A free alternative to Proloquo2Go
Proloquo2Go is the best-known AAC app on iOS and costs around $249 as a one-time purchase. SayThrough is free, open source, and runs in any browser. Here is where each one earns its place.
The short answer: Proloquo2Go is a polished, deeply researched iPad app, and $249 buys it outright with no subscription. SayThrough costs nothing and runs everywhere, including the Chromebook or Android tablet a school already owns. If $249 is not a problem and you are on iPad, Proloquo2Go is excellent. If it is a problem, you are not giving up much.
What Proloquo2Go does that SayThrough doesn't
Proloquo2Go has had more than a decade of iteration and a research programme behind its vocabulary. That shows.
- A developmentally sequenced vocabulary. Its core vocabulary was built and refined over years, with a clear growth path from a handful of buttons to a full language system. SayThrough's three board sizes are a candidate set still awaiting formal clinical review.
- Deep iOS integration. Native Apple voices, Switch Control, Voice Control, iCloud backup, and everything else an app built for a single platform can take for granted.
- A large support ecosystem. Books, courses, video channels, consultants and school-district familiarity. Ask an SLP for help with Proloquo2Go and they will have seen it before.
- Polish that only time buys. Progressive language levels, detailed pronunciation editing, and an editor that has had a great many hours put into it.
What SayThrough does that Proloquo2Go doesn't
- It costs nothing. $249 is a real barrier for a family testing whether AAC is right for their child, and an impossible one for a classroom of ten.
- It is not iOS-only. Chromebooks dominate schools and Android dominates most of the world. Proloquo2Go runs on neither.
- Four separately authored languages — including Polish, which very few AAC apps support properly, with the case system and speaker gender the language actually requires.
- Open symbols and an open file format. Boards export to .obf/.obz and can be taken elsewhere. Nothing you build is trapped.
- It is auditable. The code is public, so the privacy claim — that nothing anyone types or says leaves the device — can be checked rather than believed.
Side by side
| SayThrough | Proloquo2Go | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $249 one-time |
| Runs on any device (web) | Yes | iOS only |
| No account required | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Open symbol libraries | Yes | Proprietary |
| Open standard import/export | .obf / .obz | Limited |
| Free for professionals | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | No |
Prices as of 2026 and may change. SayThrough is independent and not affiliated with these products.
Moving your boards across
SayThrough imports and exports Open Board Format (.obf / .obz). Wherever you can get an Open Board Format export out of your current app, SayThrough will read it — buttons, labels, page links and layout.
The honest caveat is symbols: proprietary sets such as SymbolStix and PCS are licensed and cannot travel with the file. Imported buttons keep their words and are matched to the closest ARASAAC symbol, which you can swap. Always check a copy before depending on it.
Who should switch, and who shouldn't
Stay with Proloquo2Go if you have already bought it, if the user has an established motor plan in its vocabulary, if you are committed to iPad, or if your support team knows that app and not this one. A paid-for, working AAC system is worth far more than the money you would save.
Try SayThrough if $249 is the reason you have not started, if you need it on a Chromebook or Android device, if you need Spanish, Polish or Brazilian Portuguese boards authored in the language, if you need the same system across a whole class, or if you want a free backup that can live on every device the family owns.
It is free to find out. Open SayThrough in a browser, build a sentence, and judge it for yourself — there is no purchase to regret.