⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: Speechify runs $0 to $29/month. Altered runs $0 to $90/month.
- Best for: Speechify for listening to documents. Altered for producing voice content.
- Key difference: Speechify reads your files aloud. Altered records, clones, and edits voice performances.
- Our pick: Speechify, because most readers want playback, not a studio.
Both apps turn written text into spoken words.
Only one of them was built for reading.
Speechify is a text to speech reader for books, emails, and pdf files.
Altered AI is a voice content creation platform aimed at media production.
That one difference decides which app belongs on your device.
Overview
This Speechify vs Altered comparison covers pricing, voice options, and ease of use.
It also covers who each app actually serves.
Our sources include published specs, product documentation, and G2 reviews.
Our writers also spent hands-on time with both tools.
Those notes appear in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
What is Speechify?
Speechify is a text to speech app for everyday reading.
It turns written text into audio you can play anywhere.
The app reads pdf documents, articles, emails, and web pages aloud.
Speechify lets you set the voice, speed, and pitch through simple customizable options.
Optical character recognition lets it handle printed text from a photo.
The founder built the first version to manage his own dyslexia.
It now serves people with reading disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD.
Here is a walkthrough of how the app handles a real document.
🏆 Winner: Speechify
Listen to books, emails, and reports at up to 900 words per minute. The free plan lets you test playback before you pay.
Speechify Pricing
Speechify costs nothing to start. Here are the current plans.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Limited | $0/month | Testing the basic version |
| Annual | $11.58/month | Daily readers who commit for a year |
| Monthly | $29/month | Short projects with no lock-in |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: Yes. New accounts get a 3-day premium trial with card details on file.
Money-back guarantee: Refunds are handled case by case through support, not by a published window.
📌 Note: The Speechify Limited plan gives you non HD voices and a daily cap. HD voices, faster reading speed, and a 150,000-word monthly allowance sit behind Speechify Premium. Additional features such as AI summarization sit on the paid tier too.
⚠️ Data conflict: Our CSV lists a $29 monthly subscription and $11.58/month annual billing. Public research summaries claim $139 per year with no monthly option. The annual figure matches ($11.58 × 12 = $138.96), but we could not reconcile the monthly plan. Speechify pricing also varies from country to country. Check the checkout page for your region.
Key Benefits of Speechify
Here is what makes the app worth a look.
- Reads almost any source: You simply upload a file, paste a link, or scan a page. It handles pdf files, emails, and study material.
- OCR reader for paper: Point your camera at physical books and it converts printed pages into an audio file.
- Adjustable reading speed: Playback stretches to 900 words per minute. The average reading speed sits near 250.
- Text highlighting in sync: Words light up as they play. Academic research links dual input to better retention.
- Runs everywhere: An iOS app, an Android app, and a Chrome extension keep your Speechify library in sync.
- Built for accessibility: Listening reduces mental fatigue for auditory learners and anyone who struggles with dense digital content.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer used the app for a week of reports and research papers. Here is what stood out during that time.
Speechify Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Reads pdf documents, emails, and printed pages with one workflow
- Playback reaches 900 words per minute for fast listeners
- Text highlighting keeps your eyes on the line being read
- Over 60 languages and more than 1,000 voice options
- Free plan and 3-day trial let you test before paying
❌ Cons
- Reviewers call the price steep next to cheaper rivals like MicMonster
- Voices sound clear but miss the emotion of human narration
- The free version has limited features and non HD voices
- No voice cloning or audio editing for creators
What is Altered?
Altered is a voice content creation platform for media production.
The desktop and web app is called Altered Studio.
It packs multiple voice AI technologies into one interface.
You get a Voice Changer, premium text to speech, voice cloning, and an AI Voice Cleaner.
The company pitches it as a next generation audio editor.
Podcasters, game publishers, and film studios are the target buyers.
The walkthrough below shows the editor handling a full session.
Runner Up: Altered
Clone a voice, morph a take, and clean the audio in one editor. A free trial of the Creator plan is open on the website.
