Bring your own books
Upload any EPUB, PDF, or TXT you own. No browser extension, no copy-pasting text — the whole book converts at once and stays in your library.
Comparison
A Speechify Alternative Built for Books
If you mostly listen to books — not web pages or emails — a single robotic voice isn’t enough. Lyraboo turns your own EPUB and PDF books into multi-voice audiobooks. Free to start on Android.
What listening with Lyraboo looks like
Built around whole books, not snippets of text.
AI casts the story
Instead of one voice reading everything, Lyraboo separates narration from dialogue and gives every character a distinct voice automatically.
Listen like a real audiobook
Chapters, progress sync, speed control. Replaying generated audio is always free — you pay only when new audio is created.
When Speechify is the right tool — and when it isn’t
Credit where due: for reading web articles, PDFs at work, or emails aloud, Speechify is a polished tool with excellent voices. If that’s your main use case, it’s a fine choice.
Books are a different job. A novel isn’t a wall of text — it has a narrator, characters, and dialogue. Read by one voice, a conversation between three people turns into a monologue. That’s the specific problem Lyraboo solves: its AI casts the book like an audio drama, assigning every character a distinct voice, and keeps your place chapter by chapter like a real audiobook app. Full honesty: voice-for-voice, Speechify’s premium voices sound more polished than ours. But one polished voice still can’t tell three characters apart — the cast is the feature that keeps a novel followable, and that’s the one we bet on.
Pricing philosophy: pay for creation, not access
Subscription read-aloud tools typically charge a flat monthly fee for access. Lyraboo charges for what actually costs money — generating new audio. Hours are spent once per chapter; replaying is free forever, and a monthly free allowance lets you test everything with your own book first.
New to the idea of converting books to audio? See the full guide: how to turn a book into an audiobook — or, if your reading pile is PDFs, start with PDF to audiobook app.
Speechify is a trademark of Speechify Inc. Lyraboo is an independent app and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Speechify Inc. This comparison reflects publicly available product information and is intended to help you pick the right tool.
Why listeners choose Lyraboo
The things people notice in the first chapter — and the reasons they stay.
Every character gets their own voice
Lyraboo’s AI finds every character in the book and casts a distinct voice for each — automatically, for every book. You always know who is speaking, and dialogue sounds like a real conversation instead of one narrator doing all the parts. Most reading and text-to-speech apps use one voice for everything.
The text follows along, like lyrics
Under the player, the book scrolls with the voice the way song lyrics do in Spotify: words light up as they are spoken, each line shows who says it, and tapping any word jumps there.
A player that feels like a music app
Chapters, speed from 0.25× to 3×, background playback with lock-screen controls, and it picks up exactly where you stopped.
Upload, and you are listening in minutes
Pick an EPUB, PDF or TXT and there is nothing to set up: the first chapter is ready in about one to two minutes, and the rest generate while you listen.
Any book you have, not just a catalogue
Novels, fanfiction and web-serial exports, indie ebooks, study PDFs — plus over 1,000 English classics already in the app.
Fair on cost
One free hour of listening every month, no card needed. Hours are spent once per chapter — replaying is always free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lyraboo a free Speechify alternative?
Free to start: every account gets one hour of listening each month, no card required. Generating studio-quality AI audio genuinely costs money, so unlimited free conversion isn’t something any honest service can offer — but you can hear full chapters of your own book before paying anything.
What’s actually different from Speechify?
Focus. Speechify is a general read-aloud tool — great for web articles, emails, and documents, read by a single voice. Lyraboo is built only for books: it understands story structure, detects characters, gives each one their own voice, and wraps the result in a proper audiobook player with chapters and speed control.
Does it work on iPhone?
Not yet — Lyraboo is currently Android-only. If you’re on iOS, Speechify or Voice Dream may serve you better today; on Android, you can try Lyraboo free right now.
Can it read PDFs and EPUBs?
Yes — EPUB, PDF, and TXT. Novels and story-driven books benefit most from the multi-voice narration; non-fiction simply reads in the narrator’s voice.
Do I lose my audio if I cancel?
No. Audio that has already been generated stays playable — replaying is always free. Hours are only spent once, when a chapter is first converted.
Try Lyraboo on Android
Upload a book you own and let the app turn it into a multi-voice audiobook automatically.