Comparison

Aloud!, text to speech reader vs Aloud

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

Head to head
About

Aloud!, text to speech reader

Transform documents, articles, and eBooks into audio with this text-to-speech reader. Enjoy offline playback, customizable voices, and automatic progress tracking for a seamless listening experience anywhere, anytime. It's an ideal tool for productivity and accessibility.

Highlights
  • Hear PDF, DOCX, EPUB & web pages
  • Background & offline playback
  • Auto progress tracking
  • Customizable speech rate and pitch
  • Synchronized word highlighting
  • Universal format support
Features
Read full description

Reading on YOUR TERMS - Anywhere, Anytime, Anything Welcome to Aloud!, the ultimate Text-to-Speech (TTS) reader that transforms your content into audio. Turn your documents, articles, and eBooks into a personal audio library. Aloud! is the perfect voice reader for your commute, workout, or study session. It’s a powerful accessibility tool for anyone who needs reading support, and an essential productivity app for those who want to give their eyes a rest. ■ HEAR PDF, DOCX, EPUB & WEB PAGES Finally, a reader that handles everything. From critical PDF reports and Word (DOCX) documents to your favorite EPUB or Mobi eBook. Use our integrated browser to instantly import and listen to web pages, saving them for offline access. No more format juggling. ■ BACKGROUND & OFFLINE PLAY Aloud! works where you do. With true offline playback for all saved files, you're never limited by a connection. Continue listening with your screen locked or while using other apps—your audio plays seamlessly in the background. ■ AUTO PROGRESS TRACKING Never lose your place. Aloud! automatically remembers your position in every document and article. Pick up right where you left off, every single time. ■ YOUR VOICE, YOUR CHOICE Tailor your listening experience. Adjust the speech rate and pitch to find a voice that's perfect for you. Follow along with synchronized word highlighting, an essential tool for study, proofreading, and improving reading comprehension. THE ALOUD! ADVANTAGE: • Trusted Since 2014: A decade of continuous improvement and user-focused updates. • Universal Format Support: Our powerful engine supports PDF, Microsoft Office (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX), iWorks Pages, OpenOffice (ODT, ODP), EPUB, MOBI, AZW, FB2, TXT, RTF, HTML, and even files inside ZIP, RAR, & 7Z archives. • Accessibility Focused: A vital tool for users with dyslexia, visual impairments, and other reading challenges. Stop reading, start listening. Download Aloud! today and reimagine your content.

About

Aloud

Convert any readable content into spoken audio with natural-sounding voices. Save articles, PDFs, or pasted text to listen to later, even offline. Customize playback speed and enjoy a private, ad-free listening experience.

Highlights
  • Convert articles, PDFs, and text to speech
  • On-device voice generation for privacy
  • Offline listening support
  • Adjustable playback speed (0.5x to 3x)
  • Hands-free autoplay and lock-screen controls
  • Save and organize content for later
Features
Read full description

No subscription. No ads. No tracking. Nothing you read ever leaves your iPhone. Aloud turns anything you can read into something you can listen to. Share an article from any browser, open a PDF or an EPUB from Files, or paste any text — Aloud reads it aloud in a natural voice, sentence by sentence, with your place kept perfectly. FOR THE READING LIST YOU NEVER GET TO Saving articles is easy; finding an hour to sit and read them is not. Aloud turns that pile into something you get through on the commute, the walk, the washing-up — so you keep up with the world without giving up an evening. Turn on autoplay and it announces the next piece and keeps going, hands free. AND FASTER, IF YOU WANT IT Read from 0.5× to 3× without the voice turning into a chipmunk, and switch on Shorten Pauses to trim the silence at every full stop. At 2× a thirty-minute article fits a fifteen-minute walk. The voices are generated entirely on your iPhone. There is no server doing the talking, which is why Aloud never needs an account, never meters your listening, and keeps working in airplane mode. Each voice downloads its model once — about 190 MB for the English voices, about 390 MB for the one that reads the other thirty languages — and after that, the internet is optional. LISTEN TO ANYTHING • Web articles — share from any browser or paste a link, Aloud extracts just the story • PDFs — including scanned ones, recognized on-device • Books — open an EPUB without copy protection and start from any chapter • Any text you paste, from notes to your own drafts • Your reading list — import your saves from Pocket or Instapaper TWO LANGUAGES, AND IPHONE DUO • Translate a piece on your iPhone and read the original and the translation together • On iPhone Duo, the cover screen is a large player and the open display shows the page A READER, NOT A MEDIA PLAYER • The sentence being spoken is lit; the rest of the page waits quietly • A margin rail shows the whole document — hold and slide to scrub • Your position is saved the moment it changes, per document • A speed dial from 0.5× to 3×, and time remaining that respects it • A sleep timer that fades out instead of cutting you off mid-word • Reader mode: hide the player, lift the whole page, read with your eyes • Find in article, and your choice of size, font, paper and column width MADE FOR LISTENING ON THE MOVE • Keeps reading with the screen locked • Lock-screen and AirPods controls: play, pause, skip 15 seconds • Optional autoplay: when a piece ends, Aloud announces the next and keeps reading • Two shelves — to read, and read — each sorted your way by date, length, or title, with search across titles and sites • An optional unread count on the app icon • Your place remembered in everything FOURTEEN NATURAL VOICES Ten US and UK English voices with real warmth, and four voices that read thirty more languages — all generated on your iPhone. Anything else falls back to the system voice that speaks it. Audition any voice with a tap. PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE Once a voice is on your iPhone, Aloud makes no network requests to read to you. Articles are fetched by your phone the way a browser would, the voice models download once from a public host, and everything after that — extraction, speech, your library, your listening history — stays on the device. The App Privacy label says "Data Not Collected" because there is nowhere to collect it to. ONE PURCHASE, YOURS FOREVER Aloud is free to try: the shelf holds three pieces, with every feature included — the natural voices, PDFs and scans, the lock-screen player, all of it. A single purchase lets the shelf hold as many pieces as you like, forever. No subscription, nothing recurring, and your listening is never metered either way. If you read with your ears — long articles, research papers, contracts, fan fiction, your own writing — Aloud was built for you. And if you rely on spoken text every day, we would especially love to hear what you need next.

