Compare · Speech Central vs Paper2Audio
Speech Central vs Paper2Audio
Speech Central: Text-to-speech app for reading PDFs, web articles, books and documents, sold as a one-time purchase with no ads or data collection. Paper2Audio: Document-to-speech app that turns PDFs, ebooks, papers and web articles into audio, skipping page numbers, footnotes and citations. Here is how they differ, and where Book2Speech fits if what you want is your books as audiobooks.
Choose Speech Central if…
•
One-time purchase instead of a subscription, and free for blind users and schools.
•
Works offline with the device’s own voices; runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows.
•
Export of text to audio files for offline listening (format not stated on the fetched pages).
•
Deep customisation and accessibility profiles for ADHD, dyslexia and low vision.
Choose Paper2Audio if…
•
A generous free plan: 56 hours of new audio a week.
•
Built for papers: reader view with tables, figures and math, and skips footnotes, citations and page numbers.
•
Offline listening on the mobile apps, and a native Android app.
•
A sleep timer that can stop at the end of a chapter or document.
Or, for your books: Book2Speech
•
Any book, not just the bestsellers that got an audiobook: fewer than 1 in 100 books ever does.
•
Unlimited free listening in English with Standard voices, no trial clock.
•
A real audiobook file to keep: M4B with chapters and cover, or MP3. One is included on the Free plan.
•
Built for whole books: the book’s own chapters, a start past the front matter, page clutter left out of PDFs.
•
265 narrators in 42 languages, and 70,000 free classics ready to play.
•
Paid plans from $4.99 a month.
Notes on the comparison
Price in USD from the US App Store in-app purchase list on 2026-10-07; the vendor homepage gives no figure (“One-time purchase. No ads. No data collection.”).
Formats from the App Store description: PDF (including scanned), EPUB, Word (.docx), PowerPoint, OpenOffice, HTML, TXT, RTF, Markdown. MOBI absent.
Word highlighting and the sleep timer (now “Sleep Assistant”) are confirmed on the vendor’s own blog. Chapter detection and pronunciation editing were not stated on a fetched page.
Prices in USD on 2026-10-07. The pricing page shows $16/month with annual billing (“Save 20%”); the US App Store lists Plus Monthly $20.00 and Plus Annual $191.99.
Formats from the vendor FAQ: PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, DOCX, DOC, RTF and Markdown; the App Store adds scanned documents. MOBI is absent.
Plus subscribers can download audio files, which the FAQ says are M4A (Opus); MP3 and M4B are not named, so export is shown as not verified.
The FAQ describes voices “optimized for … pronunciation accuracy” but no pronunciation editor.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Speech Central or Paper2Audio?
Speech Central: One-time purchase: Speech Central Pro $9.99 in-app purchase (US App Store). Paper2Audio: Plus $20/month or $191.99/year on the US App Store ($16/month billed annually on the pricing page): 168 hours a week, audio and transcript downloads. For books, Book2Speech starts free and from $4.99 a month.
Which has a better free plan, Speech Central or Paper2Audio?
Speech Central: Free download with a one-time in-app upgrade; free access for blind users with VoiceOver and for schools deploying through Apple School Manager. Paper2Audio: Free: 56 hours of audio generation a week, all AI voices, offline listening on the mobile apps (content may be used to improve models). Book2Speech’s Free plan has unlimited English listening with Standard voices.
Can I download audiobooks with Speech Central or Paper2Audio?
Speech Central: not confirmed on its own pages. Paper2Audio: not confirmed on its own pages. Book2Speech downloads an M4B with chapters and cover, or an MP3, and the Free plan includes one.