# Rafy vs AuditionLead: Two Self-Tape Reader Apps Compared > Rafy reads your sides with AI voices inside a paid self-tape app; AuditionLead is a free browser reader that plays lines you or a friend record. We judged both, plus Offbook and SelftapePal, on the same six points. Our pick for most actors is Offbook. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/rafy-vs-auditionlead - Published: 2026-11-05 - Last updated: 2026-11-05 The sides land at six in the evening and the tape is due by noon tomorrow. Nobody you know can read tonight, so you go looking for an app that will. Two you may find are Rafy and AuditionLead. Both read the other character's lines for a self-tape, both can record the take, and both wait for you before they move on. They get there in very different ways. Rafy is a paid app for phone, tablet, and web that reads the other part with AI voices and records your tape in HD or 4K. AuditionLead is a free reader that runs in a computer browser, with no sign-up, and plays lines that you or a friend recorded first. We judged both apps, plus Offbook and a third browser reader, SelftapePal, on the same six questions. Our pick for most actors is Offbook, which reads every other role with realistic voices and listens for you to finish each line. The reasons are below. ## How We Compared Them A reader app earns its place the night before a tape, when time is short and the scene is new. These six questions decide whether it helps or gets in the way. - **Who reads the other parts?** Realistic or AI voices, your own recordings, or a friend's. - **How does it know it's your turn?** Listening for your line, or running a timer. - **How does your script get in?** Which files it takes and how long a scene can be. - **What memory tools does it have?** Hidden lines, first letters, a teleprompter. - **What happens to the tape?** Whether it films you, or reads while you film on another device. - **Where does it run, and what does it cost?** Devices, what's free, and how a plan is counted. ## Offbook, Rafy, AuditionLead, and SelftapePal at a Glance The table puts the points that differ most side by side. Each app's entry below has the detail. | App | Other parts read by | Your turn | Script in | Tape | Runs on | Price (US) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Offbook | Realistic voices for every role but yours | Listens and cues the next line when you finish; Strict, Lenient, or Manual | PDF, PNG, JPEG, or TXT; up to 50 pages a scene | Reads the other roles off camera while you film on your phone or camera | Laptop or desktop browser to rehearse; phone to listen | 7-day free trial; Starter $9.99/month, annual from $7.99/month; no monthly script cap | | Rafy | AI text-to-speech voice for each character | Listens before it gives the next line, or uses manual timers | PDF, up to 7 pages a scene; lines can be typed in | Records in the app in HD or 4K, with slates | iOS, Android, web | Basic $9.99/month for 10 scenes; yearly from $99 | | AuditionLead | Lines you or a friend record | Waits for you to finish, or uses a timer | PDF up to 10 pages, or pasted text | Webcam recording with the reader mixed in, no watermark | Chrome or Safari on a computer | Free, no sign-up | | SelftapePal | Lines you or a friend (remotely) record | Listens for your cue word, with a fallback timer | Not stated on its homepage | Does not film your tape | Web app; Chrome on a laptop recommended | Short test scene with no sign-up; weekly, monthly, and yearly plans | ## Each App, Point by Point ### Offbook Offbook starts from the sides you were sent. Upload a PDF, a photo of the pages (PNG or JPEG), or a text file, and it sorts the pages into roles and lines and writes a title and summary for the scene. One scene can hold up to 50 pages or about 10,000 words, and the page picker can split up to 150 source pages into 10 scenes. Pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character. Free and Starter cast from 12 voices; Pro and Premium cast from a larger catalog. When you rehearse, Offbook plays the other lines, listens through your microphone while you say yours, and plays the next cue when it hears you finish. You can also press Enter or say "next line" to move on. Strict matching holds you close to the script, Lenient has a 0-100 slider, and Manual never moves on by itself. Set the speed of the voices for the whole scene or for one line, and add a pause where the scene needs a beat. For memorizing, hide your own lines while everyone else's stay visible, hide the whole script for a final test, or swap your lines for the first 1-8 letters of each word. The teleprompter shows your line large and highlights each word as you say it. When you film, Offbook is the reader off camera while you record on your phone or camera. You rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere. **Price:** Starter is $9.99 a month, Pro $14.99, and Premium $29.99, with annual billing from $7.99 a month. