WithAudio vs. Speechify
Speechify is a capable text-to-speech app. It reads articles, PDFs, and books aloud. A lot of people like it. That is not the argument.
The argument is the bill.
Speechify Premium is $29 a month, or $139 a year on the yearly plan. That is what their pricing page lists in the U.S. as of September 2026. App Store prices and regional offers can differ. The shape of the deal does not: you rent the voices. Stop paying, and the product you were using goes away.
WithAudio is a reader with on-device text-to-speech. Desktop licenses start at $9.99 once. iPhone is a separate App Store unlock, currently $1.99 during the Released period, regularly $3.99. No subscription. Updates stay included. Your documents stay on your device.
One year of Speechify annual already costs about fourteen Personal desktop licenses. Three years is $417. Five years is $695. WithAudio is still $9.99 forever.
We wrote about the broader version of this in Why Everything Doesn't Have to Be a Subscription. This post is the concrete version: Speechify versus WithAudio, side by side.
The price, in actual dollars
| Speechify Premium | WithAudio | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Subscription | One-time purchase |
| Monthly | $29 / month ($348 / year) | — |
| Yearly | $139 / year | — |
| Desktop | Included in Premium | $9.99 Personal (1 device) or $14.99 Professional (2 devices) |
| Phone | Included in Premium | $1.99 launch / $3.99 regular, iPhone only |
| After you pay | Renews until you cancel | You own the app |
| Try first | Free tier with robotic voices and a 1.5× speed cap | Limited free trial, then a 7-day refund |
A Personal desktop license plus the current iPhone unlock is $11.98. That is less than one month of Speechify billed monthly, and about one twelfth of Speechify billed yearly.
Speechify's yearly plan is the better Speechify deal — $139 instead of $348 — and it is still a recurring charge for software that reads text on a screen you already own.
What you are actually buying
Both apps do the same core job: take something written and let you listen while you follow along.
Speechify Premium, from their own list, is a cloud product with a large catalog: 1,000+ voices, 60+ languages, playback up to 5×, Scan & Listen, AI summaries and chats, cloud-drive integrations, voice typing, AI podcasts, and a voice assistant. It syncs across devices. It wants an account. The free plan exists, but the useful voices and higher speeds sit behind Premium.
WithAudio is a local reader. You import an EPUB, PDF, markdown file, article, or pasted text. You get a clean reading view, sentence-level highlighting, and speech that runs on your machine. Desktop can export MP3 or M4A for a walk later. The Web Companion reads pages in Chrome using the desktop app you already bought. iPhone is the on-the-go version of the same idea: share a link, listen with the screen locked, keep the library on the phone.
The product is smaller on purpose. We do not ship a celebrity-voice marketplace, an AI chat layer, or a cloud library. We ship a reader you can own.
Feature by feature
| Speechify | WithAudio | |
|---|---|---|
| Text-to-speech | Cloud-backed Premium voices | On-device engines (Kokoro, Piper, and others) |
| Follow along | Text highlighting | Sentence highlighting, including on the real PDF page |
| Library | Cloud library, synced | Local library, no account |
| Privacy | Your documents go to their service | Nothing about your documents is sent to a server |
| Export audio | Audiobook-style listening in-app | Local MP3 / M4A export on desktop |
| Browser | Extension that works as part of the Speechify account | Web Companion — free if you already have desktop |
| Desktop | Yes | Mac and Windows |
| iPhone | Yes | Yes — English only for now |
| Android | Yes | No |
| Languages | 60+ | Desktop has a growing set; iPhone is English only |
| Voice catalog | 1,000+ Premium voices | A curated local lineup — listen here |
| Offline | After Premium content is available offline | Native: speech runs on the device |
| AI extras | Summaries, chat, podcasts, dictation | None for now. It reads. |
Privacy is not a footnote
Speechify is a cloud app. That is how sync, Scan & Listen, and the AI features work. Your reading material is processed on their side.
WithAudio does not need your documents in order to read them to you. There is no account on desktop or iPhone. Speech is synthesized locally. Bookmarks, progress, and exports stay on the device you are holding.
If the thing you want read aloud is a draft, a patient note, a contract, or a book you would rather not upload, the architecture matters more than the voice count.
Where Speechify still wins
It would be dishonest to pretend the comparison is only price.
Speechify is stronger if you need Android, dozens of languages on every device, cross-device sync, OCR from a camera, or the AI add-ons. It is a bigger, more polished consumer suite. It also has a free tier if you can live with the robotic voices and the speed cap.
WithAudio is not trying to be that suite for now. Desktop is the full engine: more languages, PDF view, export, Global Capture, the Web Companion. iPhone is the focused English listener. There is no Android app. Desktop and iPhone are separate purchases — a desktop key does not unlock iOS.
If those gaps matter more than the subscription, Speechify may still be the right expensive tool.
Who this is for
Stay on Speechify if you already live in their library across phone, tablet, and laptop, or if celebrity voices and AI chat are the product for you.
Try WithAudio if you want to listen to what you read, keep the files on your own machine, and pay once. Students, researchers, and anyone tired of stacking subscriptions are the people we built it for. The same people who bounced off Speechify's checkout page.
You can try the desktop app first. The free trial is limited, but it is the real product — voices, imports, highlighting — on your computer. If you buy and it is not a fit, there is a seven-day money-back window.
The short version
Speechify charges $29 a month or $139 a year for Premium. WithAudio is $9.99 on one desktop, $14.99 on two, and $1.99 on iPhone right now. One reads in the cloud. The other reads on your device.
That is the comparison. The expensive one is not automatically the better reader.
Pricing · Download desktop · WithAudio for iPhone
Read it. Hear it. Pay once. Get WithAudio.