Text to speech technology reads text aloud in many different ways. Although many use it to read easier, decode language, and navigate full-screen digital interfaces, the technology also has many commercial applications. A TTS app can help you create podcasts based on scripts and audio from your written text without hiring voice actors.
Of course, not all TTS voice readers are of the same quality or have natural-sounding voices. Let’s see how two of the most popular tools in this niche stack up against each other and what other options you have.
What is Natural Reader?
Natural Reader is a text to speech platform with a wide range of uses. It can convert text to audio from many file formats and languages. But unlike some TTS readers, this platform offers multiple versions of the app for personal, commercial, and educational use.
What is Voice Dream?
Voice Dream Reader is an iOS and macOS tool only found in the App store that’s designed to read aloud digital text using speech synthesis and text to speech software. You can use it on an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. But it doesn’t have a browser version or Windows compatibility.
Natural Reader vs. Voice Dream Reader – A comparison
Pricing
Natural Reader comes with three levels of access, each requiring a one-time payment:
- Personal – This version has two natural voices and allows text to speech mp3 conversions. It also features a pronunciation editor and supports text files, Docx, PDF, and ePub files.
- Professional – This level has two additional voices on top of everything included in the Personal version.
- Ultimate – The full version of Natural Reader has six natural voices, everything from the previous plans, and the option to scan and read up to 5,000 images per year using OCR technology.
However, these only cover the personal-use side of things. Natural Reader has separate commercial and eLearning versions of its TTS software.
- Group – This educational license features user-based pricing and includes additional features like document sharing.
- Commercial Single and Team Plans – These plans unlock new features for freelancers or teams that need AI voice customization, a studio editor, and tools to create voiceovers and audiobooks for sale.
Voice Dream reader prices its services differently. The macOS TTS app has a monthly subscription plan and in-app purchases. The iOS version of the app requires a one-time payment and offers multiple natural voices for purchase.
Overall, Voice Dream is cheaper but offers less functionality. Also, purchasing additional voices is less expensive for the Voice Dream Reader compared to Natural Reader.
Platform compatibility
Of the two, Natural Reader is the better option regarding accessibility and platform compatibility. Natural Reader is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS systems, whereas Voice Dream Reader is an iOS and macOS exclusive tool.
Furthermore, Natural Reader is also available as SaaS and has decent Android support.
Voice quality
Voice Dream Reader offers users over 200 voices in 30 different languages. Some of them are computer-generated voices, while others are high-quality natural-sounding voices.
Natural Dream Reader has well over 20 distinct voices for each platform (Windows and macOS.) It’s interesting to note that there’s a good balance between female and male voices, and the company includes some kids’ voices.
Language options
Natural Reader supports more languages in the commercial version. Here are some of the most interesting ones besides English:
- Japanese
- Turkish
- Swedish
- Russian
- Portuguese
- Polish
- Dutch
- Icelandic
- Danish
- Korean
- Welsh
Voice Dream Reader has a slightly different set of languages it supports. Some of the more exciting options include:
- Arabic
- Simplified Chinese
- Hebrew
- Spanish
- Hungarian
- Greek
- Turkish
- Japanese
- Finnish
File format compatibility
Natural Reader supports Docs, TXT, and ePub files. It also allows audio conversions of PDF scanned photos with the Ultimate version of the app. The commercial and educational versions of the app have additional support for other file formats.
Voice Dream Reader has better file format compatibility. It loads everything Natural Reader does, including PowerPoint files, DAISY text and audio, and web pages.
Dropbox connection
Voice Dream Reader integrates with Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud and supports direct uploads from the iOS file browser. The software also works with Gutenberg and Bookshare resources.
Natural Reader is slightly more limited when it comes to third-party integrations.
Additional features
Natural Reader has extra features because it’s a more complex platform. You can use it commercially and for leisure, meaning you can use voices and voiceovers with commercial use rights. The Natural Reader Studio is the main extra feature that Voice Dream doesn’t have.
That said, Voice Dream also has something that Natural Reader doesn’t. It has synchronization with the DAISY, dyslexia-friendly customizable fonts. This makes the app the better of the two for users with reading disabilities.
Speechify – A quality text to speech app
Natural Reader and Voice Dream Reader are two assistive technology tools with a lot going for them when it comes to Apple and Windows users. But neither offers a well-rounded approach to text to speech software.
Speechify is an exciting alternative. It’s an app capable of generating the best text to speech audio for Amazon eBooks, hardcopy textbooks, comic strips, webpages, and most other important file formats.
The dyslexia-friendly text to speech software relies on artificial intelligence and has a complex API, which is helpful in various situations. Speechify reads Microsoft Word documents, PDF files, plain text, RTF files, HTML, and many others on almost every platform.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Safari or Chrome web browser fan or want an iOS app or a dedicated Android tool. Speechify lets you listen to documents online, read text along with the narration, adjust the playback speed, and convert text into mp3 and WAV audio files.
It’s great for personal use and eLearning applications and is of huge benefit to users with visual impairment, multitaskers, and those with learning disabilities. If you don’t want your choice of device to limit you, try the Speechify free version and learn the ropes quickly without needing a tutorial.
