Six good ways to have books, documents and articles read aloud on iPhone and iPad, and who each one suits.
Updated
For Kindle books and the lowest price, Readible. For the most familiar name, Speechify. For ElevenLabs voices, ElevenReader. For a long-standing accessibility reader, Voice Dream Reader. For a free web and app reader, NaturalReader. For nothing to install, iPhone's built-in Speak Screen.
We make Readible, so we've kept the descriptions factual and listed prices only where the company publishes them.
Best for: Kindle books, and the lowest paid price
Reads your Kindle library, EPUBs, PDFs and webpages aloud with natural AI voices and sentence highlighting, on iPhone and iPad. On-device voices work offline for free. Free plan with 10 hours of cloud voices every 30 days; Pro is $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year. See Readible.
Best for: A widely known all-rounder
One of the best-known read-aloud apps, available on phones, the web and as a browser extension. It has a free plan; Speechify Premium is listed at $29 a month or $139 a year. Readible vs Speechify.
Best for: ElevenLabs voices
Made by ElevenLabs and known for its AI voices. Reads ebooks, PDFs and articles. The free plan includes 10 hours a month; Ultra is $11 a month or $99 a year. Readible vs ElevenReader.
Best for: Long-time accessibility users
A long-standing reader that is popular with blind, low-vision and dyslexic readers, with deep settings for voices and navigation. It moved to a yearly subscription in 2023.
Best for: A free reader on the web and phone
Text to speech on the web and in an app, with a free plan that includes a daily allowance of listening.
Best for: Nothing to install
Built into iOS: turn it on in Settings › Accessibility › Spoken Content and swipe down with two fingers to hear what's on screen. Free, but it uses the built-in voices and can lose its place on long documents. How to use it with Kindle.
What do you want to listen to? If it's Kindle books you already own, pick an app that reads your Kindle library. For PDFs and articles, every app here works.
Do you need offline listening? On-device voices keep working on a plane or underground; cloud voices sound more natural but need a connection.
How much will you listen? Free plans suit an hour or two a week. Heavy listeners should compare yearly prices, which range from about $25 to $139 among the apps above.
It depends on what you read. Readible is best for Kindle books and price, Speechify is the best known, ElevenReader is known for ElevenLabs voices, Voice Dream Reader suits long-time accessibility users, and Speak Screen is free and built in.
Yes. Speak Screen is built into iOS, and Readible, Speechify, ElevenReader and NaturalReader all have free plans with limits.
Readible reads books from your Kindle library after you sign in to Amazon in the app. Speak Screen can read the Kindle app's screen too.
Readible's on-device voices work with no connection on every plan, including the free one, and Speak Screen uses the iPhone's built-in voices offline.
Readible