct. VoiceTra, whether to enhance your travel experience or to welcome visitors to Japan, will definitely come in handy as your personal speech translator. ■Features: VoiceTra utilizes high-precision speech recognition, translation, and speech synthesis technologies developed by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). It translates your spoken words into different languages and outputs the results in a synthesized voice. The translation direction can be instantly switched, allowing 2 people that speak different languages to communicate using a single device. Text input is available for languages that do not support speech input. VoiceTra is best suited for travel-related conversations and is recommended for situations and places such as below: ・Transportation: Bus, train, rent-a-car, taxi, airport, transit ・Shopping: Restaurant, shopping, payment ・Hotel: Check-in, check out, cancellation ・Sightseeing: Overseas travel, serving and supporting foreign customers *VoiceTra has also been introduced as a disaster-prevention, disaster-related app. While VoiceTra can be used as a dictionary to look up words, it is recommended to input sentences as it interprets the meaning from the context to output the translation results. ■Supported languages: Japanese, English, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Korean, Thai, French, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Myanmar, Arabic, Italian, Ukrainian, Urdu, Dutch, Khmer, Sinhala, Tamil, Danish, German, Turkish, Nepali, Hungarian, Hindi, Filipino, Bengali, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Malay, Mongolian, Lao, and Russian ■Restrictions, etc.: Internet connection is required. It may take a while to display the translation results depending on the network connectivity. Languages available for text input are those that the OS keyboard supports. The characters may not be displayed properly if the appropriate font is not installed on your device. Please note that some of the functions or the application itself may be disabled when the server is down. Users are responsible for the communication fees incurred to use the application. Please be aware that international data roaming charges can be expensive. This application was developed for research purposes; targeting individuals to test it out when traveling, and uses servers that are also setup for research purposes. The data recorded on the server will be utilized to make improvements in speech translation technologies. You may test out the app for businesses, etc., but please consider using private services that we have licensed our technology to for continuous use. Please refer to our "Terms of Use" for further details → https://voicetra.nict.go.jp/en/attention.html

About

Tabist

Features
Read full description

Tabistは国内旅行の計画をもっと賢く、もっと楽しくするためのホテル予約と旅の情報アプリです。日本全国にあるお得に泊まれてユニークな体験ができるホテルや旅館から、今の自分にぴったりの旅先を見つけてください。Tabist に賢い値段で宿泊するにはアプリからの予約がおすすめです。 ■ホテル・旅館検索 ・都道府県別でホテル・旅館を探せます。旅の行き先を決めている場合は、都道府県から探してください。 ・ホテル・旅館の宿泊価格や外観、特徴を一覧で見ることができます。気になった宿はタップして詳細をご覧いただけます。 ・このホテル・旅館をおすすめする理由、泊まるべき理由がわかるストーリーや、各施設ならではの特徴をご案内します。 ・宿や周辺の観光情報の写真を一覧でチェックできます。 ■ホテル・旅館の宿泊予約 ・現地支払い、オンライン クレジットカード決済が可能です。 ■ユーザーアカウント ・毎回個人情報を入力せず、簡単&スムーズに予約ができます。 ・自分の予約内容を確認・編集できます。 ・会員限定でお得な特典があります。 ■旅行情報 ・お得なキャンペーン情報や、最新の旅のトレンド、より良い旅をプランするための情報をご提供します。旅のスケジュールを立てる際の参考にご利用ください。

Screenshots

VoiceTra3 screens
Tabist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: VoiceTra at none against Tabist's shown. Tabist's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

VoiceTra ships an update every 4 months, Tabist every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
VoiceTra versus Tabist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVoiceTraTabist
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (200 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews78.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings200 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB108 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNICTORAVEL STAYS LIMITED

In-app purchases

None

VoiceTra

No in-app purchases

None

Tabist

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is VoiceTra free?
VoiceTra is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tabist free?
Tabist is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do VoiceTra or Tabist have ads?
Tabist shows ads; VoiceTra does not.
Which is updated more often, VoiceTra or Tabist?
VoiceTra ships an update every 4 months, and Tabist every 3 weeks. Most recently, VoiceTra was updated on September 25, 2026 and Tabist on September 20, 2026.

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