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Balabolka vs OpenReader: catalog facts
Balabolka	OpenReader
Free Freeware, funded by sales of the developer's Cross+A software.	Free Free and open source under the MIT licence; cloud TTS providers bill separately.
Windows, Command line	Web, Self-hosted
Uses any installed system voice Opens many document and ebook formats	Word-by-word highlighting during narration Audiobook export to M4B or MP3
Windows only Voice quality depends on the installed speech engines	Needs a separate TTS server or a paid cloud API Several moving parts to deploy, including a compute worker
Downloadable app	Self-hosted
Closed source	Open source
License: Freeware	License: MIT
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.