Comparison

OpenRead vs Aloudy

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

Head to head
About

OpenRead

Transform your books, documents, and web pages into audiobooks. Import content, select a voice, and listen offline with customizable playback options. Offers a premium upgrade for enhanced features and personalized voices.

Highlights
  • Reads books, documents, and web pages aloud
  • Offline listening with downloaded voice packs
  • Customizable playback speed and voices
  • Bookmark and note-taking functionality
  • Screen-off listening with lock screen controls
  • Personalized voice creation with PRO upgrade
Features
Read full description

Turn your books into hours of listening, right on iPhone and iPad. OpenRead reads books, documents and web pages aloud with speech generated on your device. Import your content, choose a voice and tap Listen. Once a voice pack is downloaded, you can listen offline, even in airplane mode. READ AND LISTEN TO YOUR CONTENT • Import text files, EPUBs and PDFs, or paste text directly. • Open web pages in the app and extract the content to read. • Follow the sentence being read and tap any sentence to listen from there. • Choose continuous scrolling or page turning, and adjust text size and colors. • Save bookmarks, notes and book groups; each book remembers where you stopped. LISTEN YOUR WAY • Read books in more than 30 languages, using downloadable voice packs or the iOS system voices already available. • Preview reading voices before downloading a voice pack. • Adjust speed, change chapters and set a sleep timer. • Keep listening with the screen off, with controls on the Lock Screen or your headphones. • Hide ads, translator signatures and lines repeated across chapters with Clean Up Book. MORE CHOICE WITH OPENREAD PRO • Maximum energy-saving mode helps you listen longer with a cooler device. • Premium reading voice packs that run on your device. • Your Voice: record about 15 seconds to create a personal reading voice for compatible PRO readers. PRO is an optional upgrade: pay once, keep it for life, with no subscription. Everything that was free stays free. PRIVATE FROM THE START No account, no ads and no behavioral analytics. Books and voices are processed on your device. Recordings used to create a voice are never uploaded to a server. OpenRead reads the content you bring; it does not sell books or provide a story catalog. Voice packs are downloaded separately when you choose to use them. An internet connection is needed to download voice packs, open web pages and make purchases. For iPhone and iPad, running iOS 16 or later. Licenses and credits: https://opr.vuba.one/credits.php

About

Aloudy

This app transforms various text formats, including documents, web pages, and scanned images, into natural-sounding speech. It offers offline playback with word-by-word highlighting, making it ideal for listening to content on the go or for users who prefer auditory learning.

Highlights
  • Reads PDFs, e-books, documents, and web articles
  • Scans and reads text from photos
  • Natural AI voices with adjustable speed
  • Offline playback with word highlighting
  • Background playback and lock screen controls
  • Organize library with folders and tags
Features
Read full description

Listen to anything you need to read. Aloudy turns PDFs, e-books, documents, web articles and even photos of printed pages into natural speech, and highlights every word as it is read. The voices are neural AI models that run entirely on your iPhone or iPad. After a one-time voice download, everything works offline, even in airplane mode. There is no account and no sign-up, your documents never leave your device, and there are no ads. READ ANYTHING • PDF and EPUB in their original layout, with the spoken sentence highlighted right on the page • FB2, Word (DOCX), TXT, Markdown, HTML and RTF files • Web articles: share a link from Safari or any app • Paste or type your own text • Scan a page or pick a photo: text is recognized on your device • Built-in browser: open any website and listen to the page, with the text highlighted • Classic books: pick from more than 70,000 public domain titles and listen FOLLOW ALONG • The current sentence and word are highlighted as you listen • Tap any sentence to start reading from there • Table of contents for PDFs and e-books • Search inside a document • Pick up exactly where you left off NATURAL AI VOICES • 46 neural voices, including natural American and British English voices and Mandarin Chinese voices • Multilingual voices that read 31 languages • Adjust the reading speed to your pace READ YOUR WAY • Reading themes, fonts, text size and line spacing • Folders and tags to keep your library organized MADE FOR LISTENING • Background playback with lock screen and Control Center controls • Keeps playing after calls and when you switch headphones Great for long articles, textbooks and reports, for listening while you walk, commute or cook, and for anyone who finds listening easier than reading, including people with dyslexia or ADHD. FREE AND PRO Aloudy is free to try: the free plan reads the beginning of each book or document; Pro reads everything and unlocks all 46 voices, as a monthly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Terms of Use: https://aloudy.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://aloudy.app/privacy

Screenshots

OpenRead4 screens
Aloudy4 screens

Verdict

The call

OpenRead and Aloudy both sit at 4.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of OpenRead's written reviews are positive against 33% of Aloudy's. OpenRead also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). 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. OpenRead sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Aloudy sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for OpenRead against 4.0 for Aloudy. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 2 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of OpenRead's written reviews are positive against 33% of Aloudy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

OpenRead ships an update every 2 weeks, Aloudy weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
OpenRead versus Aloudy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpenReadAloudy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (2 ratings)4.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings22
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVu BachAlexey Nenastyev

Customer experience

OpenRead

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Aloudy

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

OpenRead

One-time2
  • Buy Me a Coffee$0.99
  • OpenRead Pro Lifetime$3.99
3 purchases

Aloudy

Subscriptions2
  • Aloudy Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Aloudy Pro Yearly$29.901 Year
One-time1
  • Reader Pro Lifetime$29.00

Questions

Is OpenRead free?
OpenRead is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Aloudy free?
Aloudy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, OpenRead or Aloudy?
OpenRead and Aloudy are both rated 4.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do OpenRead or Aloudy have ads?
Neither OpenRead nor Aloudy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, OpenRead or Aloudy?
OpenRead ships an update every 2 weeks, and Aloudy weekly. Most recently, OpenRead was updated on November 10, 2026 and Aloudy on October 31, 2026.

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