Comparison

Article TTS vs Lectern

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

Head to head
About

Article TTS

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PRODUCTIVITY MEETS AUDIO Transform your reading list into a listening experience. ArticleTTS helps busy people consume more content by turning articles into audio - perfect for multitasking. Save articles from any website, organize them into playlists, and listen while commuting, exercising, or doing chores. With natural voices, adjustable speed, and offline access, you'll never fall behind on your reading again. Features: โ€ข Text-to-speech with natural voices โ€ข Smart playlists for continuous listening โ€ข Works completely offline โ€ข Folder organization โ€ข Share articles from Safari or any other app to ArticleTTS to store articles. โ€ข Reading progress tracking โ€ข Article translation (iOS 26+) โ€ข Import/export via CSV Try free for 30 days, then $0.99/month or $9.99 lifetime. Download ArticleTTS and make every moment productive. ย  Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://altercaze.github.io/articletts-legal/privacy-policy

About

Lectern

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Listen to anything. Lectern turns the things you already read into something you can listen to. Import a PDF, an EPUB book, a Word document, notes, an article, or a photo of a printed page, press play, and hear it in a natural voice, generated entirely on your iPhone. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your documents never leave your phone. Text extraction, page scanning and speech generation all run on the device. No account, no upload, no server. WORKS OFFLINE. NO CREDITS. The voices are built in. Listen for as long as you like, on a plane or in a tunnel, with nothing metered. MADE FOR LONG LISTENING Whole books, textbooks, reports. Playback keeps going with the screen locked, the lock screen and Control Center show what's playing, and Lectern remembers exactly where you stopped, to the sentence, even after the app is closed. FOLLOW ALONG The sentence being read is highlighted and the page scrolls with it. Tap any sentence to start there. Skip by chapter, by 15 seconds, or scrub the whole document. YOUR PACE Half speed to three times speed, and it still sounds like a person. WHAT IT READS โ€ข PDF, including scanned PDFs (on-device text recognition) โ€ข EPUB books with chapters and covers โ€ข Word documents (.docx), text, Markdown, RTF โ€ข Pasted text from anywhere โ€ข Photos of pages, from the camera or your library LECTERN PRO Lectern Pro unlocks whole books and long documents, an unlimited library, all ten studio voices, and audio export. The free version lets you listen to real documents first, so you can hear the voices before you decide. Lectern Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel in Settings โ€บ Apple Account โ€บ Subscriptions. Privacy policy: https://luke-fairbanks.github.io/privacy-policy/lectern/ Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Article TTS3 screens
Lectern4 screens

Verdict

The call

Article TTS and Lectern are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Article TTS sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Lectern sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Article TTS versus Lectern: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArticle TTSLectern
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size2 MB190 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJerry HsuFaba Development LLC

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Article TTS

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Subscription$0.991 Month
One-time1
  • ArticleTTS Lifetime Access$9.99
3 purchases

Lectern

Subscriptions2
  • Lectern Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Lectern Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lectern Pro Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is Article TTS free?
Article TTS is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lectern free?
Lectern is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Article TTS or Lectern have ads?
Neither Article TTS nor Lectern shows ads.

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