Chorus Reader vs KO Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chorus Reader
Transform your documents, articles, and files into natural-sounding audiobooks. Enjoy real-time streaming and studio-quality speech synthesis entirely on your device, with no internet connection required. Choose from a variety of voices or clone your own for a personalized listening experience.
- On-device text-to-audiobook generation
- Real-time audio streaming
- Supports EPUB, PDF, text, and Markdown
- 30+ built-in voices
- Voice cloning and recording
- Standard and Turbo generation modes
- Offline functionality
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Turn anything you can read into an audiobook — narrated on your device, in a voice you choose. Even your own. Drop in an EPUB, PDF, or article. Chorus Reader detects chapters, generates natural AI narration right on your iPhone or iPad, and streams the audio as it is created. No account, no upload — your books and your voice never leave the device. LISTEN TO YOUR OWN LIBRARY • EPUB, PDF, plain text, Markdown, Word, and Pages files — even photos of pages • Share any article from Safari and it is waiting in your library • Follow RSS feeds and listen to their newest articles • Chapters detected automatically; skip, scrub, and set a sleep timer • Audio streams while it generates — start listening in seconds, keep listening in the background A BOOKSTORE, BUILT IN • The Chorus Library: more than a hundred hand-picked classics, free for every reader • Hear a sample of the actual book before you shelve it — narrated on the spot, on your device, in your chosen voice • A curated list of open-access research papers, organized by field, with the reason each one was chosen • One tap moves any of it into your library, ready to narrate PICK A VOICE — OR CLONE ONE • Standard engine (free): 40+ natural voices, narrating in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Hindi • Personal engine: clone any voice from 15 seconds of audio — yours, a friend's, a favorite narrator. English is built in; Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese download when you want them • Premium engine (on higher-memory iPhones and iPads): the most expressive narration, with multi-voice character dialogue PRIVATE BY DESIGN Narration happens on your device. There is no account, and nothing you read, record, or generate is ever uploaded — we could not see it if we wanted to. Airplane mode works fine for listening. FREE TO TRY, ONE-TIME UPGRADE The free tier includes the Standard engine, 40+ voices in six languages, audio export, the entire Chorus Library, and your first imported book. A single one-time purchase — never a subscription — unlocks every engine your device supports, voice cloning, multi-voice narration, and unlimited imports. Everything we ship later is included. WHAT READERS USE IT FOR • The half-finished novel sitting in your reading app • Textbooks and papers nobody bothered to record • Newsletters and longreads saved for "later" • Hearing drafts read back in your own voice Chorus Reader is built for the books you actually want to read.
KO Reader
This app transforms web articles, ebooks, and PDFs into natural-sounding speech using on-device AI. Enjoy private, offline listening with customizable voices and playback speeds. Export audio for later or read anywhere without an internet connection.
- On-device text-to-speech
- Supports web articles, EPUB, PDF, and plain text
- 53 neural voices in 9 languages
- Customizable playback speed
- Audio export to m4a/m4b
- Offline functionality
- Privacy-focused, no tracking
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KO Reader turns web articles, ebooks, and PDFs into natural-sounding speech — entirely on your device. No cloud, no tracking, no subscriptions. Paste a URL or open an EPUB or PDF, and KO Reader reads it aloud with a neural AI voice. Everything runs locally, so your reading stays private and works anywhere — on the train, on a plane, or off-grid. Export your favorite articles or books to m4a or m4b files. WHAT YOU CAN READ • Web articles — Wikipedia, news sites, blogs, and Substack • Fanfiction — Archive of Our Own, Royal Road, and Wattpad, with chapter detection • EPUB ebooks with full chapter navigation • PDF documents • Plain text — paste or type any content • Safari Share Extension — send articles to KO Reader with one tap NATURAL AI VOICES • 53 neural voices across 9 languages: American and British English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, and Hindi • Preview any voice before selecting it • Mark favorites for quick access • Playback speed from 0.5x to 2.0x • Smart heteronym resolution — the voice knows the difference between "lead" (the metal) and "lead" (to guide), "wound" (injury) and "wound" (past of wind) • Custom pronunciation dictionary — teach the reader how to say names, jargon, or anything you like READ YOUR WAY • Reading queue — line up multiple articles and auto-advance • Bookmarks — save passages to come back to • Reading history — pick up where you left off, across books and articles • Chapter pre-generation — book chapters start instantly, no waiting between them • Audio export — save generated audio for offline listening • Adjustable article font (system, serif, monospaced, rounded) and Dynamic Type support BUILT FOR ACCESSIBILITY • Full VoiceOver support with labeled controls throughout • Haptic feedback on transport controls and sleep timer • Background audio — listen while you use other apps or with the screen off • Sleep timer — stops playback when you drift off • Works with AirPods, Bluetooth speakers, and CarPlay RUNS EVERYWHERE • Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac • macOS keyboard shortcuts (Space to play/pause, Cmd+← and Cmd+→ to skip) • Optimized for Apple Silicon with optional CoreML acceleration • Adjustable CPU thread count for performance tuning PRIVACY FIRST • 100% on-device TTS — your content never leaves your phone • No accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no ads • No internet required after the one-time model download • Reading progress stored locally only KO Reader downloads a ~350 MB neural voice model on first launch. After that, everything works fully offline. Powered by the open-source Kokoro TTS model (Apache 2.0).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chorus Reader at Free against KO Reader's $3.99. Chorus Reader also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 67%). KO Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#18 vs unranked). On ratings volume, ads and device support 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
Chorus Reader is free to download; KO Reader costs $3.99 up front. Chorus Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. KO Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chorus Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 5 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Chorus Reader's written reviews are positive against 67% of KO Reader's.
| Parameter | Chorus Reader | KO Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better | 3.6 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #18 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.9 GB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Aleksander Allen | James Carrell II |
Customer experience
Chorus Reader
KO Reader
In-app purchases
Chorus Reader
- Unlock Chorus$9.99
KO Reader
No in-app purchases









