Comparison

Chorus Reader vs Folio

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Folio

Features
Read full description

Folio gets you to actually finish an English classic — in the original, cover to cover. Most reading apps drop you into a hard text and hope you cope. Folio is different: it's a prep course, not just a reader. Before you read, you pre-study the ~600 words that cover 95% of that specific book — plus its key grammar, idioms, and character names — using spaced repetition with self-rated confidence. Once your "reading power" is high enough, you read the unabridged original with a tap-to-translate dictionary and LibriVox audiobook narration. HOW IT WORKS 1. Pre-study the book. Spaced-repetition flashcards for the vocabulary, grammar, idioms, and names that unlock the text — chapter by chapter. Folio catches the words you only think you know. 2. Watch your reading power rise. A per-chapter gauge fills as you study, rewarding real recall. 3. Read the original. The full, unabridged text with tap-to-translate and audio. Finish it and earn a completion card. IN YOUR LANGUAGE The texts stay in English. Definitions, notes, and example translations appear in your language: Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, or French. THE LIBRARY A growing library of public-domain classics — start free with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, then unlock the full collection. HONEST BY DESIGN - No account, no sign-in. Everything is stored on your device. - No ads, no tracking. - Book texts from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks; narration from LibriVox — all public domain. Start free, and read your first classic to the very last page. Terms of Use (EULA): https://readfolio.co/terms Privacy Policy: https://readfolio.co/privacy

Screenshots

Chorus Reader4 screens
Folio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Folio at 16.0 against Chorus Reader's 26.0. 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. Chorus Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Folio sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chorus Reader ships an update weekly, Folio every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 7, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Chorus Reader versus Folio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChorus ReaderFolio
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.9 GB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAleksander AllenTetsuhiro Nomura

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chorus Reader

One-time1
  • Unlock Chorus$9.99
3 purchases

Folio

Subscriptions2
  • Folio — Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Folio — Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime — Full Library$49.99

Questions

Is Chorus Reader free?
Chorus Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Folio free?
Folio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chorus Reader or Folio have ads?
Neither Chorus Reader nor Folio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chorus Reader or Folio?
Chorus Reader ships an update weekly, and Folio every 9 days. Most recently, Chorus Reader was updated on October 7, 2026 and Folio on October 7, 2026.

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