Script Rehearser vs Scriptmate: Wait-For-Me Mode or Speech Recognition?

It’s late, the sides are on your phone, and the only scene partner awake is an app. Script Rehearser and Scriptmate are both built for that moment: they read the other characters out loud so you can say your lines in the gaps. Where they part ways is the gap itself.

Script Rehearser reads the other parts with computer voices and, in its Wait For Me mode, stops at each of your lines until you’re ready to go on. It doesn’t listen to you. Scriptmate listens: speech recognition on the iPhone follows your line as you say it, and the reader answers when you finish. We judged both, and Offbook, on the same six questions. Our pick for most actors is Offbook, which reads every other role in realistic voices and listens for you to finish each line. The reasons are below.

How We Compared Them

A line app earns its place on your phone if you still open it the night before the off-book date. These six questions decide that.

• How does it know it’s your turn: by listening to you, by waiting for a tap, or by leaving a fixed gap?
• Who reads the other parts: generated voices, device voices, or your own recordings?
• How does your script get in, and does the app find your lines for you?
• What does it give you for memorizing, beyond hearing the scene again?
• Where does it run: iPhone, iPad, Android, a Mac, or a browser?
• What does it cost: a subscription, an unlimited upgrade, or a free trial?

Offbook, Script Rehearser, and Scriptmate at a Glance

Each App, Point by Point

Offbook

Offbook starts from the script you already have. Upload a PDF, a photo of the pages (PNG or JPEG), or a text file, and it sorts the pages into roles and lines. 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. For memorizing, hide your own lines, hide the whole script for a final test, or swap your lines for the first 1-8 letters of each word. Genie, its script-aware assistant, answers questions about character motivation, scene context, and line interpretation.

Price: Starter is $9.99 a month, Pro $14.99, and Premium $29.99, with annual billing from $7.99 a month. New customers get a 7-day free trial (it requires a card), and students and educators get 50% off with a valid .edu email. It suits actors who want a reader that hears them finish, for anything from two pages of sides to a full-length play.

Script Rehearser

Script Rehearser, from Engram, reads the other characters with your device’s voices, and in 2026 Engram added its own text-to-speech voices for English scripts. With Pro you can record your own voice and pick a voice for each character, so a two-hander doesn’t sound like one person arguing with itself.

It runs a scene four ways: Listen Along, Wait For Me, Repeat for Confirmation, and Run Through. Wait For Me pauses at each of your lines until you’re ready to continue, and Run Through leaves a fixed gap. None of them uses speech recognition to detect your cue; you decide when to go on.

Price: a free download, with Pro as a $7.99 annual subscription or a $29.99 unlimited upgrade on the US App Store. A 30-day Pro trial with no sign-up that doesn’t turn into a paid plan. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs, Vision Pro, and Android, and schools can get free Pro through offer codes. It suits actors who like to set the pace by hand.

Scriptmate

Scriptmate is an iPhone app. You import a PDF screenplay or photograph your paper sides, and it marks your lines automatically. There’s no account to make: a demo scene runs the first time you open it.

Its speech recognition runs on the phone and follows your speech word by word through the whole line, not only the last word, so it keeps up if you paraphrase or restart. Its line reader page lists natural voices for English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Italian, with ten American and British voices for English; once prepared, they play offline. You can long-press any reader line to record it yourself.

Price: Scriptmate Pro is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year after a 7-day free trial, as its App Store listing shows. It also records self-tapes in landscape, with the reader in your headphones. It suits iPhone users who want a reader that follows them.

Waiting for You or Listening to You

This is the real split, and the title question. Wait For Me puts you in charge of the timing: the app stops at your line, you say it, and you tell it to go on. That’s comfortable while you’re still on book, and the honesty is up to you: the app goes on when you tell it to, whether or not the line was right.

Run Through goes the other way: a fixed gap for every line. A fixed gap can be too long for a short line and too short for a long speech, so you may find yourself rushing or waiting.

Speech recognition removes the tap and the fixed gap: the reader answers when you finish. Scriptmate tracks your whole line and answers when you finish. Offbook listens too, and lets you choose how strict it is: Strict, which keeps you close to the script; Lenient, with a 0-100 slider, while you’re still finding the words; or Manual, when you want to hold a long pause and then press Enter. It can also move on by itself after 1 to 6 seconds of silence, so your hands stay free for the blocking.

Who Reads the Other Parts

All three apps read the other roles for you, so none needs a recording session before the first run. Script Rehearser uses device voices or Engram’s English voices, and Pro lets you record lines and assign a voice per character. Scriptmate uses its natural voices and lets you record any reader line. Offbook casts realistic voices for every role but yours, and you can set their speed for the whole scene or a single line.

