Audiary vs RottenPDF
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Audiary
Transform text into natural-sounding audio using on-device AI. Listen to articles, documents, or typed content with customizable voices and playback options. Enjoy offline listening without subscriptions or ads.
- On-device AI neural voices
- Customizable voice tiers
- Adjustable playback speed
- Markdown-aware chapters
- Word-by-word highlighting
- Custom pronunciations
- Offline playback
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Audiary turns your text into something you can listen to. Paste an article, share a document, or type your own content — then press play and listen with high quality voices powered entirely by on-device AI. No subscriptions. No ads. No cloud processing. Just clear, natural speech that runs locally on your iPhone. ON DEVICE NEURAL VOICES Choose from 20 AI-powered voices with remarkably natural pacing and intonation. Male and female options, each with a unique character. Preview any voice before selecting it. Neural voices run entirely on your device — your text never leaves your phone. THREE VOICE TIERS - Neural: Natural AI voices (20 options, one-time 90 MB download) - Enhanced: Apple's high-quality system voices - Default: Basic system voices, always available Pick the tier that fits your device and preference. Switch anytime in Settings. BUILT FOR LISTENING - Markdown-aware chapters — headers become skippable tracks - Adjustable speed with pitch preservation (0.75x to 1.5x) - Full lock screen and background playback controls - Word-by-word highlighting in the full-screen player - Resume exactly where you left off GET CONTENT IN EASILY - Paste from clipboard - Share from any app (text, markdown, PDFs, Notes exports) - Type or edit directly in the built-in editor CUSTOM PRONUNCIATIONS Teach Audiary how to say names, acronyms, or technical terms. Add phonetic spellings in Settings and neural voices will use them every time. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Audiary comes with 15 minutes of free listening — no account required, no feature restrictions. After that, a single one-time purchase unlocks unlimited playback forever. No subscriptions, no catches.
RottenPDF
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RottenPDF reads your documents out loud and shows the words while it speaks them: the current sentence large and centred, each word lighting up exactly as it is pronounced, the lines around it dimmed. You follow with your ears and your eyes at once. Reading and listening are free, paid for by ads. If you would rather not see them, RottenPDF Plus is an optional monthly subscription that removes them. No account to create. YOUR DOCUMENTS STAY ON YOUR IPHONE Your documents are never uploaded anywhere. They are opened, turned into speech and read aloud on the device, with the voices already installed on it. We run no server and no cloud, so there is nowhere for them to go. Reading works in airplane mode. The app goes online for two things only: to download a web page when you paste its link, and to show ads. ADS NEVER INTERRUPT THE READING Ads are what pays for the app, and they stay out of the way: a banner at the bottom of the library and under the player controls, and now and then a full-screen ad before a document opens or after you have closed it. Never while something is being read to you. Ads are served by Google AdMob, and you decide whether they may be personalised. WHAT IT DOES • Opens PDF, DOCX, RTF and TXT files, from Files, Mail, or any app that can share a document • Reads web pages too: paste a link and it reads the article • Reads any text you copied: paste it in the library and it is read like a document • Reads them aloud with the voices already installed on your device • Karaoke subtitles: the word being spoken is highlighted in real time, with a scale pop and a saturated colour • Speed from 0.5x to 3.0x with the pitch preserved — fast, without the chipmunk voice • Tables, figures, code and formulas are read too, and shown in views built for them • Picks up where you stopped, in every document • Interface in twelve languages, and it reads in every language your device has a voice for WHAT IT DOES NOT DO YET Being straight about this is cheaper than a bad review: • Scanned PDFs — pages that are only images — are not read yet. The app tells you the document is a scan instead of reading you nothing. • EPUB is not supported yet. • Playback stops when you leave the app. Background listening is next. WHO IT IS FOR Anyone who reads a lot and would rather listen. Students with a stack of course notes, anyone with a long report to get through, people who take text in faster by ear, and anyone who finds a wall of text easier to follow when the words move. ROTTENPDF PLUS An optional subscription that removes every ad — the banners and the full-screen ones — and changes nothing else: no feature is reserved for subscribers. It is billed monthly and renews automatically until you cancel. The price is shown in the app before you subscribe, and you can cancel at any time from your App Store account. Payment is handled by Apple: we never see your payment details. NOTHING IS LOCKED Every feature works without paying: no trial that expires, no feature behind a paywall, no account. The ads are what keeps it that way, and Plus is only for those who would rather pay than see them. RottenPDF itself collects nothing about you or your documents; the ad provider collects what its own policy describes, within the choices you make. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://fedeinfe.github.io/rottenpdf-privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Audiary at none against RottenPDF's shown. Audiary also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, in-app purchases, 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. Audiary sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and RottenPDF sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Audiary ships an update weekly, RottenPDF every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Audiary | RottenPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Working Model LLC | Federico Infelici |
In-app purchases
Audiary
- Audiary Premium$6.99
RottenPDF
- RottenPDF Plus$1.991 Month









