Comparison

LightReadr vs FreeReader | Text to Speech

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

Head to head
About

LightReadr

Convert EPUB ebooks into audiobooks with natural-sounding narration. Read normally or switch to listening mid-page. All processing happens locally on your device, ensuring privacy. Import your own books or enjoy preloaded classics.

Highlights
  • Natural voice narration
  • Local device processing
  • EPUB import
  • Customizable reading settings
  • iCloud sync for progress
  • On-device recap feature
Features
Read full description

Read your ebooks and comics. Listen to your ebooks with natural-sounding narration, generated right on your device. Bring the books you already own and switch between reading and listening whenever you like. LightReadr is free, with no subscription or LightReadr account required. NATURAL VOICE NARRATION Choose from several natural-sounding voices and follow each word as it highlights on the page. Tap a sentence to start narration there. Read Aloud is available for text-based ebooks. LISTEN OFFLINE Narration is generated locally on your iPhone or iPad. Your book text is not sent to a speech service, and the generated audio stays on your device. Listen offline, without a streaming connection. BRING YOUR OWN BOOKS Add ebooks, PDFs, and comics from Files, or browse, search, and download from Bookorbit, Komga, and Calibre. Discover Calibre libraries on your Wi-Fi or enter your library's address. Five free public-domain classics are included, so you can start reading right away. COMICS ON YOUR SHELF Open CBZ and CBR comics, browse their pages, jump to a page, and return to your saved reading place. CBR files are converted on your device with their original page images preserved. MAKE THE PAGE YOURS Adjust font, size, theme, margins, and line height — per book, so one title can look different from the next. Chapter navigation, when the book includes it, gets you around fast. A DIFFERENT LOOK ON DUO On iPhone Duo with iOS 27.1 or later, reading layouts adapt to the hinge and the device's open and folded positions. Give each book a custom cover from Photos or Files, or choose from six gallery images: three classic book designs, a Sony Walkman, a pager, and a clickwheel iPod. The pager's backlight and the iPod's equalizer animate, with still images for Reduce Motion and Low Power Mode. Restore the original cover whenever you like. The entire custom-cover feature is exclusive to Duo. You can also opt in to showing your cover on Duo's outer screen while reading with Duo open. This setting is off by default and requires camera access. It keeps the camera active, shows its green indicator, and uses extra battery. No camera images or audio are recorded or sent. The camera stops when you close the book or Duo, open a reader panel, leave the app, or turn the setting off. RECAP SO FAR On supported Apple Intelligence devices, LightReadr can generate a short reminder of what's happened in your book so far, based on what you've actually read. YOUR PLACE, EVERYWHERE Reading progress, bookmarks, and highlights sync across your devices through your own iCloud account; never through a LightReadr server. No LightReadr account. No ads.

About

FreeReader | Text to Speech

Convert various document and web link formats into audiobooks using natural-sounding voices. This free application supports over 30 languages and offers unlimited use without signup. It's designed to assist users with reading difficulties like dyslexia or ADHD.

Highlights
  • Convert EPUB, PDF, DOCX, TXT, and more to audio
  • Read web links aloud
  • 30+ natural-sounding languages
  • Unlimited free use
  • No signup required
  • Access Gutenberg Project books
Features
Read full description

Turn your EPUBs, PDFs, DOCX, and TXT files into audiobooks for free. You can upload files or any web link and VoiceReader text-to-speech will turn it into an audiobook. This app is completely free and you can use it to read anything out loud. There are no limits or signup required. 30+ languages are supported with natural, human-sounding voices. Supported file types: - EPUB (.epub) - PDF (.pdf) - Plain Text (.txt) - Word (.docx) - Rich Text (.rtf, .rtfd) - HTML (.html, .htm) - Markdown (.md, .markdown) - OpenDocument Text (.odt) You can even browse free books from Gutenberg Project and indie authors to start listening to books right away. We believe that free text-to-speech should be available for everyone. This app is sponsored by FreeReader, a project dedicated to providing free TTS to everyone, especially those who have dyslexia or ADHD. Our TTS helps people focus and read more easily by reading words out loud to them while they read. Enjoy TTS in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Turkish, Korean, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Hungarian, Swedish, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, Slovak, Croatian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Latvian, Estonian Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ FreeReader Gold offers a 7-day free trial for eligible new subscribers. After the trial ends, your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled. Payment will be charged to your Apple Account when the free trial ends. Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled. To avoid being charged, cancel at least 24 hours before your free trial ends.

Screenshots

LightReadr4 screens
FreeReader | Text to Speech4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LightReadr at none against FreeReader | Text to Speech's 2. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. FreeReader | Text to Speech sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. LightReadr asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for LightReadr against 5.0 for FreeReader | Text to Speech. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LightReadr ships an update every 4 days, FreeReader | Text to Speech every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
LightReadr versus FreeReader | Text to Speech: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLightReadrFreeReader | Text to Speech
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings5 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size295 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCory BorgPrism App Labs

Customer experience

LightReadr

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

FreeReader | Text to Speech

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

LightReadr

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

FreeReader | Text to Speech

Subscriptions2
  • FreeReader Gold$4.991 Month
  • FreeReader Gold Yearly7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is LightReadr free?
LightReadr is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FreeReader | Text to Speech free?
FreeReader | Text to Speech is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, LightReadr or FreeReader | Text to Speech?
LightReadr and FreeReader | Text to Speech are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do LightReadr or FreeReader | Text to Speech have ads?
Neither LightReadr nor FreeReader | Text to Speech shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LightReadr or FreeReader | Text to Speech?
LightReadr ships an update every 4 days, and FreeReader | Text to Speech every 5 days. Most recently, LightReadr was updated on October 31, 2026 and FreeReader | Text to Speech on October 24, 2026.

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