Drag a file. Hold Shift. Done.
Drag any file on your Mac and hold Shift to explain it out loud, translate it, read it aloud, add a receipt to your expenses or a booking to your calendar.
Why switch
Why look for a Speechify alternative?
Speechify reads text aloud: on a Mac you select text and press a shortcut, and it reads PDFs, documents, emails and articles. Its Mac app also does dictation. The free plan has 10 voices it calls robotic-sounding, capped at 1.5x speed. Premium, with 1,000+ voices in 60+ languages up to 5x, is $29 a month or $139 a year, at the time of writing (Speechify pricing). Its privacy policy says saved content is synced with its servers and processed in the United States.
People look elsewhere when:
- $139 a year is a lot for something they use a few times a week.
- The free voices sound robotic, and the good ones are behind the paywall.
- They'd rather what they read didn't sync to another company's servers.
- They want a file read without opening it, selecting the text and finding a shortcut.
We make Koi, one of the apps below, so read this with that in mind. Everything about the others comes from their own sites and App Store listings, checked on October 18, 2026.
The picks
6 Speechify alternatives for Mac
1. Koi
Best for: Any file read aloud with one drag, plus dictation
Drag a PDF, a Word file, slides or a photo of a page, hold Shift, and drop it on Read aloud in the wheel that opens round your pointer. Your Mac reads it, with the best voice installed for its language, and a card beside the dock stops it. Pictures and scanned pages are read on your Mac first. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The same wheel can explain the file out loud on a call with Koi, translate it, or add a receipt to your expenses. Koi also does what Speechify's dictation does: tap Fn + ⌥ and talk, and the words land where your cursor is, written on your Mac. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59.
The tradeoffs are real. Read aloud uses the voices macOS has, not Speechify's, and there's no speed control, no library of what you've read and no phone app. If reading aloud is all you want, Apple's own is free.
2. Apple Read & Speak
Best for: Free, built into every Mac
macOS reads aloud by itself. Turn on Speak selection in System Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak, then press Option-Esc: it reads the selected text, or the window's text if nothing is selected, with a controller for speed, skipping and pause. More voices download from Manage Voices. It reads what's on screen, so there's no importing or keeping files.
3. Voice Dream Reader
Best for: A native Mac reader with offline voices
Voice Dream Reader has a Mac app of its own that reads PDFs, web articles and eBooks, with 75 macOS voices in 27 languages plus Acapela's. Its App Store listing says all voices are offline. It's a subscription with a 7-day trial, separate from the iPhone app. The Mac app was last updated in May 2025.
4. ElevenReader
Best for: The most natural AI voices
ElevenLabs' reader takes PDFs, Word files, EPUBs, text, links and scans, with 1,000+ voices and narrators in 90+ languages. It's free for 10 hours a month; Ultra, with unlimited imports, is $99 a year. There's no Mac app: on a Mac you listen on its website.
5. NaturalReader
Best for: Unlimited free listening in the browser
NaturalReader is free for unlimited listening with its free voices, plus 5 minutes a day of its AI voices. Paid plans run from $79 a year for Lite to $159 for Pro (its plans). On a Mac it's a web app and a Chrome extension, and its voices run online.
6. Read Aloud
Best for: Free reading of web pages and Google Docs
A free Chrome extension that reads web pages, PDFs, Google Docs and Kindle, with the browser's own voices or, if you add a key or pay, cloud voices. It only works inside the browser.
Side by side
The alternatives at a glance
| App | Price | Mac app | Voices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koi | $20/month, trial | Yes | Your Mac's own |
| Speechify | Free, or $139/year | Yes | Cloud, 1,000+ |
| Apple Read & Speak | Free | Built in | Your Mac's own |
| Voice Dream Reader | Subscription | Yes | Offline |
| ElevenReader | Free 10 h/month, $99/year | No | Cloud AI |
| NaturalReader | Free, from $79/year | No | Online |
| Read Aloud | Free | Browser only | Browser's or cloud |
Keep exploring
Voice to text on Mac, built in or with Koi
How to use voice to text on Mac with Apple's built-in Dictation, step by step, and when Koi does more: offline, 100 languages, unlimited on every plan.
Transcribe audio and video on your Mac
Transcribe voice memos, mp3, m4a, mp4 and mov files on your Mac, offline, with timestamps you can click, a summary if you want one, and SRT or VTT export.
What Mac AI apps cost, checked October 16, 2026
What 22 Mac AI apps cost on October 16, 2026: dictation, screen assistants and meeting notes. Free plans, monthly, yearly and pay once, with a change log.
Support
Frequently asked questions
Premium is $29 a month or $139 a year. The free plan has 10 voices capped at 1.5x speed (checked October 18, 2026).
Yes, built in: System Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak, Speak selection, then Option-Esc reads the selected text.
Read aloud uses your Mac's own voices and sends nothing. Drag a file with Shift held and drop it on Read aloud.