Read Aloud is a popular text to speech tool. Learn more about Read Aloud pricing options and alternatives.

Read Aloud pricing: Everything you need to know

Accessing and comprehending information is not just about reading—it's about listening too. Read Aloud is one of many popular text to speech tools, ensuring content is accessible to a broader audience, including those with learning disabilities. But as with most technological tools, pricing becomes a crucial factor in adoption.

Let’s explore Read Aloud pricing, but not before we take a look at its key features. We also share the best Read Aloud an alternative, providing potential users a comprehensive guide to making an informed decision.

What is Read Aloud?

Read Aloud is a text to speech (TTS) service. It’s capable of converting anything into text, whether it be Word or Google Docs, news articles, social media posts, or web pages. This makes the app great for multitasking, auditory learners, and those with learning disabilities or reading difficulties along the lines of dyslexia, ADHD, and vision impairments.

Key features of Read Aloud

Despite it being an older text to speech app, Read Aloud offers multiple features that can still be relevant today. Let's peel back the layers of this innovative software and delve deep into its suite of capabilities to see if it fits your needs.

Voices galore

Read Aloud is enriched with over 40 voices from esteemed platforms like Amazon Polly, IBM Watson, and Microsoft. This diverse range offers users a palette of different sounding voices.

Browser extension

The tool isn’t confined to a web app. There's also an add-on extension for web browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Once added-on, it seamlessly integrates with your browsing experience.

TTS website

The Read Aloud website provides a direct portal for users to input their text and receive a basic TTS voiceover. However, it’s a little outdated and feels like a website from the early 2000s for most users.

Customizable experience

Users can change voices, adjust reading speed, and pitch, ensuring a tailored audio experience.

Text highlighting

As the TTS runs, Read Aloud highlights the corresponding text, aiding in comprehension and focus.

Pros and cons of Read Aloud

While Read Aloud is a helpful accessibility tool for many users, its TTS services leave a lot to be desired for others. Here are the most commonly listed pros and cons of Read Aloud by users online.

Read Aloud pros

Read Aloud, while not as advanced as other text to speech software, offers some advantages to its users. Here’s a breakdown of how Read Aloud features can enhance user experience and accessibility:

1. Extension compatibility: Available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, enabling a wide range of laptop users.
2. Customizable voice: You can easily switch and change the voice to your liking, as well as tweak its pitch and speed.
3. Open-source: For the tech-savvy, Read Aloud is open-source, which means the ability to view the code, understand its inner workings, and potentially contribute.
4. Text highlighting: Read Aloud’s text highlighting can enhance the reading experience, especially beneficial for those using it as a learning tool.

Read Aloud cons

As with any technology, Read Aloud has some drawbacks. Here are the top disadvantages of the text to speech platform:

1. Lacks a mobile app: Read Aloud lacks an iOS or Android mobile app, limiting its usability on mobile devices.
2. No offline listening: You need to be connected to the web browser to use it.
3. Support constraints: The support is primarily through an email form, which some users have found to be slower than desired. The platform also lacks tutorials and FAQs.
4. Higher-quality voices behind a paywall: You’ll have to pay to access the better and less robotic-sounding free voices.

Read Aloud pricing

Read Aloud is free to use and install. However, accessing some of the AI voices will require additional purchases. Because Read Aloud is a free text to speech app, its functionality is quite basic and may not meet all of your text to speech needs.

In conclusion: Is Read Aloud worth it?

While Read Aloud offers a commendable free TTS service, its basic functionality, robotic-sounding free voices, and lack of offline capabilities might deter some users. When weighing options, it’s wise to consider both its features and constraints against other players in the market, like Speechify.

Speechify: The best Read Aloud alternative

While Read Aloud has its merits, Speechify sets itself apart by offering dedicated text to speech for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as TTS apps for both iOS and Android, ensuring accessibility no matter the device. With a cutting-edge API, top-tier speech recognition and synthesis technology, and a wide array of features, Speechify is not just a text to speech solution—it's a game-changer for auditory learners, professionals, and anyone in-between.

Speechify also allows you to hear natural-sounding AI voices read text in over 30 different languages, and the voices are very customizable. Additionally, Speechify’s powerful Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capability means users can effortlessly scan physical documents and instantly transform them into audio files.

Sign up for Speechify for free, and explore its many amazing text to speech features today.

FAQ

How do I get Google to read out loud?

Whenever your Android phone’s browser displays a web article, you can say, “Hey, Google, read it” or “Hey, Google, read this page.” It will read aloud the content of the page immediately. To help you follow along, the browser will also automatically scroll the page at the voice’s reading speed. You can also use Speechify’s Google Chrome extension for enhanced text to speech capabilities.

How do I get Gmail to read out loud?

To hear text read aloud on Gmail you can use Speechify.

What is the difference between NaturalReader and Speechify?

Speechify offers more lifelike voice options than NaturalReader, allowing for more use cases and a better user experience.

What are the use cases of text to speech software?

Text to speech software, or out loud readers, are utilized for aiding individuals with visual or reading impairments, facilitating content consumption while multitasking, converting written content into audio for e-learning, enhancing accessibility on digital platforms, and providing voice overs for various multimedia projects.

How does Speechify help dyslexic high school students?

Speechify empowers dyslexic high school students by converting written content into audio, allowing them to process information audibly, thereby bypassing reading challenges and enhancing comprehension.