VoiceReader vs Lectern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
VoiceReader
Convert documents, web articles, and books into natural-sounding audio. Offers AI study tools like summaries and key insights. Ideal for accessibility, productivity, and enjoying audiobooks.
- Text-to-speech for documents and web articles
- AI-powered summaries and insights
- Free classic audiobooks
- Import from web, PDFs, and documents
- Background playback and offline listening (Premium)
- Text and audio sync (Premium)
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Turn PDFs, web articles, documents, and classic books into natural audio for commuting, studying, exercising, or resting your eyes. READ YOUR OWN CONTENT ALOUD Import PDFs and documents, share web articles from iOS, or paste text directly. Listen with natural-sounding narration and follow along with synced text. PUBLIC-DOMAIN AUDIOBOOKS Explore classic books from the public domain. VoiceReader does not sell or distribute copyrighted audiobooks. STUDY AND FOCUS TOOLS Create summaries and key insights for long content. Text-to-speech and read-along highlighting can also help with focus, dyslexia, ADHD, and eye strain. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your imported documents and listening library are private to your device or account and are not shared publicly with other users. OPTIONAL PREMIUM Core app access is available without a subscription. Optional Premium unlocks enhanced voices, offline listening, background playback, lock-screen controls, text and audio sync, and additional productivity tools. SUBSCRIPTION & LEGAL Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://ai-orbit-studio.com/voicereader/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://ai-orbit-studio.com/voicereader/terms
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 • PDF, including scanned PDFs (on-device text recognition) • EPUB books with chapters and covers • Word documents (.docx), text, Markdown, RTF • Pasted text from anywhere • 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 › Apple Account › 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
Verdict
VoiceReader and Lectern are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. VoiceReader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days 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.
| Parameter | VoiceReader | Lectern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 81 MB | 190 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Malick Ouedraogo | Faba Development LLC |
In-app purchases
VoiceReader
- Weekly Premium3 Days trial$2.997 Days
- Yearly Premium$35.991 Year
Lectern
- Lectern Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
- Lectern Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Lectern Pro Lifetime$59.99









