Text to Speech vs Lectern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Text to Speech
This app transforms text from websites, documents, and images into natural-sounding speech. It supports over 40 languages and allows for customizable playback speed and voice selection. Listen to content offline or in the background while multitasking.
- Listen to documents and web articles
- Extract text from images
- Multiple voices and 40+ languages
- Adjustable playback speed and accent
- Queue content for continuous listening
- Offline listening support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Too busy to read? Sit back, relax, and let Speaky read documents and news from any website aloud with natural voices and adjustable speeds. Simply import a document or provide a link to your web article, and Speaky will extract the main content, detect the language, and read it to you. You can retrieve content from any website, import files from the cloud, or scan documents with your camera. Key Features: - Listen to documents and web articles - Extract text from images and have it read aloud - Choose from multiple voices across 40+ languages - Customize playback with adjustable speed and accent - Create lists and queue content for continuous listening - Clean and format text automatically with Smart Cleanup - Full support for all document types (pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf, odt, epub) - Full support for all image types (jpg, png, gif, tiff, bmp, heic) - Enjoy Speaky in the background with complete offline access "Articles in your Speaky queue play without an internet connection, so you can breeze through a New Yorker treatise as you ride the subway or catch up on world news on your next international flight." - New York Magazine "Speaky is a handy tool that helps you multitask by listening instead of reading. Whether it’s an entertaining article on the Web or an important PDF for work, you can give your eyes a rest or just get more done with this intuitive voice reader." - AppAdvice __________ Speaky Pro: Unlock unlimited listening and more languages for the scanner. Choose a monthly or annual subscription, or unlock Pro forever with a one-time Lifetime purchase. You can manage or cancel your subscriptions in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://sandratra.com/legal/terms
Lectern
Read full descriptionHide full description
Listen to anything. Lectern turns the things you already read into something you can listen to. Import a PDF, an EPUB book, a Word document, notes, an article, or a photo of a printed page, press play, and hear it in a natural voice, generated entirely on your iPhone. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your documents never leave your phone. Text extraction, page scanning and speech generation all run on the device. No account, no upload, no server. WORKS OFFLINE. NO CREDITS. The voices are built in. Listen for as long as you like, on a plane or in a tunnel, with nothing metered. MADE FOR LONG LISTENING Whole books, textbooks, reports. Playback keeps going with the screen locked, the lock screen and Control Center show what's playing, and Lectern remembers exactly where you stopped, to the sentence, even after the app is closed. FOLLOW ALONG The sentence being read is highlighted and the page scrolls with it. Tap any sentence to start there. Skip by chapter, by 15 seconds, or scrub the whole document. YOUR PACE Half speed to three times speed, and it still sounds like a person. WHAT IT READS • PDF, including scanned PDFs (on-device text recognition) • EPUB books with chapters and covers • Word documents (.docx), text, Markdown, RTF • Pasted text from anywhere • Photos of pages, from the camera or your library LECTERN PRO Lectern Pro unlocks whole books and long documents, an unlimited library, all ten studio voices, and audio export. The free version lets you listen to real documents first, so you can hear the voices before you decide. Lectern Pro is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel in Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions. Privacy policy: https://luke-fairbanks.github.io/privacy-policy/lectern/ Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Text to Speech at 3 against Lectern's 1. Text to Speech also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Text to Speech sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Lectern sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Text to Speech | Lectern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (864 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 78.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 864 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 190 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sandratra Razafindralambo | Faba Development LLC |
In-app purchases
Text to Speech
- Speaky Pro (Monthly)$1.991 Month
- Speaky Pro (Annual)$4.991 Year
- Speaky Pro (Welcome)$7.99
- Speaky Pro (Lifetime)$9.99
Lectern
- Lectern Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
- Lectern Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Lectern Pro Lifetime$59.99
Questions
Is Text to Speech free?
Is Lectern free?
Do Text to Speech or Lectern have ads?
Other comparisons















