Speakybara compared, honestly
Speakybara is a free app for Windows and Mac that turns any part of your screen into text you can copy or listen to: press a hotkey, drag a frame, done.
The table below is the whole picture, including the rows where Speakybara loses. Where a vendor does not state something, it says so instead of guessing.
And what it is not
- Not a screenshot manager. A local history you can turn off, but no annotations, no uploads, no share links — keep the one you have.
- Not a screen reader. NVDA, Windows Narrator and VoiceOver drive the whole system by voice for people who are blind; Speakybara is a read-aloud tool.
- Not a document reader. There is no library of PDFs and ebooks, and no import.
- Not an app for your phone or your browser. It runs on Windows and, as a test version, on a Mac with Apple silicon.
Head to head
One page per product, with the same eight rows, the published prices and four questions people actually ask.
SpeechifyiOS · Android · Chrome · Edge · Web · macOS · Windows
The widest reach and the biggest voice library, and since March 2026 a Windows app that listens to screenshots too.
Read the comparison: SpeechifyNaturalReaderWeb · Windows · macOS · Chrome · iOS · Android
Strong on whole documents and MP3 export; its text recognition uploads the image and sits behind a paid tier.
Read the comparison: NaturalReaderElevenReaderiOS · Android · Web · Chrome
The most natural voices in this list, on a phone. There is no Windows or Mac app at all.
Read the comparison: ElevenReaderMicrosoft Edge Read AloudWindows · macOS · iOS · Android
Free, already installed, and hard to beat for a web article. It stops at the edge of the browser.
Read the comparison: Microsoft Edge Read AloudTextSnipermacOS
The same idea, Mac only and aimed at copying. No Windows version, and no Dutch.
Read the comparison: TextSniperThe full matrix
The full matrixSeventeen rows, six products, one date. A dash means the vendor does not state it — not that the answer is no.
| What it does | Speakybara | Speechify | NaturalReader | ElevenReader | Edge Read Aloud | TextSniper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reads any on-screen text via a screenshot | yesThe text recognition of Windows or macOS, on your computer | yesWindows app, Alt+X; whether Premium is required is not stated | partlyUpload an image or scan; paid tiers only | partlyCamera scan in the mobile app only | no | yesmacOS only |
| Global hotkey | yesCtrl+Alt+S (Control+Option+S on a Mac), and every hotkey is configurable | yesAlt+A reads a selection, Alt+X reads a screenshot | not statedNo global shortcut documented | no | partlyCtrl+Shift+U, inside Edge only | yesCmd+Shift+2 |
| Works in every app, not only a browser or PDF | yes | yes | partlyA floating bar reads text you can select, not pixels | no | noInside Edge only | yesAnywhere on macOS |
| Windows app | yes | yesSince 31 March 2026, x64 and Arm64 | yes | noNo desktop app at all | yesA feature of the browser | no |
| Mac app | yesTest version: macOS 14 or newer, Apple silicon | yes | yes | noNo desktop app at all | yesA feature of the browser | yes |
| Free tier | yesFree forever, every feature | yes10 basic voices, speed capped at 1.5x | yesLite voices 20,000 characters a day, Plus voices 4,000 a day | yes10 hours of audio a month | yes | noOne-time purchase, no free tier |
| Bring your own API key | yesGoogle Cloud Text-to-Speech | no | no | no | no | no |
| Local or offline voices | yesPiper and the system voices, fully offline | not statedText to speech can run on the device on Windows; whether that works offline is not stated | not statedNot stated by the vendor | noOffline downloads on Ultra only, no offline voices | partlyOnly the older, non-natural voices work offline | yesThe macOS system voices |
| Premium neural voices | yesEdge neural free on Windows; Google Chirp 3 HD and WaveNet with your own key or Complete | yesPremium | yesLite, Plus and Pro | yesElevenLabs voices | yesOnline only | no |
| Read-along highlighting | yesSentence and word, click a sentence to jump | yesWord level | yesWord level | yesWord level | yesWord level | no |
| Dutch and English detected automatically | yesPer selection and per sentence; on Windows also per word | partlyDutch voices exist; automatic detection is not stated | partlyDutch voices exist; automatic detection is not stated | partly90+ languages; automatic detection is not stated | partlyLanguage is picked per page, not per sentence | noDutch is not supported for text recognition |
| The image is not uploaded by default | yesRecognised on your computer, then discarded; only an opt-in setting sends a screen picture to an online AI | not statedWhere its text recognition runs is not stated | noUploaded, converted, then deleted | no | not applicableNo text recognition at all | yesApple Vision, on device |
| Nothing uploaded by default | partlyFully offline with Piper or the system voices; text leaves only when you pick an online voice or an online AI | noContent is synced to Speechify's servers; an on-device mode exists | no | noMay be used to train models unless you opt out | partlyThe natural voices stream from Microsoft's cloud | yesNothing leaves the Mac |
| Price per year | Free · Complete €59 a year incl. VAT, or €6.99 a month | USD 139 a year, or USD 29 a month | USD 119 Plus, USD 159 Pro, USD 79 Lite a year | USD 99 Ultra a year, or USD 11 a month | Free | USD 7.99 to USD 11.99, one time |
| Document library or ebook import | no | yes | yes | yes | partlyPDF and EPUB opened inside Edge | no |
| Browser extension | no | yes | yes | yesSaves pages to your library | not applicableIt is the browser | no |
| Footprint | About 55 MB on Windows, plus about 60 MB with a local voice loaded; no GPU, tray or menu bar icon | Not stated by the vendor | Not stated by the vendor | No desktop app | Inside Edge | Not stated by the vendor |
How to read the table
- yesyes
- The vendor states it does this.
- partlypartly
- It does part of it; the line underneath says which part.
- nono
- The vendor states it does not do this.
- not statednot stated
- The vendor does not state it, checked October 2, 2026. Not the same as no.
- not applicablenot applicable
- The question does not apply to this product.
Where Speakybara is different
Not better at everything. Different in five specific ways.
By default, the image stays on your computer
The text recognition built into Windows or macOS reads the frame on your own machine — on Windows in 50-150 ms — and the image is discarded. The recognised text lands in a local history you can turn off, not on a server. The cloud readers in this table upload or sync content by design. The one exception in Speakybara is opt-in: with Explanations may look at your screen and an online AI, a question about a step sends a picture of your screen to that AI.
Free forever, with your own key
No other product here lets you plug in a Google Cloud Text-to-Speech key. Google gives away 4,000,000 characters a month on Standard and WaveNet and 1,000,000 on Chirp 3 HD, which covers most personal use at no cost.
Copy as well as listen
One press puts the recognised text on your clipboard. Every other product in the table is built to read to you, not to hand you the text.
Dutch and English inside one text
The language is detected per selection and per sentence, and on Windows even per word, so an English term in a Dutch mail is pronounced in English by the same voice. The others offer Dutch voices, but read a mixed text in one language unless you switch it yourself.
Small and single-purpose
About 55 MB of memory on Windows, plus about 60 MB while a local Piper voice is loaded, no GPU, an icon in the tray or menu bar, one hotkey, and a cache so a sentence you have already heard costs nothing to hear again. Complete is a flat €59 a year incl. VAT, with a 14-day full refund and an email 30 days before renewal — no trial that turns into a charge.
Is Speakybara right for you?
Speakybara is built to capture, copy and read aloud text on your screen, fast, on Windows and on the Mac. Choose another product if you need one of these.
Apps on several devices
Speakybara runs on Windows and on the Mac, where it is still a test version for Apple silicon only; there is no phone app, no web app and no browser extension.
A document library
There is nothing to import or sync and no MP3 export. A 300-page PDF is more comfortable in a reader with a library.
The most natural premium voices
The offline voice sounds plainer than the premium voices of the big cloud readers. The more natural Microsoft and Google voices need an internet connection.
See all the differencesThe longer version of these points, and the full table
Only on a computer
Windows 10 and 11, and a test version for macOS 14 or newer on a Mac with Apple silicon (not on Intel Macs). No iPhone, no Android, no web app and no browser extension. Cloud readers follow you between devices; Speakybara sits on your desk.
No library
Nothing to import, no bookmarks, no sync, no MP3 export and no podcasts. Summaries and explanations run on your own AI key or on a model you run yourself, because Speakybara has no built-in AI service. Speakybara is select-and-listen.
Voices
The fully offline Piper voice is the plainest of the three. The Microsoft Edge voices are free and online, on Windows only; the Google voices need your own key or Complete. Readers with their own premium voices sound more natural, at a monthly price.
Your own key takes a one-off setup
Using the Google voices with your own key means creating a Google Cloud project and enabling billing once, about 15 minutes. Complete skips that step.
Also worth knowing about
Also worth knowing aboutClose neighbours without a page of their own.
PowerToys Text Extractor + Narrator (opens in a new tab)
Free and from Microsoft. Win+Shift+T copies on-screen text to the clipboard. Hearing it takes a second tool, and Narrator is a screen reader rather than a read-aloud window.
Balabolka
Free, long-lived and generous with formats; it reads the clipboard and files with the SAPI voices installed on Windows. No region capture, and those voices are a generation older than the neural ones.
Read Aloud (browser extension)
A browser extension that reads the page you are on and can use your own cloud key. Everything outside the tab is out of reach.
Read&Write, ClaroRead, Kurzweil 3000
Full literacy suites with a screenshot reader, spelling and writing support and study tools. Hundreds of euros, often three-year licences, often bought through an employer or school. If you need more than listening, they do far more than Speakybara.
Voice Dream Reader
Apple only, USD 79.99 a year, built around a library of documents you import first.
Sources
SourcesEvery claim on this page was checked against the vendor's own pages on October 2, 2026.
Every claim on this page was checked against the vendor's own pages on October 2, 2026.
Competitor prices are the list prices the vendor publishes, in US dollars. No competitor publishes a verifiable euro price, so nothing is converted. Speakybara prices are in euros, incl. 21% VAT.
- Speechifyspeechify.com/pricing (opens in a new tab)speechify.com/windows (opens in a new tab)Speechify Windows announcement (opens in a new tab)
- NaturalReadernaturalreaders.com/online/pricing (opens in a new tab)naturalreaders.com (opens in a new tab)NaturalReader plan limits (opens in a new tab)
- ElevenReaderelevenreader.io (opens in a new tab)elevenreader.io/pricing (opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft Edge Read Aloudmicrosoft.com/edge/features (opens in a new tab)
- TextSnipertextsniper.app (opens in a new tab)
Last updated October 2, 2026