Altered Pricing
Three tiers cover hobby work through studio work.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | Trying the voice changer |
| Creator | $30/month | Solo podcasters and voice creators |
| Professional | $90/month | Studios and game development teams |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: Yes. You can sign up for a Creator plan trial on the Altered website.
Money-back guarantee: None published. Professional and Enterprise terms are quoted on the pricing page.
📌 Note: The paid tiers unlock custom voice models, transcription, and translation. Enterprise buyers are asked to request a quote rather than pay a list price.
⚠️ Warning: The entry paid tier costs more than double Speechify’s annual rate. Budget for render minutes too, since cloning and morphing burn through them faster than plain narration.
Key Benefits of Altered
These are the reasons studios pick it up.
- One editor, many engines: Voice morphing, cloning, and cleanup share a single timeline. That cuts app switching during media production.
- Rapid Voice Clone: A short sample builds a usable model. The voice cloning technology copies a vocal identity without booking human talent again.
- 14 Speaking Styles: Emotive text to speech covers whispering through shouting. Dialogue stops sounding flat.
- Real time voice changer: Live morphing works in voice chats with noise cancellation running underneath.
- AI voice cleaner: Background noise gets stripped from raw voice recordings before you export audio files.
- History Editing: Track versions of a project and roll back to an earlier take.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer cloned a voice and re-cut a short narration script. Here is what came out of that session.
The clip below covers the same session from the editor’s side.
Altered Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Cloning, morphing, and cleanup live in one online audio editor
- Ultra-low latency morphing works during live calls and gaming
- Custom voice models plus transcription and translation
- Game developers and podcast producers rate it well in reviews
❌ Cons
- No document reader, no OCR, and no mobile listening app
- Entry paid plan starts at $30/month
- Cloning someone else’s voice raises consent and copyright questions
Feature Comparison
These two products overlap on one thing only: they both speak. Everything after that splits apart. Here are the ten key features that decide the pick.
| Feature | Speechify | Altered |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $11.58/month | $30/month |
| Free plan | ✅ | ✅ |
| Document reading (PDF, email, web) | ✅ | ❌ |
| OCR for printed text | ✅ | ❌ |
| AI voice cloning | ✅ | ✅ |
| Real time voice changer | ❌ | ✅ |
| Audio editing and cleanup | ❌ | ✅ |
| Mobile app and Chrome extension | ✅ | ❌ |
| Best for | Reading and listening | Voice production |
1. Voice Library and Voice Options
Speechify: The catalogue runs past 1,000 voice options, and you can adjust speed and pitch on each one. Converting text into audio takes one tap, and the paid tiers serve high quality voices. Premium voices sound close to human like voices. The free tier serves non HD voices, which are flatter but perfectly usable for skimming.
Altered: The extensive voice library is smaller in raw count but tuned for performance work. Portfolio TTS voices cover narration and character reads, and 14 speaking styles change delivery from a whisper to a shout.
2. AI Voice Cloning
Speechify: Cloning exists, but it is a side feature. You record a sample and the app reads your documents back in that voice. It is a novelty for readers rather than a production tool.
Altered: AI voice cloning is the core product. Rapid Voice Clone turns a short sample into a reusable model, and the result carries the source vocal identity across a whole script. Studios use it to cut re-record sessions.
⚠️ Warning: Clone your own voice or one you have written permission to use. AI-generated audio raises live legal questions about authorship and copyright.
3. Voice Morphing and Live Changing
Speechify: There is no voice changer here. The app plays a chosen voice and stops there. Nothing morphs your own microphone input.
Altered: Voice morphing swaps character, accent, and style on a finished take. The real time voice changer runs with low enough latency for live voice chats and gaming, with noise cancellation applied on the way through.
4. Document Import and OCR
Speechify: This is where Speechify stands alone. You can import text by copy-paste, file upload, or a web link. The app’s ability to scan a page with your camera turns physical books into playable audio.
