Comparison

Timber vs Speech It

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

Head to head
About

Timber

This app transforms any text into spoken audio, allowing you to listen to articles, books, and documents. It offers a wide selection of voices and languages, with advanced features for customization and offline processing. The core reader is free and respects user privacy.

Highlights
  • Text-to-speech conversion
  • Supports links, PDFs, and photos
  • 300+ voices in 71 languages
  • On-device processing for privacy
  • Customizable reading experience
  • Offline translation and summarization
  • Export audio files
Features
Read full description

Timber turns readers into listeners. Anything you want to read, you can listen to instead. Paste a link, drop in a PDF, open a book, or snap a photo of a printed page. Timber pulls out the real text, cleanly, and reads it aloud in a voice you pick. There is a companion desktop app that moves your open browser tabs into your ears. Ever asked your phone to read a page aloud and had it stop halfway, or skip the part that mattered? That is not you missing a setting. Most reader tools are not built to get the whole article. Timber pulls the full text out first, before it ever starts speaking. What you paste is what you hear, start to finish. It was built by a teacher, after watching students struggle to read, who could not find one app that read well, respected privacy, and did not hold the basics hostage. WHAT TIMBER PROMISES • No account. No sign-up. Open it and read. • The core reader is free, and stays free. • What you read is nobody's business. Articles, books and clipboard text are processed on your device. What you read is never shared, sold, or used for ads. VOICES, PROPERLY • 300+ voices across 71 languages, free, spoken entirely on your device. • Every Apple voice on your device works, free, including Enhanced and Premium. • Every voice library includes a free male and female voice in your language. No teaser locked behind a trial. • Record a reference of your own voice and Timber can read in it. Created on device, never uploaded. A READER THAT FEELS LIKE PAPER • Warm parchment design. An open book under a reading lamp, not a tech product. • Every word lights up as it is spoken, and keeps pace whether you slow it right down or push it fast. • Tune the size, the face and the line spacing until it is comfortable. 30 palettes built in, plus a full dyslexia mode. BRING ANYTHING • Paste a link and Timber extracts the article. No ads, no popups, just the text. • Share from Safari or any browser. Import PDFs, EPUB, Word and PowerPoint. Follow RSS feeds. • Point your camera at a printed page and Timber reads it back to you. • Scanned chapters carry junk on every page. Timber spots a line that repeats and silences it across the whole document in one tap. • Browse 70,000+ free public-domain books from Project Gutenberg. • Translate an article on device, or get a quick summary on device. No cloud, no AI account. • Export any article as spoken audio to take with you. • Optional iCloud sync keeps your library on all your devices. FOR CLASSROOMS AND STUDY • Mark passages while you listen, then hand out what you marked as a worksheet. • MLA and APA citations built in. • A chapter becomes a lesson in the time it takes to listen to it. TIMBER PRO (optional, subscribe or pay once) The free reader is complete. Pro unlocks the full neural voice catalog beyond each library's free pair, the whole speed range, every palette, and ongoing personal-voice listening after the free 24-hour trial. Monthly, yearly, or lifetime. The trial simply lapses. It never auto-charges. Privacy Policy: https://timberreader.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Timber was made for the kid in the back row who hears a story better than they can read it, and for everyone whose eyes are tired, busy, or somewhere else. If that is you, welcome.

About

Speech It

Features
Read full description

Speech It turns the books and documents piling up on your device into audio you can enjoy anywhere. Import DRM-free EPUBs, PDFs, text files, and web articles, and listen to them read aloud in a natural voice. Clear your reading backlog during your commute, chores, or walks. ◆ Key Features - Flexible importing EPUB / PDF / plain text / web pages by URL / clipboard text. Files can also be opened from the Files app and the share sheet. - On-device translated listening Listen to an English book in Japanese and more: translation happens while reading aloud (iOS 18 or later, supported language pairs), with the translation and original shown side by side. - Background playback Keeps playing while your screen is locked, with full control from the Lock Screen and Control Center. Playback resumes automatically after interruptions such as phone calls. - Follow along visually The current sentence and word are highlighted and kept in view. Tap any sentence to start playback from there. - Table of contents & bookmarks Jump between chapters, bookmark individual sentences, and browse bookmarks across your whole library. - Organized library Sort books into folders. Your reading position is saved automatically, so you always pick up where you left off. - Voice customization Adjust speed (0.5x-2.0x), pick from your device's voices, tune the pitch, and preview voices before choosing. - Privacy first Parsing, translation, and speech synthesis all happen on your device. The contents of your books are never sent to a server. ◆ Notes - DRM-protected e-books are not supported. - Image-only (scanned) PDFs cannot be read aloud. - Translation requires iOS 18 or later. The app shows ads; an optional subscription removes them. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Timber4 screens
Speech It4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Speech It at none against Timber's 4. Timber's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 11 days). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Timber sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Speech It asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Timber ships an update every 5 days, Speech It every 11 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Timber versus Speech It: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTimberSpeech It
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 11 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size287 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTruth in the Machine LLCColorBoxStudio

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Timber

Subscriptions2
  • Timber Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Timber Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
One-time2
  • Your Own Voice$14.99
  • Timber Pro Lifetime$99.99
None

Speech It

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Timber free?
Timber is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Speech It free?
Speech It is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Timber or Speech It have ads?
Speech It shows ads; Timber does not.
Which is updated more often, Timber or Speech It?
Timber ships an update every 5 days, and Speech It every 11 days. Most recently, Timber was updated on October 31, 2026 and Speech It on October 31, 2026.

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