Murmur vs LIRA Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Murmur
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Turn the books and documents you already own into audiobooks. Murmur reads EPUBs and PDFs aloud with natural neural voices that run entirely on your iPhone. Import a book, choose a narrator, press play, and keep listening while you commute, exercise, cook, clean, or simply give your eyes a break. NO AUDIOBOOK? NO PROBLEM. Most books will never receive a professionally produced audiobook. Your textbooks, PDFs, self-published books, research material, old EPUBs, and personal documents may never have one at all. Murmur lets you listen to the files you already have instead of buying another copy. READ EPUB & PDF ALOUD Import EPUB and PDF files directly into your library. Murmur organizes books into chapters and paragraphs and keeps your reading and listening position together. Follow the text while the narrator speaks, or put your phone away and keep listening in the background. 23 NEURAL VOICES Choose from 23 bundled narrators across 10 languages. Set a default narrator for each language or choose a different voice for an individual book. Adjust playback speed whenever you want. PRIVATE AND OFFLINE Your books stay on your iPhone. Speech is generated on-device, so Murmur doesn't need to upload your EPUBs, PDFs, textbooks, or personal documents to a text-to-speech server. • No account • No document uploads • No cloud processing • No internet connection required for narration • Background playback BUILT FOR BOOKS, NOT JUST TEXT Murmur combines an EPUB reader, PDF reader, text-to-speech engine, audiobook player, and follow-along reader in one library. Use it for: • EPUB books • PDF books and documents • Textbooks and course material • Research and professional reading • Independent and self-published books • Out-of-print titles • Long reading backlogs • Hands-free reading • Read-aloud and accessibility workflows LISTEN YOUR WAY Murmur remembers your position, playback speed, and narrator settings for every book. Switch between reading and listening without losing your place. FREE TO START Import as many books as you want. Free includes 60 minutes of listening every 30 days and access to one English and one Polish narrator. Murmur Premium unlocks unlimited listening and all 23 voices. Your books already contain the words. Murmur gives them a voice. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://readbuildship.com/apps/murmur/privacy
LIRA Reader
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LIRA is a calm audiobook and ebook player for books you already own. Import MP3, M4A, M4B, AAC, and EPUB files from the Files app, then listen or read without a subscription storefront. Your library stays on your device. LISTEN • Resume exactly where you stopped • Playback speed up to 3× • Sleep timer with fade and chapter options • Bookmarks for favorite moments • Lock screen and Control Center controls • Chapters when your file includes them READ • Clean EPUB reader with themes and fonts • Bookmarks for paragraphs you want to revisit READ ALONG • Optional on-device transcription for audiobooks • Follow the text while you listen • Model download happens only when you start transcription Built for people who keep their own library—LibriVox downloads, purchased DRM-free files, and personal archives. No account required to start listening.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LIRA Reader at none against Murmur's 3. On price 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. Murmur sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. LIRA Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Murmur | LIRA Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | — |
| Ads | No | — |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Devices | iPhone — better | — |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2.2 GB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Jan Piotrzkowski | Tumba Mulamba |
In-app purchases
Murmur
- Premium Weekly$4.997 Days
- Premium Monthly$14.991 Month
- Premium Yearly$49.991 Year
LIRA Reader
No in-app purchases





