Comparison

Tonspur vs Audra Books

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

Head to head
About

Tonspur

Listen to your personal audiobook collection with this companion app. Enjoy features like adjustable playback speed, a sleep timer, and easy chapter navigation. Download books for offline listening and sync your progress across devices.

Highlights
  • Variable playback speed
  • Sleep timer
  • Offline listening
  • Chapter navigation
  • Progress syncing
  • CarPlay support
  • Multi-library support
Features
Read full description

Listen to your personal audiobook collection with Tonspur, the companion app for Audiobookshelf. Tonspur makes it easy to enjoy the audiobooks you own. Adjust playback speed to match your preference, set a sleep timer for bedtime listening, and jump between chapters with a simple tap. Download books to listen offline, and sync your progress across all your devices including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and CarPlay. Connect to multiple libraries and switch between them effortlessly. Whether you're at home, in the car with CarPlay, or on the go, your audiobooks are always ready when you are. FEATURES: * Support for podcasts and eBooks * Variable playback speed and automatic sleep timer * Download books for offline listening * Easy chapter navigation * Multi-User Support * Easily switch between libraries * CarPlay support * Automatic progress syncing * Statistics * Widgets * Pinned Genres and Playlists * Integrated Equalizer

About

Audra Books

This app provides a native mobile interface for managing and enjoying your self-hosted audiobook library. Stream, download, and read ebooks with synchronized progress across devices. It offers advanced playback controls, listening stats, and podcast management.

Highlights
  • Audiobook playback with speed control
  • Ebook reader with sync
  • Read-along highlighting
  • CarPlay and Siri integration
  • Listening statistics
  • Offline downloads
  • Podcast management
Features
Read full description

Audra is a beautiful, fully native way to enjoy your self-hosted Audiobookshelf library on iPhone. Stream or download your audiobooks, ebooks and podcasts, and pick up right where you left off on any device. A POWERFUL AUDIOBOOK PLAYER • Playback speed from 0.5× to 3× • Sleep timer with custom durations, end of chapter, and shake to reset • Chapter navigation and bookmarks, with every bookmark in one place • Lock screen, Control Center and CarPlay controls • Optional lock screen scrubbing protection against pocket touches LISTEN WHILE YOU READ • EPUB and PDF reader with adjustable fonts, sizes, spacing and themes • Highlights and notes • Bring the player up over the page and keep reading • Reading and listening positions sync with your server READ ALONG • Own a book as both ebook and audiobook? Audra follows the narrator through the text • The spoken word is highlighted, with its phrase, sentence or paragraph tinted • Pages turn themselves; double-tap any word to jump the audio there • Alignment runs privately on your own iPhone or Mac CARPLAY, WIDGETS & SIRI • Full CarPlay app: Continue Listening, your library, series, lists and chapters • Home Screen widgets for Continue Listening, Listening Stats and Listening Trend • Ask Siri to resume, play a book, skip or set a sleep timer • Find your books and series in Spotlight search LISTENING STATS • Hours, books finished and your streak • A year of listening as a heatmap • Week-by-week trends and history for every book OFFLINE SUPPORT • Download audiobooks, ebooks and podcast episodes • Progress made offline is kept and synced when you're back PODCASTS • Browse, play and download episodes from your server • Add podcasts by name or RSS feed, and manage auto-downloads (server owners) • Bulk download or delete episodes, mark them played, add them to playlists • Hide podcasts entirely if you only listen to books YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY • 18 themes • Playlists, collections and custom sorting • Grid, compact or list views, with fast search and filtering • Author pages with photos and biographies • Hide, reset and track progress on books and series BUILT FOR AUDIOBOOKSHELF • Connect to any self-hosted Audiobookshelf server, or several • Secure sign-in, including SSO / OIDC • Cross-device sync across the whole Audiobookshelf ecosystem Some features require Audra Pro, including offline downloads, the ebook reader, listening stists and Home Screen customization. Pro is available as a subscription with a free trial. Audra is a client app for Audiobookshelf and does not host or distribute any media. All contonal server. https://audrabooks.app/privacy https://audrabooks.app/terms

Screenshots

Tonspur4 screens
Audra Books4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Tonspur at 4.7 against Audra Books's 4.4. Tonspur also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 67%). Audra Books's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. Tonspur sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Audra Books sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tonspur holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 16 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Tonspur's written reviews are positive against 67% of Audra Books's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tonspur ships an update every 3 weeks, Audra Books every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tonspur versus Audra Books: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTonspurAudra Books
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6 ratings) — better4.4 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings616 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.126.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTim OlbrichEric Randall

Customer experience

Tonspur

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%

Audra Books

All ratings16 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral25.0%
Negative8.3%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Tonspur

One-time1
  • Downloads$8.99
3 purchases

Audra Books

Subscriptions1
  • Audra Pro Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
One-time2
  • Audra Pro Lifetime$5.99
  • Audra Pro Family$19.99

Questions

Is Tonspur free?
Tonspur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Audra Books free?
Audra Books is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tonspur or Audra Books?
Tonspur is rated higher. Tonspur averages 4.7 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Audra Books averages 4.4 from 16 ratings.
Do Tonspur or Audra Books have ads?
Neither Tonspur nor Audra Books shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tonspur or Audra Books?
Tonspur ships an update every 3 weeks, and Audra Books every 8 days. Most recently, Tonspur was updated on November 4, 2026 and Audra Books on November 5, 2026.

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