What each one is

Read&Write

Read&Write was built by Texthelp and is now sold under the Everway name. It’s a toolbar that sits over Chrome, Edge, Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad and Android, aimed at students with dyslexia, English-language learners and anyone who needs reading and writing support. The reading side includes text to speech with word highlighting, a dictionary and picture dictionary, screen masking (a tint or a reading spotlight) and highlighters that collect what you’ve marked into a document. The writing side includes word prediction, Talk&Type dictation, a grammar and spelling checker, translation, a rewording tool and a screenshot reader. It’s sold to institutions (“paid plans from $2.75 per seat” on its education page); K-12 teachers can get a premium subscription free.

Emboldened

Emboldened is a Chrome and Edge extension built by FuseX. It changes the page you’re reading: bolds the start of each word, gives you a readable font, tints or dims the page, shades everything but the line you’re on, and reads text aloud with the words highlighted. The free tier covers all of that; Pro adds spacing, syllable dots, reader view, read-aloud from any paragraph, offline definitions and calm mode for £85 a year. There’s no account and nothing you read leaves your computer.

Side by side

Read&Write’s features and pricing are from its education product page at the time of writing; individual and UK pricing weren’t shown there, so ask them directly.

What Read&Write does better

• Writing. Word prediction, dictation and a checker built for dyslexic spelling are the heart of Read&Write and absent from Emboldened.
• Documents, not just web pages. It works in Google Docs, Word and PDFs. Emboldened only changes web pages.
• Study tools. Highlight-collection with citations, vocabulary lists, picture dictionary, translation and the audio maker are what make it a study aid rather than a reading aid.
• Natural voices. Its AI voices are generally more natural than the system voices Emboldened uses, though modern Windows, macOS and Chrome voices have improved a lot.
• Institutional support. Training, admin consoles and the fact that your school may already have it.

What Emboldened does better

• Getting started. Install from the Web Store, done. No account, no licence to request from IT, no login. For an adult who isn’t in education, that’s often the difference between using a tool and not.
• The page itself. Bolded word starts, spacing, readable fonts, a dark mode that doesn’t invert photos: Read&Write reads the page to you or masks it; Emboldened changes the page so it’s easier to read in the first place.
• Staying out of the way. No toolbar across the top of every page. Three small screens, three presets, keyboard shortcuts, and it leaves editors and text boxes alone automatically.
• Privacy. No account and no analytics; every free feature works offline; the only network calls are the Pro licence check and an optional pronunciation lookup.
• Cost for one person. The reading basics are free for good. Pro is one yearly price for up to five devices, with a two-week trial of everything.

Who should use which

If you’re a student whose school or university provides Read&Write, use it: the writing tools alone justify it, and you’ve already paid. Emboldened can still earn its place alongside, switched on for reading in the browser, because bolded word starts, spacing and a non-inverting dark mode aren’t things Read&Write does. If you’re an adult who reads for work and nobody is buying you a toolbar, Emboldened covers the reading side on its own and costs nothing to find out.

For UK university students, note that Read&Write is often recommended through Disabled Students’ Allowance assessments; Emboldened isn’t a DSA product, it’s a free download. There’s more on how the two fit together in DSA and free reading tools.

Trying Emboldened

It’s free on the Chrome Web Store. Every Pro feature is switched on for 14 days after install with no card and no sign-up.