Comparison

ことせかい vs Yomiage

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

Head to head
About

ことせかい

Features
Read full description

NovelSpeaker is application to read the shown novel which is "Let's become a novelist" aloud. "listen" hears a novel when I do walking time and housework. Because I cope with background reproduction, I can continue hearing a novel even when carrying out other activities with iPhone. * quick play: 1. select "Web Import" tab 2. open some web novel 3. display the text of the novel 4. hit "Import" button 5. select "Bookshelf" tab 6. hit novel column 7. select speech start point. (hold down text area) 8. hit "Speak" button * background play This application support background playing. Check Control-Center and Lockscreen for background play. But, background play lets a lot of batteries wear out.

About

Yomiage

Features
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Listen to PDFs, EPUB books, Word files and web articles with every core reading tool included at no cost: no account, no ads, no tracking. Follow along as each sentence is highlighted, search and bookmark passages, and keep listening through long documents. Core reading runs on your device and works offline. A note on voices: Yomiage reads with the voices built into your iPhone. For the most natural sound, download an Enhanced or Premium voice in Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices. (Siri voices can't be used by third-party apps.) ■ READ YOUR DOCUMENTS ALOUD • PDFs with selectable text, EPUB, DOCX and TXT. Scanned or photographed pages aren't supported (no OCR) • Web articles: paste a URL, or share from Safari and other apps • Sentence-by-sentence highlighting that follows the voice • Speed, pitch and pauses between paragraphs • Sleep timer (5–60 minutes) for commutes, chores and bedtime • Multi-part documents play continuously • Full-text search and bookmarks • English and Japanese voices are chosen automatically from the document's language • Drama Mode reads dialogue and narration in different voices • Touch and hold a word to set how it should be pronounced ■ LISTEN & PRACTICE: AUDIO AND VIDEO PLAYER Import mp3 / wav / m4a / mp4 / mov for listening practice: • A-B repeat for any passage you choose • Waveform scrubbing to jump back instantly • Speed presets • A mini player that keeps playing while you move around the app • Lock screen and headphone controls, background playback ■ LEARNING JAPANESE? 17,000+ CLASSICS BUILT IN Browse and download public-domain Japanese literature from the built-in Aozora Bunko catalog (Natsume Sōseki, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kenji Miyazawa and more). The texts are in Japanese; their furigana is used to choose readings. ■ HANDS-FREE AND ACCESSIBLE • Siri and Shortcuts to play and continue • Spotlight search for your documents (you can turn it off) • VoiceOver and Dynamic Type support • An alternative for people who prefer listening because of dyslexia, eye strain or low vision • Split view and keyboard shortcuts on iPad ■ PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account or sign-in, no ads, no behavioral data collection, no tracking • No third-party SDKs • Imported documents are read with on-device iOS voices Importing a web article needs an internet connection. Optional AI features send the text you choose to the provider whose API key you set up, only after you agree, and you can withdraw consent at any time. ■ YOMIAGE PREMIUM (OPTIONAL, AUTO-RENEWING SUBSCRIPTION) Everything above works without Premium. Premium unlocks integrations for people who already have OpenAI or Speechify API access: • Text cleanup, chapter insights and summaries, using your own OpenAI API key • Cloud voices, emotion styles and MP3 export, using your own Speechify API key Important: Premium includes no AI credits, API access or cloud voice time. Those providers bill you separately, and without your own API key the Premium features won't work. Premium is offered monthly or yearly. The price for your region is shown in the app before you buy. ■ SUBSCRIPTION TERMS • Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. • Manage or cancel any time in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. • Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ • Privacy Policy: https://legal-pages-hiros-projects-fdd12c60.vercel.app/privacy#tts-reader-en

Screenshots

ことせかい3 screens
Yomiage4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: ことせかい at 4 against Yomiage's 2. ことせかい also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
ことせかい versus Yomiage: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterことせかいYomiage
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews96.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size148 MB6 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperTakuji Iimurahiroyuki matsuzaki

In-app purchases

None

ことせかい

No in-app purchases

None

Yomiage

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ことせかい free?
ことせかい is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Yomiage free?
Yomiage is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ことせかい or Yomiage have ads?
Neither ことせかい nor Yomiage shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ことせかい or Yomiage?
ことせかい ships an update every 3 weeks, and Yomiage every 3 weeks. Most recently, ことせかい was updated on October 24, 2026 and Yomiage on October 17, 2026.

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