Comparison

Ghost Reader Live vs OpenVox Reader

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

Head to head
About

Ghost Reader Live

This app transforms documents and web content into spoken audio using on-device voices. Listen privately while following along with highlighted text, with options to adjust speed, navigate, and use lock-screen controls. A free tier offers limited daily listening, with premium options for unlimited access.

Highlights
  • On-device TTS narration
  • Focus mode with highlighting and auto-scroll
  • Adjustable listening speed (0.5x to 2x)
  • Document navigation and resume playback
  • Lock-screen and headphone controls
  • Sleep timer and MP3 export
  • Privacy-focused, no account required
Features
Read full description

Turn reading into listening — privately. Ghost Reader narrates PDFs, EPUBs, web articles, Markdown, and plain-text files with natural on-device voices. Import a document or paste a link, then listen while following the text in Focus mode. YOUR DOCUMENTS STAY WITH YOU Narration is generated on your iPhone. Your documents, extracted text, and audio are not sent to our servers. No account is required. MADE FOR LISTENING • Follow along with sentence highlighting and auto-scroll • Pick a voice and adjust listening speed from 0.5× to 2× • Navigate to any part of a document and resume where you stopped • Use lock-screen and headphone play/pause controls when narration is ready • Set a sleep timer or export narration as an MP3 FREE TO START Enjoy 30 minutes of narration each day for free. Upgrade through the App Store for unlimited listening with Monthly or Lifetime Access. Requires iPhone 12 or newer. Privacy Policy: https://bighippolabs.com/page-ghostreader/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://bighippolabs.com/page-ghostreader/terms.html

About

OpenVox Reader

Transform any text into natural-sounding audio for offline listening. Import books, PDFs, documents, and web links. Choose from hundreds of voices, adjust playback speed, and save important sentences. Keep your documents private with local processing.

Highlights
  • Text to audio conversion
  • Offline listening
  • Import ebooks, PDFs, documents, web links
  • Hundreds of natural voices
  • Custom voice creation
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • Save important sentences
  • In-document search
Features
Read full description

Turn Reading Time into Listening Time OpenVox Reader transforms books, PDFs, documents, web links and text into natural-sounding audio, so you can keep reading while commuting, walking, exercising, resting or working. Import your content, choose from hundreds of voices, create your own custom voice, and listen at your preferred speed without sending your private documents to an online speech service. Listen to Almost Anything Bring all your reading into one simple library: • Import ebooks and PDFs • Add documents and text files • Save web links for listening • Scan printed pages • Paste or type text directly • Organize everything in one place OpenVox Reader can generate and play speech locally on your device, so once the required voices are downloaded, you can listen without an internet connection. Natural Voices You’ll Enjoy Choose from more than 200 voices across 30+ languages and find the voice that best suits your book, article or document. You can also create custom voices for English, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish from a short voice sample using Pocket TTS and listen to your content in a voice you choose. Listen at Your Own Pace Adjust playback from 0.5x all the way to 2.5x with smooth, pitch-preserving audio. Choose convenient presets including: • 0.5x • 1.0x • 1.5x • 2.0x • 2.5x Faster playback is supported with optimized buffering and accurate elapsed and remaining-time calculations. Save Important Sentences Found something worth coming back to? Bookmark the sentence you are currently reading and access it anytime from Saved Sentences. You can: • Save or remove sentences instantly • Browse all saved passages • Filter your saved sentences • Jump directly back to the original location • Delete bookmarks you no longer need Search Inside Your Documents Quickly find words, phrases or sections without scrolling through an entire book or document. Search in Document provides result previews and lets you jump directly to each matching location. EPUB search is optimized chapter by chapter to keep memory usage efficient even with larger books. Listen Without an Internet Connection Keep listening on flights, trains, commutes or anywhere without reliable internet access. Speech generation happens locally, allowing downloaded voices and imported content to remain available when you need them. Private by Design Your documents are processed locally for speech generation rather than being uploaded to a cloud TTS service. OpenVox Reader is built for people who want convenient AI-powered reading while keeping control of their content. Track Your Reading Journey See how much you have actually listened and keep your reading momentum going with: • Listening time • Daily and weekly progress • Reading streaks • Recently opened content • Personal listening statistics Reading time is calculated from audio that was actually spoken, giving you a accurate picture of your listening activity. Made for iPhone and iPad Use OpenVox Reader across iPhone and iPad with iCloud sync for your library. Your content stays organized across your Apple devices, and one purchase unlocks the app on both iPhone and iPad. Read More, Even When You’re Offline Whether you’re travelling, exercising, relaxing, commuting or getting work done, OpenVox Reader helps turn spare moments into meaningful reading time. Download OpenVox Reader and start listening to your reading today.

Screenshots

Ghost Reader Live4 screens
OpenVox Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: OpenVox Reader at free against Ghost Reader Live's freemium. OpenVox Reader also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1). Ghost Reader Live's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, 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. Ghost Reader Live sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month and OpenVox Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ghost Reader Live holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ghost Reader Live ships an update every 11 days, OpenVox Reader every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Ghost Reader Live versus OpenVox Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGhost Reader LiveOpenVox Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size340 MB200 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJan AncajasNitesh Kumar Sharma

Customer experience

Ghost Reader Live

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

OpenVox Reader

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Ghost Reader Live

Subscriptions1
  • Ghost Reader7 Days trial$0.491 Month
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access$14.99
1 purchases

OpenVox Reader

One-time1
  • OpenVox Reader Pro Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is Ghost Reader Live free?
Ghost Reader Live is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is OpenVox Reader free?
OpenVox Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Ghost Reader Live or OpenVox Reader?
Ghost Reader Live is rated higher. Ghost Reader Live averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while OpenVox Reader averages 4.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Ghost Reader Live or OpenVox Reader have ads?
Neither Ghost Reader Live nor OpenVox Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ghost Reader Live or OpenVox Reader?
Ghost Reader Live ships an update every 11 days, and OpenVox Reader every 6 days. Most recently, Ghost Reader Live was updated on October 13, 2026 and OpenVox Reader on October 6, 2026.

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