Screenshots

Aloud!, text to speech reader4 screens
Aloud4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Aloud at 100% against Aloud!, text to speech reader's 43%. Aloud also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and ads (none vs shown). Aloud!, text to speech reader's advantage is ratings volume (243 vs 2) and iOS requirement (14.2 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support 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. Aloud!, text to speech reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Aloud sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Aloud holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Aloud!, text to speech reader has 243 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of Aloud!, text to speech reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of Aloud's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Aloud!, text to speech reader ships an update fortnightly, Aloud every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Aloud!, text to speech reader versus Aloud: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAloud!, text to speech readerAloud
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (243 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews43.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings243 — better2
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.2 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB30 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperChun Kai LauFotios Avgidis

Customer experience

Aloud!, text to speech reader

All ratings242 ratings
Positive82.2%
Neutral3.3%
Negative14.5%
Written reviews504 reviews
Positive43.3%
Neutral11.9%
Negative44.8%

Aloud

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

Bugs and requests

Aloud!, text to speech reader

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • App crashes when opening large files
  • App crashes on startup after recent updates
  • Save function fails to work
  • Text repetition bug - reads same paragraph repeatedly
  • Cursor position doesn't match audio being read
Show 12 more
  • PDF files load with no spaces between words
  • ePub files load in reverse order
  • Language selection doesn't work
  • App freezes when loading documents
  • Upgrade widget broken - cannot complete purchase
  • Purchased app reverts to free version
  • Ads cause app to crash when closed
  • Mispronounces special characters as 'to the power of'
  • Cannot edit text after typing
  • Incompatibility with iOS 12.5.5 and older versions
  • Scrolling to previous location causes crashes
  • Character recognition failures (fi, fl, ff)

Requested features

14 requests
  • Ability to set custom starting point for reading
  • Better voice options and quality
  • Ad-free paid version
  • Improved PDF/ePub integration
  • Better language support (Vietnamese, Dutch, etc.)
Show 9 more
  • Screen lock prevention during reading
  • Repeat/loop functionality
  • Better character recognition (fi, fl, ff combinations)
  • Direct PDF opening from other apps
  • Better voice selection for different dialects
  • Skip opening statements/introductions
  • Improved keyboard handling
  • Dark mode or customizable background
  • Better integration with other apps

Aloud

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Aloud!, text to speech reader

One-time1
  • Premium Version$6.99
1 purchases

Aloud

One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$9.99

Questions

Is Aloud!, text to speech reader free?
Aloud!, text to speech reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Aloud free?
Aloud is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Aloud!, text to speech reader or Aloud?
Aloud is rated higher. Aloud!, text to speech reader averages 4.3 out of 5 from 243 ratings, while Aloud averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Aloud!, text to speech reader or Aloud have ads?
Aloud!, text to speech reader shows ads; Aloud does not.
Which is updated more often, Aloud!, text to speech reader or Aloud?
Aloud!, text to speech reader ships an update fortnightly, and Aloud every 2 weeks. Most recently, Aloud!, text to speech reader was updated on October 24, 2026 and Aloud on October 25, 2026.

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