Comparison

Claro ScanPen vs Sensory Scribe

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

Head to head
About

Claro ScanPen

This app allows you to take a photo of printed text and have it read aloud to you instantly. It uses OCR technology to convert images to text and supports multiple languages. It's ideal for students, professionals, and anyone needing auditory access to printed materials, even without an internet connection.

Highlights
  • Photo capture of printed text
  • Selectable text for audio playback
  • Instant human-quality voice output
  • Offline functionality
  • Multi-language support
  • OCR technology
  • Copy and share text
Features
Read full description

Need to listen to printed text spoken aloud - at school, in a test or exam, at work or at home? Use Claro ScanPen to photo your printed text document, letter, test paper - then select the text with your finger (or stylus), and hear it spoken straight back to you. Instantly! No internet connection required. Claro ScanPen advances reading aloud support. It gives access to printed text materials and documents for all, in a wide range of languages. Using your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, simply: • Take a photo of the text or select a photo of the text document from your camera roll. • Highlight with your finger or stylus which section of text you want to hear spoken to you. • Listen as Claro ScanPen instantly reads the text back to you using a human quality voice in a language of your choice. With your finger (or stylus) you can highlight all of the text, word by word or line by line. Tap anywhere to stop the speech. Claro ScanPen can also be used with the built in iOS VoiceOver accessibility feature, allowing low vision and blind users to access text. Claro ScanPen has no access to the internet or any reference material, so is perfect to use as a computer reader under exam and test conditions, helping students who cannot read text very well (e.g. students with dyslexia) to listen to the exam test paper questions and information. It can also be used for quickly converting class handout materials, printed presentations, instructions, books - in fact anything containing printed texts. Great for independent access and learning. Claro ScanPen uses the latest premium Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to convert your picture into text and uses iOS system voices to read the text back to you. The OCR in Claro ScanPen fully supports the recognition of text in the following languages: • English • Danish • Dutch • French • German • Italian • Norwegian • Portuguese • Spanish • Swedish Simply select the voice that matches the language of your text to hear it read back correctly. Higher-quality Nuance Expressive and Acapela voices are available to purchase in-app. Claro ScanPen is a great addition to the popular Claro Reading and Writing support apps ClaroSpeak and ClaroPDF. Claro ScanPen does not require internet access to function. Explore using the Apple iOS Guided Access feature to lock the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone into a single app, for more secure and controlled usage. Tap iOS Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access to set up Guided Access. Selected text can be copied to the clipboard by enabling the advanced setting in iOS Settings. A share button can be enabled in advanced settings in iOS Settings. This lets you export your image to other apps, email and other destinations. Now supports drag and drop of the scanned text, to apps that support text, such as Notes. Requires iOS 11 and an iPad that supports multi-tasking. *** Minimum camera spec: 2MP *** If you require any product support please email us at support@clarosoftware.com. We cannot respond to any support requests made via the App Store review channel, so please email us first.

About

Sensory Scribe

Features
Read full description

Sensory Scribe is here to help you out with a handy recording and instant text transcription tool. Sensory Scribe captures text live from the audio recording and you can use it even when you’re offline or phone is in Airplane mode. Storing the original recording of a live meeting, event, medical appointment or lecture as an audio file is always a good idea. And having an instant transcription of the whole event is helpful for students, employees, family and customers alike. A great new accessibility app. External iPad or iPhone microphone recommended for recording at a distance. Sensory Scribe Mobile turns your iPhone or iPad into a live transcription tool. Record speech, see your words appear in real time, and annotate important moments with color-coded markers -- all processed on your device with no internet connection required. A great new accessibility and productivity app. REAL-TIME LOCAL TRANSCRIPTION Tap record and start speaking. Sensory Scribe Mobile captures audio and performs speech recognition simultaneously, displaying words as they are spoken by any speaker in range. A dual-view display shows finalized text in the main area and live recognition results below, so you always see exactly what is being captured. You can look back at the history of the transcription whilst the recording continues. COLOR-CODED MARKERS Five marker types -- Page (purple), Red, Green, Blue, and Black -- let you tag moments during recording with a single tap. Use them however you like: section breaks, action items, urgent flags, questions, speaker changes or general annotations. Each marker is saved with a precise timestamp. SYNCHRONIZED PLAYBACK Review any individual recording with a visual waveform display (in app purchase option). Words highlight in sync with the audio as it plays. Colored marker indicators appear directly on the waveform, and Previous/Next buttons let you jump between markers instantly. Add, edit, or delete markers during playback to refine your annotations. RECORDING MANAGEMENT Save recordings with custom names. Duplicate recordings for separate annotation passes. Share complete recordings -- audio, transcript, word timing data, and markers -- as a single ZIP archive via AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or any other sharing method. Review any individual recording with a visual waveform display (in app purchase option). PRIVATE BY DESIGN All speech recognition runs entirely on your device. No audio, text, or personal data is sent to any external server. No internet connection is required for recording or transcription. Your recordings are yours alone. BUILT FOR - Meeting recording and instant transcription with decision and action item tracking - Lecture capture with concept tagging for study review - Interview recording with real-time quote highlighting - Personal note-taking for ideas, observations, and voice memos - Field research documentation with categorized annotations Requires iOS 16.6 or later. Works on iPhone and iPad. Sensory Scribe creates a zip file containing the audio file and text transcription, so you can save in the cloud or share. The marker option allows you to tag important points such as change of speakers or actions. If you import that Scribe .zip file into Sensory Scribe for Windows, you can see the markers, the full audio and text transcription for further review. Sensory Scribe doesnt require an account to be created, no login needed and no adverts included. Optional in-app purchase to unlock individual audio recording and transcription review within the app. To review or share the individual audio and text files, open your Files app, unzip the recording zip file and open the individual audio or text file. External iPad or iPhone microphone recommended for recording at a distance.

Screenshots

Claro ScanPen4 screens
Sensory Scribe4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sensory Scribe at Free against Claro ScanPen's $9.99. Claro ScanPen's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.6). On ads, 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

Sensory Scribe is free to download; Claro ScanPen costs $9.99 up front. Claro ScanPen sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and Sensory Scribe sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Claro ScanPen ships an update every 2 months, Sensory Scribe every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Claro ScanPen versus Sensory Scribe: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClaro ScanPenSensory Scribe
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.2 (147 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews23.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings147 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size136 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperClaro Software LimitedSensory App House Ltd

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Claro ScanPen

One-time11
  • Allison$1.99
  • Ava$1.99
  • Samantha$1.99
Show 8 more
  • Tom$1.99
  • Susan$1.99
  • Heather$1.99
  • Ryan$1.99
  • Micah$1.99
  • Rod$1.99
  • Tyler$1.99
  • Will$1.99
1 purchases

Sensory Scribe

One-time1
  • Unlock Playback$0.99

Questions

Is Claro ScanPen free?
Claro ScanPen costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Sensory Scribe free?
Sensory Scribe is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Claro ScanPen or Sensory Scribe have ads?
Neither Claro ScanPen nor Sensory Scribe shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Claro ScanPen or Sensory Scribe?
Claro ScanPen ships an update every 2 months, and Sensory Scribe every 5 months. Most recently, Claro ScanPen was updated on September 22, 2026 and Sensory Scribe on September 9, 2026.

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