Best self-tape partner apps: 9 compared, and when to pick each

You are taping an audition alone, and you need something to read the other part while the camera rolls. There are a lot of apps for that, and the honest answer to “which is best” is that each one is best at something different.

So this page does not crown a winner. It lists nine self-tape partner apps, says what each one does better than the rest, what it costs, and when it is the one to pick.

What this page compares, and what it does not

This page is about self taping: getting a scene on camera with something reading opposite you. It is not about learning lines. Apps built for memorising a part, such as LineLearner, ScriptRehearser and Rehearsal Pro, do a different job and are left out on purpose, not judged against the ones here.

Within self taping, two rules decided who is listed. An app is here if actors compare it when they are choosing a reader for a tape, and if its claims could be checked against its own public pages or its App Store listing on the dates given below. Nothing comes from a directory, a review site, or anybody’s memory.

The apps are listed alphabetically. The ordering is not a ranking.

All nine, side by side

App	Pick it when	Pros	Cons	Price	Platforms
ActingPal	You tape on an Android phone	A native Android app; AI voices, your own voice, or imported audio	A three-day trial, then a subscription; no web version	Free 3-day trial; $9.99/mo	iOS, Android
ActOnCue	You want the reader to follow your speech closely, and to pay only for what you use	The strongest speech recognition here, so the reader comes in when you finish; usage priced by what you use, with top-ups; voice library or your own recordings	Account required; usage is metered in credit rather than counted in scenes	Free tier; $10/mo or $99/yr; $20 top-up	Web, iOS
AuditionLead	You have the reader audio, or can record it, and want free and private with nothing to sign up for	Free with no cap; no account; runs in the browser; the teleprompter moves on when you finish your line; records camera and reader together	No generated voices: every other line is a recording you make or upload	Free; no cap, see the note below	Web, Chrome
coldRead	You want an app that works offline and never asks for an email	No internet, email or signup needed; unlimited use on any paid plan	Apple devices only; free stops at eight lines; does not say how the other part is voiced	Free under 8 lines; from $6.99/mo	iPhone, iPad, M-series Mac
Rafy	You switch between devices, or you want your slate done in the same app	The only one on iPhone, Android and the web; a Slates module for audition slates; a voice per character across languages and accents	Free tier is the built-in practice scenes, not your own sides; each plan caps scenes a month	Free practice scenes; from $9.99/mo	iOS, Android, Web
ScenePartner	You audition a lot and want to keep track of every one	A built-in audition tracker; AI or a friend’s recording reads the other parts; a 100-audition tier for heavy months	Every tier counts auditions, so a busy month means a bigger plan	Free, 3 auditions; $12.99/mo; $29.99/mo	Web, iOS
Scriptation Playback	You already mark up your sides and want notes and tape in one place	The best annotation and note-taking here; Playback scrolls the script like a teleprompter with a camera preview	Script read-aloud needs Industry Pro, and AI voices are a separate subscription; Apple only	Free, 3 documents; Industry Pro from $8.33/mo; AI voices extra	iPad, iPhone, Mac
Slatable	You want the finished tape, not just the take: edited, slated and sent	A built-in tape editor with title cards and split slates; audition reports on bookings and casting offices; send tapes as a private page	iPhone only; the free plan is one audition a month, watermarked; AI reader voice is Premium only	Free, 1 audition/mo; $4.99/mo; $9.99/mo	iOS
WeAudition	You want a real actor reading with you	A live person over video, giving you something to react to	The priciest here once the reader’s fee is added; account required; you book a time	$149/yr or $14.99/mo, plus the reader’s fee	Web, mobile

Every price and platform was read from the product’s own site or its App Store listing. The first version of this page was read on 7 September 2026, and ActingPal and Rafy were added on 8 September 2026. Rafy’s, Scriptation’s and Slatable’s rows were read on 7 October 2026. Where a page does not say, the cell reads not stated rather than guessing either way.

