Comparison
Junco Reader vs Offline-TTS
Both are free, installable, on-device Kokoro readers with no account required. Here's where they differ in practice.
| Junco Reader | offline-tts.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, no ads | Free, no ads |
| Voice before any download | Yes -- your browser's built-in voice plays instantly | No -- the ~300 MB Kokoro model must download first |
| Neural voice engine | Kokoro-82M (on-device) | Kokoro (on-device) |
| File formats | PDF, TXT, Markdown, pasted text | Pasted or typed text (no file upload, as far as we can tell) |
| Documents leave your device | Never | Never |
| Installable (PWA) | Yes | Yes |
| Companion app | Junco for iPhone -- newsletters as a daily podcast | None |
Where offline-tts.com is ahead
Not much separates the two once the model's downloaded -- offline-tts.com was also early to make itself installable as a home-screen app, which is worth crediting. If all you need is to paste a paragraph and hear it back offline afterward, it does that cleanly.
Where Junco Reader is ahead
You can drop in a PDF or Markdown file, not just paste text -- and you're never forced to wait on the 300 MB download to hear something: switch to Junco Reader's Instant tier for your browser's built-in voice with zero download, no gate to clear first. Junco Reader is also built by the team behind Junco, an iPhone app that turns your email newsletters into a short daily podcast using the same family of on-device voices.
Try it yourself -- drop in a PDF or paste an article, and switch to the Instant tier if you don't want to wait on a download.
Open Junco Reader