Comparison

Turner vs 聽閱 ReadAloud

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

Head to head
About

Turner

Read full description

Your books and saved articles, ready to read or listen. Turner brings DRM-free EPUB books and pages you want to finish into one calm library. Import your own books, share a page from Safari or paste a link, then keep saved articles available for offline reading. Listen your way • Turn any book or saved article into speech • Choose from the system voices available on your device • Adjust speaking rate and narration volume • Move by paragraph or chapter and see your progress • Keep listening in the background and from the Lock Screen • Set a sleep timer or add an optional calming soundscape Save it for later • Build and reorder an article queue • Continue into the next queued article while listening • Mark articles as read, archived or DNF without losing them Read comfortably • Light, dark, sepia and system themes • Adjustable fonts, type size and line spacing • Search across the full book or article • Highlight passages and jump straight back to them • Track reading and listening time separately Bring your own library Import EPUB files from Files or a direct link, or browse Calibre and other OPDS catalogs. Search and sort your library, add ratings and keep optional notes for archived and DNF items. No Turner account is required. Imported books, saved articles, reading positions, highlights, ratings and reading history are stored on your device. Turner is free with ads; Turner Pro removes them. Turner does not include or sell ebooks. Import DRM-free EPUB files that you own or have permission to use. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://turner.elliotekj.com/privacy

About

聽閱 ReadAloud

Transform any text into a hands-free audiobook. This app supports EPUB, PDF, and TXT files, offering Cantonese, Mandarin, and English narration with customizable reading modes and voices. Enjoy a private, ad-free listening experience with extensive customization options.

Highlights
  • Text-to-speech for EPUB, PDF, TXT
  • Cantonese, Mandarin, and English voices
  • Voice + Reading and Listen-Only modes
  • Customizable fonts, themes, and playback speed
  • Offline reading and background audio
  • Image-to-text OCR for printed pages
  • Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
Features
Read full description

Turn any text into a hands-free audiobook. ReadAloud reads EPUB, PDF, and TXT files in Cantonese, Mandarin, or English using Apple's high-quality on-device voices — perfect for commuting, exercising, or resting your eyes. READING + LISTENING, TOGETHER Two reading modes that adapt to how you want to consume content: • Voice + Reading — see the full text with the current sentence highlighted as it's being read. • Listen-Only — distraction-free karaoke view showing the previous, current, and next sentences in large text. Ideal for closing your eyes and just listening. SUPPORTED FORMATS • EPUB (2 & 3) — automatic chapter detection • PDF — text extraction with chapter inference • TXT — plain text with smart chapter splitting • Clipboard — paste any article instantly • Printed pages — photograph a book or document and ReadAloud recognises the text on your device, then reads it aloud. Scanned PDFs with no text layer can be recognised the same way. Nothing is uploaded. MULTILINGUAL VOICES Switch between three voice languages — each remembers its own speed: • Cantonese (zh-HK) — 阿成, 善怡, and more • Mandarin (zh-CN / zh-TW) — 冬梅 (Liaoning), 浩浩 (Shaanxi), 盼盼 (Sichuan), 美嘉 (Taiwan), and others • English (en-US / en-GB / en-AU / en-IN) — Samantha, Daniel, Karen, and any installed English voice TRADITIONAL — SIMPLIFIED Built-in OpenCC engine converts between scripts at the word level — much more accurate than character-by-character mapping. Switch instantly without re-importing your book. SMART READING EXPERIENCE • Sentence-level highlighting that follows the voice • Optional auto-scroll follows the spoken position; off by default and enabled in Settings • "Return to reading position" floating button when you scroll away • Tap-and-hold any text: read from here, look it up in the dictionary, translate it, highlight it, or fix how a word is pronounced • Highlights in four colours, with notes, exportable as Markdown • Edit a chapter's text when an import needs proofreading • Search within books with jump-to-result • Auto-detected chapters with table of contents • Background audio: keep listening with the screen locked • Built-in sleep timer (15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 90 min) with soft fade-out CUSTOMISE EVERYTHING • Font size, line spacing, font family (serif, rounded, monospaced) • Three themes: dark, light, sepia • Orientation lock (auto / portrait / landscape) • Per-language playback speed • Voice gender preference (auto, male, female) 100% PRIVATE ReadAloud was built around a simple principle: your reading is none of our business. • No accounts, no sign-up, no login. • No analytics, no tracking, no ads. • Nothing you import, read, or listen to is ever sent anywhere. • All books and progress stay on your device. Delete the app and everything is gone. • The app only uses the network when you open the optional free book library and choose a book to download. BUILT FOR CHINESE READERS Many TTS apps cater only to Mandarin. ReadAloud is built by a Hong Kong developer with Cantonese readers in mind. Optimised tokenisation for traditional Chinese, comma-level phrase highlighting that keeps up with natural Cantonese rhythm, and a dedicated voice picker that surfaces "粵語 (香港)" voices first if your default is Cantonese. FREE, NO ADS, NO CATCH No ads. No subscription. No analytics, no tracking, no account. There is no "pro" tier — every reading and listening feature described above is free for everyone, permanently. That also means the app earns nothing on its own, while hosting the free book library and its downloads costs real money. If ReadAloud is useful to you, Settings has a completely optional "Support the developer" section. Supporters get an exclusive app icon and a thank-you mark — that is all it unlocks. Nothing else is ever locked, and the app will never interrupt you to ask. Developed and maintained by Heion Technologies — feedback welcome at terence@heiontech.com. Privacy Policy & Support: https://heiontech.com/readaloud

Screenshots

Turner4 screens
聽閱 ReadAloud4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: 聽閱 ReadAloud at none against Turner's shown. Turner's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks). 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. Turner sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year and 聽閱 ReadAloud sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Turner ships an update every 4 days, 聽閱 ReadAloud every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Turner versus 聽閱 ReadAloud: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTurner聽閱 ReadAloud
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.217.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size134 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperElliot JacksonKa Hei MAK

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Turner

Subscriptions1
  • Turner Pro3 Days trial$9.991 Year
3 purchases

聽閱 ReadAloud

One-time3
  • Coffee Supporter$0.99
  • Generous Supporter$1.99
  • Big Supporter$4.99

Questions

Is Turner free?
Turner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 聽閱 ReadAloud free?
聽閱 ReadAloud is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Turner or 聽閱 ReadAloud have ads?
Turner shows ads; 聽閱 ReadAloud does not.
Which is updated more often, Turner or 聽閱 ReadAloud?
Turner ships an update every 4 days, and 聽閱 ReadAloud every 3 weeks. Most recently, Turner was updated on November 5, 2026 and 聽閱 ReadAloud on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons