Guide
Speechify vs ElevenReader on Mac: which should you use?
Both are popular ways to listen to text. Here is how Speechify and ElevenReader differ for someone who reads mostly on a Mac, using each company's own pricing and help pages.
Updated 26 October 2026.
Short answerPick Speechify if you listen on your phone and computer, want one synced library, AI summaries or celebrity voices. Pick ElevenReader if you listen mostly on your phone and want ElevenLabs voices for everything. ElevenReader is built around ElevenLabs voices and an hour allowance; Speechify around a library and a word allowance on Premium. If you mainly want text read aloud on a Mac without a subscription, a third option is Aloud (ours): $19 once, no account, reads from any app.
Side by side
| Aloud | Speechify | ElevenReader | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $19 once per Mac, no subscription | Free plan with basic voices; Premium $139 a year or $29 a month on speechify.com (App Store prices differ) | Free: 10 hours of audio a month; Ultra $11 a month or $99 a year |
| Platforms | macOS 14 or later | iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome, web | iPhone, Android and a web app; no native Mac app |
| Account | None | Required | Required |
| Voices | Apple voices (incl. Enhanced and Premium), on-device Kokoro (Apple silicon, macOS 15+), or your own ElevenLabs / Cartesia key | Cloud neural voices on Premium (the pricing page says 1,000+), including celebrity voices; about 10 basic voices free | ElevenLabs cloud voices |
| Limits | None from Aloud | Premium includes up to 1,000,000 premium-voice words a month, per Speechify's blog | Hours are spent when text is converted; offline downloads only on Ultra |
| On a Mac | Reads from any app with Control-Option-S or the Services menu | Mainly a library app: you add text, files or pages | No native Mac app: import into the web app |
Competitor details from Speechify pricing, ElevenReader pricing, as checked 8 October 2026 for our comparison pages. Prices change; check before you buy.
More detail
See our one-to-one pages: Aloud vs Speechify and Aloud vs ElevenReader, or the best text-to-speech apps for Mac.
A third option for Mac: Aloud
Aloud (ours, $19 once per Mac, macOS 14 or later) is a native Mac reader:
- Select text in any app and press Control-Option-S (or right-click → Services → Read with Aloud).
- A reading window with a word highlight and click-to-seek, so you can jump to any sentence.
- Speed from 0.75x to 2x, changed mid-sentence, and resume from the last sentence.
- Natural voices: your Mac's Enhanced and Premium voices, the on-device Kokoro neural voice (Apple silicon, macOS 15+), or ElevenLabs/Cartesia with your own API key.
- Private by default: with Apple or Kokoro voices nothing leaves your Mac; no account, no analytics in the app.
Buy Aloud, $19 once No subscription, no account.
Questions
Is Speechify or ElevenReader cheaper?
Speechify: Free plan with basic voices; Premium $139 a year or $29 a month on speechify.com (App Store prices differ). ElevenReader: Free: 10 hours of audio a month; Ultra $11 a month or $99 a year. Check both pricing pages before you buy, as prices change.
Do Speechify and ElevenReader need an account?
Speechify: Required. ElevenReader: Required.
Is there a one-time Mac alternative?
Yes. Aloud is a native Mac app for $19 once per Mac with no account and no usage limits from Aloud.
Is Aloud free?
No. Aloud is $19 once per Mac, with no subscription and no account.
More Mac utilities from the developer: SnapState puts your Mac windows, apps and browser tabs back after sleep or a monitor reconnect. $9.99 one-time.