Altered: There is no ocr reader and no document library. You paste a script or upload an audio file. Reading a PDF aloud is simply not what the tool is for.
5. Languages and Translation
Speechify: More than 60 languages are supported, so language learners can hear a passage in a different language while reading the original. AI dubbing pushes the same idea into video.
Altered: The platform transcribes audio and translates content into multiple languages inside the same project. That suits dubbing a game build across different languages more than casual study.
6. Audio Editing and Cleanup
Speechify: Text editing is available before playback, so you can fix a typo the narrator would trip on. Post-production audio editing is absent.
Altered: Voice editing sits at the centre. The AI Voice Cleaner pulls background noise out of raw takes, and the Voice Editor reshapes delivery line by line for audio storytelling.
7. Custom Voice Models
Speechify: You pick from the shipped catalogue. There is no training pipeline for building a house voice from scratch.
Altered: Voice Training builds custom models you own and reuse. Voice puppeteering lets you act a line out and map that performance onto a different voice, which keeps voice performances consistent across episodes.
8. Reading Speed and Listening Experience
Speechify: Speed runs to 900 words per minute, and text highlighting tracks the audio in real time. Offline playback covers commutes, allowing users to keep going without a signal. The listening experience is the whole product.
Altered: Output is a finished file you play elsewhere. There is no reading queue, no highlighting, and no speed slider for consumption.
9. Platforms and Developer Access
Speechify: iOS, an Android app, a Chrome extension, and API access cover most workflows. The user friendly interface is the same across all of them.
Altered: Work happens in Altered Studio on desktop and web. There is no phone app for casual use, which is fair for a studio tool.
10. Pricing & Cost
Here are both ladders side by side.
| Tier | Speechify | Altered |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Limited — $0/month | Free — $0/month |
| Entry paid | Annual — $11.58/month | Creator — $30/month |
| Top tier | Monthly — $29/month | Professional — $90/month |
Speechify: The annual route is the cheapest way in at $11.58/month. Paying month to month costs $29 instead, so the yearly commitment saves real money if you read daily.
Altered: Creator at $30/month is professional software priced for professional output. Nobody buys this to listen to email. It earns its keep when a clone replaces a booked session.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| To get through more reading | Speechify | Playback, OCR, and offline listening |
| To produce voiceovers | Altered | Cloning, morphing, and cleanup |
| The lowest paid price | Speechify | $11.58 vs $30 per month |
| A live voice changer | Altered | Low-latency morphing for calls |
| Study support on mobile | Speechify | Phone apps plus browser add-on |
| Custom voices you own | Altered | Trainable models, not a fixed catalogue |
💰 Your Budget
Speechify offers the cheaper entry at $11.58/month on annual billing. Altered’s premium subscription plans start at $30 and climb to $90.
🔌 Your Workflow
If your work arrives as documents, the Speechify app fits your day to day life. If it arrives as raw audio content, Altered fits better.
🎙️ Your Output
Speechify’s job is to convert text you already have into playback. Altered’s job is high quality voice content that ships to an audience.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Speechify needs no training. Altered’s advanced voice AI technology assumes you already know what a clean take sounds like.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Both run a free tier plus a trial of the paid tier. Load a real file into each before you commit money.
🛟 Support Options
Speechify leans on help docs and email for a large consumer base. Altered handles Professional and Enterprise buyers directly through its pricing page.
Switching Guide
Already paying for one? Here is what changes if you move.
