Listening.com Alternative For Reading Faster In 2024

Listening.com lets you read academic papers by converting them into an audio file along with a text reader.

Listening is available for Android, IOS, and Chrome extensions and web versions. Listening does not provide a free account

You can get a 3-day free trial by entering a credit card. It also supports only 5 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese).

In this blog post, I will share the best listening alternatives both free and paid. These alternatives support more languages, provide free accounts and so many other features that listening.com is missing.

TL:DR

Crikk

Crikk is a mobile app that lets you transform anything such as images, text, or PDF into natural audio along with a text reader.

Crikk provides a free account with any credit card. Crikk voices sound better than Listening. Here is a comparison of voice samples.

Crikk also supports languages, currently, it supports 100+ languages (such as English, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, etc). You are also getting multiple accents for popular languages such as English (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, etc) French (France, Canada), and many more.

Crikk has more than 300+ voices while writing this article. English (USA) has the most number of voices. Some of our voices are multilingual, which means can speak multiple languages such as Brian, Ava, Andrew, and many more.

Crikk also lets you export results as MP3 files so you can listen offline.

You can create folders for better management. You can also adjust the speaking speed, highlight crucial text (change background color), merge multiple voiceovers and so many other features.

Crikk is also more affordable than Listening. Here are our pricing plans

Pros

• More Natural Sounding Voices
• More Languages Support
• Affordable Pricing
• Export as mp3 file

Cons

• No Auto Skip Header and Footer (You can edit text before creating voiceover)

Speechify

Speechify was the first app to introduce text-based reading through the mobile app. Speechify is available across all platforms android, iOS, chrome extensions, and much more.

Speechify web version has two products, text reader for helping in reading and Speechify studio for creating voiceover.

The studio version would let you export voiceover, and add multiple voices in a single script however does not provide a text reader.

On the other side Text Reader lets you import documents, and provide text reader however don’t let you export results.

Both products require different versions. Speechify mobile app is a text reader and alternative to Listeing io.

Speechify text reader lets you import all kinds of documents such as scanned images, Google Drive links, kindly documents, and much more. Speechify voices sound robotic, making them hard to listen to for a long time.

Speechify has popular celebrity voices such as Mr Beast, Snoop Dogg, and Gwyneth Paltrow. However, these voices sound robotic as well. Here are Speechify voice samples

Speechify has a free plan with outdated robotic voices. They also offer a 3-day free trial for their premium plan.

It also provides an AI summary that can summarize long text into short and concise messages.

You can also create your voice clone and let it read for you. Voice clone currently works only in English and Chinese language.

Speechify pricing

Monthly $29/month	Yearly $139/year
50+ voices	50+ voices
50+ Languages	50+ Languages

Pros

• Import Any kind of document: Link, Google Drive, kindle, email, etc.
• Voice Clone
• Available Across platforms

Cons

• No Exporting Option
• Robotic voices
• Better Dashboard

Natural Reader

The natural reader is another listening alternative. Natural Readers is one of the oldest text-to-speech websites.

It is available for apps for Android and iPhone and web versions.

Natural Readers web version has two products, Personal and commercial. The personal version lets you listen to documents while the studio version provides flexibility for creating voiceover.

Both products require different subscriptions.

Its Personal version is the alternative to Listening.com because it provides similar features. Natural Reader mobile app also provides a personal version

Natural Reader also lets you clone your voice with 5 minutes of sample.

The natural reader web version is quite slow compared to listening and Crikk. However, it lets you download results as MP3 files so you can listen offline.

Pricing

Natural readers do not provide monthly subscriptions for personal plans.

Plus $110.04/year	Premium 59.88/yearly
100+ Human like voices	40+ Voices
20+ languages	8 languages

Pros

• Affordable
• Export Results as Mp3

Cons

• Can’t Highlight Text
• No monthly subscription
• Fewer updates

Azure AI Voiceover

Azure provides various cloud-based services. Azure also provides text-to-speech services in 100+ languages.

There are over 300+ voices. It is one of the most natural-sounding text-to-speech API. It also provides a dashboard to create voiceover.

Azure recently launched personal voice API as well. Overall, Azure is a great product for creating voiceovers.

However, it does not provide text and its mobile app can’t be used for creating voiceover. You can create voiceover using their web version only.

Azure provides a $200 bonus upon registration. However, you need to enter your credit card.

Azure text-to-speech also provides real-time text-to-speech API. Azure is the best tts app if you are looking for a free alternative.

Pricing

Azure is available on the pay-you-go, model,

Pay as you $200 Sign up Bonus
$15 per million characters
Max 10 minutes audio
Discounts on Higher Usages

Pros

• API available
• Covers all major languages
• Speaking Style available for certain voices

Cons

• No mobile app
• No text reader

Audible

Audible is an Audiobook service by Amazon. Basically, it is an audiobook library. It does not provide any feature like listening to convert documents into audio. Audible also provides rating, and advanced filter options to help you select the best audiobooks.

This is the best alternative if you read a lot of books. You can find thousands of books in high-quality Voiceover.

The only downside of Audible is you can’t convert your own books into Audiobooks.

Audible provides 3 months trial at $0.99/month then $14.99/month. It can be used on every device. It has a mobile app for Android and iPhone and a web version for desktop users.

Audible has some exclusive audiobooks that are only available on their platform.

Pricing

3 Months Trial ($0.99/month)
Then $14.99/month
All Audiobooks
All Features

Pros

• All popular Books as Audiobooks
• High-Quality Human Voiceover

Cons

• Can’t convert own documents into Audiobooks

Listening.Com Missing Features

Here are the listening Missing features that make its alternatives the best app for speed listening

1. Voice Quality: Listening to voices isn’t robotic however alternative products such as Crikk provide better voices. Voice quality plays a crucial role when using non-English voices.
2. Languages: Listening supports only 5 languages while most alternative supports 50+ languages.
3. Free account: Listening does not provide a free account, its free trial is only accessible upon entering card details.
4. Export Option: Listening does not provide any export option. App subscription is required to listen to existing audio as well.

Final Words on Listening Alternatives

Speed listening is the best way to remember more in less time. However, selecting an ideal app can make a significant difference.

Crikk stands out because of its natural-sounding AI voices and lifetime deal. Listening.com automatically removes the header and footer from the pdf. Speechify provides the most importing options, AI summary, and celebrity voices.

So ideal alternative depends upon your specific requirements and budget. However, overall Crikk is the best choice.