Local Narrator vs Audia
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Local Narrator
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Your books, read aloud — privately, on your iPhone. Local Narrator turns any EPUB or text-based PDF in your library into a real audiobook, narrated by a warm neural voice that runs entirely on the Apple Neural Engine. Nothing leaves your device. There is no cloud. There is no account. There is nothing to opt out of. — BRING YOUR OWN BOOKS — Drop in EPUB or PDF files from the Files app, the share sheet, or AirDrop. Your books stay on your iPhone, and the audio they become stays there too. No upload, no forced sync, no backup you didn't ask for. — A REAL NEURAL NARRATOR — Local Narrator runs Kokoro-82M, a state-of-the-art on-device text-to-speech model, on the Apple Neural Engine. The voices are warm, natural, and quietly expressive. When you'd rather not download the model, Apple's built-in system voices work for free. — BILINGUAL, AND SMART ABOUT IT — English and Spanish. Local Narrator detects each book's language and picks a voice trained for it. Spanish voices are still in beta stage. — LIKE AN AUDIOBOOK SHOULD BE — • Background playback that doesn't stop when the screen sleeps • Lock-screen controls — play, pause, +30, −15, scrub • Home and Lock-screen widget with a clean amber progress ring • Sleep timer for reading yourself to sleep • Per-book reading position, automatically saved • Unlimited bookmarks • Adjustable speed from 0.5× to 3.0× • Light parchment or dark charcoal reading themes • Full Dynamic Type and VoiceOver support — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — No accounts. No telemetry. No advertising SDKs. No third-party trackers. The only network call the app ever makes is the optional, one-time download of the Kokoro voice model. After that, everything works in airplane mode. — ONE PURCHASE. YOURS FOREVER. — Free to download and try with one book and Apple's system voices. A single $4.99 in-app purchase ("Local Narrator Full Access") unlocks unlimited books, all neural voices, the full speed range, the widget, the sleep timer, and unlimited bookmarks. No subscription. Family Sharing supported. — BUILT FOR REAL iPhones — iOS 17 and newer. iPhone 15 or later (Pro version recommended), optimised for the Apple Neural Engine. A small, careful app for people who still read.
Audia
Listen to your documents, books, and articles with natural-sounding voices. Customize reading speed, pronunciation, and use a sleep timer. Import various file formats and read offline.
- Natural neural voices
- Adjustable reading speed
- Customizable pronunciation
- Sleep timer
- Offline reading
- Import various file formats
- Library organization
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Listen to your books, PDFs and articles while you walk, commute or rest your eyes. Audia reads your text aloud on your iPhone or iPad, with natural voices and no subscription. READ WITH YOUR EYES OR YOUR EARS Choose from 15 built-in neural voices across 31 reading languages. Adjust the speed, follow the highlighted words, set a sleep timer and customize pronunciation. Organize your library in folders and transfer documents from your computer over local Wi-Fi. YOUR TEXT, NARRATED ON YOUR DEVICE Imported content can be read aloud offline, without uploading it to a speech service. Internet is needed to fetch web articles and download books from Audia Library. START FREE. UPGRADE ONCE. The free plan has a daily limit on premium-voice listening. Audia Plus is a one-time in-app purchase for unlimited premium listening, CarPlay, bookmarks, full-book search and M4A audio export. BRING YOUR BOOKS OR FIND A NEW READ Import DRM-free EPUB, PDF with selectable text, MOBI/AZW/PRC, TXT, RTF, DOCX, ODT and FB2, or paste text and web articles. Protected ebooks and image-only PDFs are not supported. Explore classics and Audia Originals in Audia Library. The library gradually grows with new titles. Books have no additional charge; your plan's listening limits still apply. Tap + to explore and start listening.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Audia at none against Local Narrator's 1. Audia also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs monthly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Local Narrator sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Audia asks for nothing beyond the download.
Local Narrator ships an update monthly, Audia every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 22, 2026.
| Parameter | Local Narrator | Audia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 247 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Carlo Mario Paolo Grimaldi Perez | Leopoldo Manuel Romacho |
In-app purchases
Local Narrator
- Local Narrator Full Access$9.99
Audia
No in-app purchases