🔄 Switching from Speechify to Altered?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A live voice changer and morphing for finished takes
- Noise removal and line-level editing in one place
- Trainable custom models for a repeatable professional voice
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Document playback and your saved reading queue
- Camera scanning of printed pages
- Phone and browser access for listening on the move
📋 How to switch:
- Export any audio files you want to keep
- Start the Creator trial on the Altered website
- Record a clean sample and train your first model
🔄 Switching from Altered to Speechify?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A reader that handles pdf files, email, and web pages
- Scanning that turns paper into playable audio
- About $18 back every month at the entry tier
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Real-time morphing during calls and streams
- Cleanup tools for messy recordings
- Ownership of trained voice models
📋 How to switch:
- Download your finished exports from the studio
- Create a free account and install the mobile or browser version
- Upload a document and set your reading speed
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
We looked at individual and small-team use on the September 2026 versions. We did not test Enterprise contracts, bulk seat licensing, or API load at scale. Accessibility certification and screen-reader compatibility were outside our scope, and regional pricing differences mean your checkout total may not match ours.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | Speechify |
| 📚 Document Reading | Speechify |
| 🎙️ Voice Cloning | Altered |
| 🎚️ Audio Editing | Altered |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Speechify |
| 📱 Platform Coverage | Speechify |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | Speechify |
🏆 WINNER: SPEECHIFY
Speechify wins 4 of 6 categories.
Best for: students, commuters, and anyone with a document backlog
Speechify wins because it fits more people, not because it does more. It is a popular app with a narrow job: convert text you already have into audio and get out of the way. Speechify users mostly want to save time, and it does that at $11.58/month. It enhances productivity in a boring, repeatable way.
Altered is the better product for a smaller room. If you sell voice work, the cloning, morphing, and cleanup stack is a powerful tool. For a studio it is also a valuable tool in plain money terms, since one avoided recording day covers months of subscription. Teams that want to enhance productivity across a slate of projects will feel that first.
Pick by output. Listening means Speechify. Publishing means Altered. Our full Speechify review covers the reading side in more depth.
More of Speechify Compared
Here is how Speechify text to speech holds up against three close rivals.
Speechify vs NaturalReader
Speechify wins on: a faster 900 wpm ceiling, camera scanning of paper, and a mobile experience built for commuting.
NaturalReader wins on: a more generous free plan, cheaper lifetime licensing, and simpler classroom deployment.
Speechify vs ElevenLabs
Speechify wins on: document import, offline listening, and an interface aimed at readers rather than engineers.
ElevenLabs wins on: more natural sounding voices for publishing, deeper voice design controls, and stronger developer tooling.
Speechify vs Murf AI
Speechify wins on: reading whole pdf documents, browser and phone coverage, and a lower entry price.
Murf AI wins on: studio timeline editing, voice-over sync with video, and team collaboration on scripts.
Across all three, the pattern holds. Rivals beat it on production polish. None of them match the reading experience. It stays the more versatile app for reading text in multiple languages on a phone.
More of Altered Compared
Altered is a versatile tool sitting in a crowded field of AI voices. Here is where it lands.
Altered vs ElevenLabs
Altered wins on: live morphing during calls, speaking-style control for dialogue, and cleanup of existing recordings.
ElevenLabs wins on: raw synthesis quality, a larger catalogue, and wider third-party integration.
Altered vs Descript
Altered wins on: performance-driven puppeteering, low-latency changing, and character work for games.
Descript wins on: full video editing, transcript-based cutting, and multi-editor project sharing.
Altered vs Play.ht
Altered wins on: morphing your own take, noise removal, and version history across a project.
Play.ht wins on: lower entry pricing, faster batch narration, and a lighter learning curve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Speechify actually free?
Yes, the Limited tier costs $0/month. It carries limited features and non HD voices. Faster speeds and the 150,000-word allowance need a paid plan.
How much does Speechify cost monthly?
Our CSV lists $29 month to month, or $11.58 per month billed annually. Prices shift by country, so confirm at checkout before you subscribe.
What is the difference between Speechify free and premium?
The premium plan unlocks HD voices, higher speeds, and more advanced features. The basic version covers plain playback with a daily word cap.
Is Altered AI free?
There is a free tier at $0/month plus a Creator trial. Paid access starts at $30/month and adds custom models, transcription, and translation.
What is better than Speechify?
For reading documents, very little. For producing voice work, Altered, ElevenLabs, and Descript all beat it. Pick by what you are making.
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