However the cues are read, say your own lines out loud. A University of Waterloo study of 95 people compared reading silently, hearing someone else read, hearing a recording of yourself, and reading aloud in real time. Reading aloud yourself was remembered best; the researchers call it the production effect. Reading silently was remembered less well.

Getting Your Script In

Script Rehearser imports a PDF that contains real text, a .txt file, or lines you type. A scanned PDF, which is a picture of a page, won’t import, so ask for sides as a text PDF when you can. Scriptmate takes a PDF screenplay or a photo of your sides and marks your lines for you.

Offbook takes a PDF, a photo of the pages, or a text file and sorts it into roles and lines. One scene holds up to 50 pages or about 10,000 words, and the page picker splits up to 150 pages into 10 scenes, so a full-length play fits. Afterward you can edit the dialogue, move a line to the right character, or add a pause where the director wants one.

Memorizing, Not Just Hearing the Scene

Hearing a scene on repeat feels like learning, but recall is what sticks. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed why in a study summarized by the APS. Students who tested themselves read the passages about 3.4 times and recalled 61% a week later. Students who kept rereading read them about 14.2 times and recalled 40%, and they felt more confident about it.

Script Rehearser can show or hide your lines, or show only the first letter of each word. Scriptmate’s Focus mode blocks the apps you pick while you rehearse. 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. You can try first-letter cues on any text with our free first-letter memorizer.

Don’t learn the words as a string of sounds, though. Helga and Tony Noice found that actors work from what the lines mean and what the character wants moment to moment, a process the APS Observer described as active experiencing. Lines learned while making a fitting movement were also remembered better. So walk the blocking while the reader gives you your cues.

Phones, Tablets, Android, and Laptops

Script Rehearser runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs, Vision Pro, and Android. Scriptmate is an iPhone app; its website says there’s no iPad or Android version yet.

With Offbook, rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere. On the phone, your own lines can be spoken, skipped, or left as silent gaps, playback keeps going with the screen locked, and you can save a scene as an MP3 for the bus.

What Each One Costs

Script Rehearser is free to download, with Pro at $7.99 a year or $29.99 for unlimited access, after a 30-day trial that doesn’t convert on its own. Scriptmate Pro is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year after a 7-day free trial. Offbook starts at $9.99 a month on Starter, or $7.99 a month billed annually, after a 7-day free trial, and students and educators get 50% off.

Offbook’s run lines tool is free with no account, for classic scenes in its voices. Free accounts can also practice any scene a castmate shares with them.

What Your Situation Calls For

• You want the reader to hear you finish, on your terms: Offbook, with Strict, Lenient with a 0-100 slider, or Manual, and an optional move-on after 1 to 6 seconds of silence.
• You’re learning a full-length play: Offbook, where the page picker splits up to 150 pages into scenes.
• You want your castmates in the loop: Offbook shares a scene by email invitation on every paid plan, and people you invite can practice it even on a free account.
• You want to ask about the character, not just drill: Offbook’s Genie answers questions about motivation, scene context, and line interpretation.

If you’re weighing a switch, our Script Rehearser comparison and Scriptmate comparison go into more detail. For more apps judged the same way, see the best line learning apps, Script Rehearser vs LineLearner, and LineLearner vs Scriptmate.

Questions Actors Ask

Does Script Rehearser listen for your line?

No. It has four modes (Listen Along, Wait For Me, Repeat for Confirmation, and Run Through), and none uses speech recognition to detect your cue. Scriptmate and Offbook both listen and answer when you finish.

Is Scriptmate on Android?

Not yet. Scriptmate’s website says it’s an iPhone app with no iPad or Android version. Script Rehearser has an Android version on Google Play. Offbook’s rehearsal runs in a laptop or desktop browser, on Mac or Windows; on a phone you listen to your scenes.

How much do Script Rehearser and Scriptmate cost?

Script Rehearser is free to download, and Pro is $7.99 a year or $29.99 for unlimited access on the US App Store, with a 30-day trial. Scriptmate Pro is $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year after a 7-day free trial. Offbook’s Starter plan is $9.99 a month, or from $7.99 a month billed annually, after a 7-day free trial.

Which app is best for learning lines?

Offbook. Realistic voices read every role but yours, it listens for you to finish each line, and it takes anything from a short side to a full-length play.

The Verdict

Our pick for most actors is Offbook. It listens for you to finish and lets you choose how closely, Strict, Lenient with a 0-100 slider, or Manual, so you set how closely it holds you to the script. Realistic voices read every role but yours. And it takes anything from a two-page side to a full-length play split into scenes, with no monthly cap on the number of scripts on paid plans.

Between the two apps compared here, the split is waiting against listening. Script Rehearser reads your cues and lets you set the pace by hand, on iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs, Vision Pro, and Android. Scriptmate follows your line as you say it, on the iPhone.

Offbook is made by the team behind this blog. Prices as of November 2026.