Generated voice or a recording is not the real split

Most of these apps do both: ScenePartner, ActingPal and ActOnCue all mix a generated voice with recordings. What separates them is the “pick it when” column: a person, a phone, a tracker, a tape editor, a marked-up script.

If you want a person on the other end

WeAudition is the only one of the nine that puts a human there. It is not an app that reads to you. It is a marketplace that connects you to other actors over live video and chat.

It costs $149 a year, or $14.99 a month, and that is before the reader. Readers set their own rates: some are free, others have a fee. So the total is a subscription plus a variable amount you agree with a person, which is a different shape of cost from everything else here.

The other eight exist for the case WeAudition cannot cover: it is eleven at night, the tape is due tomorrow, and there is no one to call. None of them is trying to replace a scene partner. They give you something to act against that arrives on cue and waits for you to finish, which is the part a silent room cannot do.

If you care about the tape as much as the reader

Three of these go past reading the other part and into what you actually send.

Slatable is built around the finished tape. You keep the takes you like, put them in order, and it adds title cards and transitions, with split slates for the full-body and close-up shots. Its audition report counts your auditions over the month and year, your booking ratio, and which casting offices bring you in most.

Rafy has a Slates module, so the slate is shot in the same place as the scene. Scriptation comes at it from the script: it is first an annotation app, and Playback puts your marked-up pages in front of the camera as a scrolling teleprompter with a preview of your frame.

If a subscription is fine, the prices are close and the limits are not

Most of the nine charge monthly, within a few dollars of each other: Slatable from $4.99, coldRead from $6.99, Scriptation’s Industry Pro from $8.33, ActingPal at $9.99, Rafy from $9.99, ActOnCue at $10, ScenePartner at $12.99.

What the money buys is where they differ. ScenePartner’s $12.99 tier covers ten auditions a month and its $29.99 tier covers a hundred. Slatable’s $4.99 covers three auditions a month and its $9.99 covers unlimited. ActOnCue’s $10 includes a usage allowance rather than a count of scenes, with top-ups when you need more. Rafy’s plans each cap scenes a month. coldRead sells unlimited use, cheapest on a yearly plan. Scriptation’s AI voices are billed on their own, by minutes.

If you tape two scenes a month and if you tape twenty, these are not the same products, and the monthly price is not what tells you so.

If you want free, the question is where the ceiling is

Several rows have a free tier, and the useful comparison is where each one stops.

ScenePartner’s free tier covers three auditions. Slatable’s covers one audition a month, three takes a scene, with a watermark. coldRead’s covers scripts under eight lines. Scriptation’s covers three documents. ActOnCue’s is free forever with a one-dollar credit, which is a credit ceiling rather than a scene count. Rafy’s free tier is its practice scenes only, not your own sides. ActingPal offers a three-day trial rather than a standing free tier, which is a clock rather than a ceiling.

AuditionLead needs a different kind of sentence, and it is fair to say why. This site is AuditionLead, so this is the one row not read off somebody else’s public page. Its pages say free, with no signup, and they do not state a ceiling. Held to the standard applied to everything else here, that cell would read not stated too. So we will say it plainly instead: there is no cap, no scene count, no minutes, no credit, nothing that runs out. It is the only claim on this page you cannot go and check for yourself, which is exactly why it is flagged rather than folded in beside the others.

What could not be confirmed

coldRead’s site and its App Store listing do not say how the second character is voiced, so that is flagged in the table rather than filled in. Rafy’s own materials are not consistent about whether you can record the other lines yourself, so its row does not claim either way.

That is the state of the public record rather than an oversight, and worth knowing before you download anything.

Also out there, not compared here

SceneStudy, SceneReaderAI, ScriptReadr, tableread, MangoScript, Linus and Scene Reader all exist and are not in the table above. They are absent because they were not checked against their own sources, not because anything here was judged against them.

RehearseNow was checked, and is an AI scene partner at $15 a month. It is left out because its pages say nothing about recording a tape or which devices it runs on, which leaves little to compare it on here.

If none of these fits, the fallback has not changed in fifty years. Ask another actor, and record what they give you.