Aloud vs Speechify
Both apps read text aloud on an iPhone, and that’s about where the overlap ends. Speechify is a text-to-speech platform for documents, the web and study, on lots of devices. Aloud is an audiobook reader for iPhone and iPad, and it’s mostly about books. Which one suits you depends on what you read.
I make Aloud, so weigh that. Every Speechify fact below comes from Speechify’s own website or its App Store listing, checked in September 2026.
Side by side
| Aloud | Speechify | |
|---|---|---|
| Main use | Books: EPUB, text PDF, public-domain catalogue | Documents, articles, PDFs, email |
| Free tier | Free catalogue plus your first import | 10 voices it describes as “robotic sounding”, up to 1.5x speed |
| Paid | Optional Aloud Unlimited, as a subscription or a one-time purchase | Premium subscription |
| Voices and languages | 52 voices, including premium Lifelike voices on newer iPhones | 1,000+ voices and 60+ languages on Premium |
| Scanning paper / camera | No | Yes, Scan & Listen on Premium |
| Built-in free books | 125,000+ public-domain titles and 20,000+ human LibriVox recordings | Not a feature of the listing |
| Platforms | iPhone and iPad (iOS 16+) | iOS, Android, Chrome, Edge, Mac, Windows and web; iOS app requires iOS 17 or later |
| Tracking (App Store privacy label) | No tracking | Lists Identifiers under “Data Used to Track You” |
Where Speechify is better
- Paper and scans. Speechify Premium includes Scan & Listen for physical pages. Aloud can’t read scanned documents at all. Why scanned PDFs have no text.
- Other devices. With apps and extensions for Android, Chrome, Edge, Mac, Windows and the web, Speechify works off the phone too. Aloud is iPhone and iPad only.
- Voices and languages. Speechify lists more than a thousand voices and over 60 languages on Premium, including celebrity voices such as Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow. Aloud has 52.
- Study tools. Speechify Premium adds AI summaries and chat, and imports from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive. Aloud has none of that. It just reads.
If most of what you want read is work documents, web pages and printed handouts, and you use more than one device, Speechify is the more complete tool.
Where Aloud is better
- Books. Aloud splits an EPUB on its real chapters, keeps your place in each book and skips repeated PDF headers and page numbers. It behaves like an audiobook player, because that’s what it is.
- A free library. 125,000+ public-domain books from Project Gutenberg and Open Library, and 20,000+ human recordings from LibriVox, in one search with no account.
- No hourly cap on listening to the public-domain catalogue.
- Privacy. Narration is generated on the iPhone, so your books never get uploaded, and there’s no account to make.
- You can own it. Aloud Unlimited comes as a one-time purchase as well as a subscription, and it lets you export a book as an M4B file.
- Older devices. Aloud runs on iOS 16. Speechify’s current iOS app needs iOS 17.
Offline listening
Aloud’s voices run on the device, so anything you’ve imported plays in aeroplane mode. Speechify announced on-device iOS voices for offline reading in December 2025. The announcement doesn’t say which plan includes them, so check in the app if offline matters to you.
Which to pick
Pick Speechify if you listen to documents, the web and paper across several devices and want AI study features. Pick Aloud if you listen to books, whether classics or your own DRM-free files, on an iPhone, and want it private and offline. Some people use both, which is reasonable.
Aloud for books on iPhone
125,000+ free public-domain books plus your own DRM-free EPUBs and PDFs, narrated on the device. You don't need an account.
Common questions
Is Speechify free?
Speechify has a free plan. Its pricing page lists it as 10 voices, which it calls robotic-sounding, and speeds up to 1.5x. The natural voices, higher speeds and scanning are in Premium, which is a subscription.
Can Aloud scan paper pages like Speechify?
No. Aloud reads text EPUBs and text PDFs, not scanned PDFs or camera scans. If you need to listen to paper, Speechify's Scan & Listen does that job.
Which works offline?
Aloud generates its narration on the iPhone, so imported books play without a connection. Speechify announced on-device iOS voices for offline reading in December 2025, but its announcement doesn't say which plan includes them.
Which is better for classic novels?
Aloud, because the public-domain catalogue is included and free, with human LibriVox recordings. Speechify is centred on the documents you bring to it rather than a catalogue of books.
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