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial (it requires a card), paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts, and students and educators get 50% off with a valid .edu email. **Best for:** actors who want the reader ready the moment the sides arrive, with no monthly cap on scripts. ### Rafy [Rafy](https://rafy.app/support) is a self-tape app built around AI readers. You upload a PDF of your sides and choose the pages, up to 7 per scene, or enter the lines by hand. It keeps only the dialogue, leaving out watermarks and stage directions. You give each character a text-to-speech voice, and Rafy listens before it gives the next line, using speech recognition, or it moves on with manual timers. If a line needs a particular rhythm, you can record it yourself and the reader copies your pace and delivery. Rafy records the tape too: HD or 4K, a teleprompter that follows you, slates, and password-protected sharing. It runs on iOS (also iPad and Apple silicon Mac), on the web, and on Android. **Price:** on its [home page](https://rafy.app/), Basic is $9.99 a month for 10 scenes, Plus $14.99 for 20, and Premium $24.99 for 50, each with unlimited takes; yearly plans are $99, $149, and $249. **Best for:** actors who tape a set number of short scenes a month and want the reader and the camera in one app. ### AuditionLead [AuditionLead](https://auditionlead.com/) is a free self-tape reader that runs in Chrome or Safari on a computer, with no sign-up. There are no AI voices: you or a friend record the other lines. During a run it waits for you to finish your line, or it uses a timer instead. You load a PDF of up to 10 pages or paste the text. It has a teleprompter and a line-learning mode that shows only the first letter of each word. When you're ready to tape, it records from your webcam with the reader mixed into the take, and the file has no watermark. **Price:** free. **Best for:** actors taping at a computer who already have the other lines recorded. ### SelftapePal [SelftapePal](https://selftapepal.app/) is a web app, built for Chrome on a laptop as its recommended setup. You record the partner lines, or a friend records them remotely. In a run it listens for your cue word, with a fallback timer, and its autocue keeps your text in front of you. It does not film your tape, so you shoot on your phone or camera while it reads. **Price:** you can build a short test scene with no sign-up; after that there are weekly, monthly, and yearly plans, and prices are not shown on its homepage. **Best for:** actors who film on a separate device and want a friend's recorded voice as the reader. ## AI Voices or Your Own Recordings This is where the two apps split hardest. Rafy reads every other character with a text-to-speech voice you choose, so a new scene is ready once the pages are in. AuditionLead plays back a human voice, and the human is you or a friend. That gives you a real person's read in the other chair, and it means a recording session before every new scene. If you record the reader yourself, read the other lines at an even pace, leave a clean gap for yours, and redo any line you stumble over, because it plays back exactly as you left it. If a friend records, ask for a plain, clear read. Acting coach Joseph Pearlman, writing in [Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/reader-can-make-break-self-tape-auditions-333/), warns against a reader who drops to barely above a whisper, because casting then strains to hear the scene. Offbook, like Rafy, needs no recording session: realistic voices read every role but yours. Where a line needs a different feel, you can change its speed or add a pause in the scene editor. ## Getting the Scene In Setup time is the hidden cost of any reader. Rafy takes a PDF and lets you pick up to 7 pages per scene, or type the lines yourself. AuditionLead takes a PDF of up to 10 pages or pasted text, and then you record the other part. For a two-page audition scene, either limit is plenty. Length starts to matter when the sides are long or when you use the same app to learn a play. Offbook holds up to 50 pages or about 10,000 words in one scene, and its page picker can split up to 150 source pages into 10 scenes. It takes PDF, PNG, JPEG, and TXT files, so you can upload a photo of printed sides as well as the file casting sent. **Tip:** before you rehearse, read the parsed scene once against the original sides. Check that every line sits with the right character and that no stage direction slipped in as dialogue. Fix it now, not after the third take. ## Filming the Tape Both apps can record. Rafy films inside the app in HD or 4K, adds slates, and shares the finished tape behind a password. AuditionLead records from your webcam with your microphone and the reader's audio mixed together, so one browser tab gives you a finished take with no watermark. Whichever records, the reader's voice comes from right next to the microphone, and that changes the mix. Casting director Caroline Liem, in her [rules for the perfect self-tape](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/self-tape-rules-from-casting-director-65931/), puts the reader about one step from the camera and asks them to speak more quietly than the actor, because they are closer to the mic. SAG-AFTRA's [Self-Tape Anatomy](https://www.sagaftra.org/self-tape-anatomy) guide adds that the reader must not distract from you. So turn the reader down until your voice is clearly the loudest thing on the tape, but keep every line easy to hear. With Offbook, the laptop reads off camera while your phone or camera films you, so you keep your own camera app and lighting, and you set the laptop's volume against your voice. For the full setup, see [how to self-tape alone](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-self-tape-alone) and [how to slate for a self-tape](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-slate-for-a-self-tape). ## Learning the Lines Before You Tape A teleprompter gets the words in front of you. Learning them is a different job, and the tools that help are the ones that make you pull the line out of memory. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed why in a study [summarized by the APS](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/test-enhanced-learning): students who tested themselves recalled 61% of a passage a week later, while students who kept rereading recalled 40%, and the rereaders felt more confident they'd learned it. Rafy's strength here is its teleprompter that follows you. AuditionLead adds a first-letter mode that shows only the first letter of each word, so you supply the rest. Offbook hides your lines or the whole script, and its first-letter cues show the first 1-8 letters of each word or only the first word of each line. Our free [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer) turns any lines into first-letter cues, with no account. A practical order for a next-day tape: read the scene for what your character wants, run it a few times with first-letter cues, then with your lines hidden, and finish with the whole script hidden. Save the teleprompter for the morning you shoot, if you use one at all. ## What Your Situation Calls For - **You want a reader ready the moment the sides arrive:** Offbook, where realistic voices read every role but yours with no recording first. - **You get new sides most weeks:** Offbook, whose paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts. - **Your sides run long, or you're learning a whole play:** Offbook holds up to 50 pages in one scene. - **You want to choose how close to the script you must be:** Offbook, with Strict, Lenient, or Manual matching. - **You want to go over the scene on the way to work:** Offbook's listen mode plays the whole scene on your phone. Need a scene to practice on first? Pick one from our [library of public-domain plays](https://www.offbook.com/plays) or a speech from the [monologue collection](https://www.offbook.com/monologues). For more readers judged the same way, see [Rafy vs WeAudition](https://www.offbook.com/blog/rafy-vs-weaudition), [AuditionLead vs SelftapePal](https://www.offbook.com/blog/auditionlead-vs-selftapepal), and our guide to the [best AI reader for self-tapes](https://www.offbook.com/blog/best-ai-reader-for-self-tapes). ## Questions Actors Ask ### What is the difference between Rafy and AuditionLead? Rafy is a paid app for iOS, Android, and the web that reads the other lines with AI text-to-speech voices and records your tape in HD or 4K. AuditionLead is free in Chrome or Safari on a computer, plays lines that you or a friend record, and can film your take from the webcam with the reader mixed in. ### Which is cheaper, Rafy or AuditionLead? AuditionLead is free, with no sign-up. Rafy's Basic plan is $9.99 a month for 10 scenes, with yearly plans from $99. Offbook's run lines online tool and first-letter memorizer are free with no account, free accounts can practice scenes shared with them, and every Offbook plan starts with a 7-day free trial. ### Does AuditionLead have AI voices? No. In AuditionLead, you or a friend record the other lines before you run the scene. Rafy and Offbook both read the other roles for you, so there is nothing to record first. ### Do Rafy and AuditionLead work in a browser? Both do. Rafy runs on the web as well as on iOS and Android. AuditionLead runs in Chrome or Safari on a computer. With Offbook, you rehearse in a laptop or desktop browser, and on a phone you can listen to your scenes, even with the screen locked. ### Which self-tape reader is best? Our pick is Offbook. It reads every role but yours with realistic voices, listens for you to finish each line, takes PDFs, photos, and text files up to 50 pages a scene, and lets you try its free tools with no account. If you are moving from Rafy, our [Rafy comparison](https://www.offbook.com/rafy-alternative) goes into more detail. ## The Verdict Our pick for most actors is Offbook. Realistic voices read every role but yours, so there is no recording session between getting the sides and running the scene. It listens and cues the next line when you finish, and Strict, Lenient, or Manual matching fits how word-perfect you need to be. And its paid plans have no monthly cap on the number of scripts, which matters when new sides arrive every week. Between the two apps compared here, the split is the reader. Rafy reads with AI voices and films the tape in one paid app, priced by the scene. AuditionLead is free in a computer browser, plays back lines you or a friend recorded, and can film your take with the reader mixed in. Offbook is made by the team behind this blog. Details as of November 2026.