Six head-to-head comparison pages, written from the perspective of "which one fits your job" not "why FreeTTS always wins." Every competitor is recommended where they genuinely beat us. Every page includes pricing math, voice mappings, side-by-side data, and a 30-minute migration guide if you decide to switch. No affiliate links anywhere on the site.
Each page is 2,500+ words with full pricing math, voice mapping table, side-by-side data, migration guide, and 14-question FAQ.
10x the volume at a similar price
voice cloning realism on the professional tier is non-negotiable; you produce audio fiction or commercial ads where every nuance matters; you need streaming WebSocket TTS for live applications.
you publish more than 100,000 characters per month (10x volume at $19 vs $22 entry), you publish in non-English languages (75 vs 29), you want a free public API with no key, you need a real lifetime price option.
Voiceover studio or pure TTS power
you need a built-in slide-to-voice timeline editor, you run a corporate L&D team needing shared workspace, you do not have a separate video editor and want one tool for slides, audio, and video.
you already use CapCut, DaVinci, or Premiere (Murf timeline duplicates work), you need more than 24 hours of audio per year (FreeTTS PRO gives ~14 hours per MONTH), you publish in non-English languages (75 vs 20).
Creating voices vs listening to articles
you want to LISTEN to PDFs, articles, emails, or Kindle on your phone, you have dyslexia or visual processing differences and need word-by-word highlighting, dyslexia fonts, and OCR for scanned PDFs.
you want to CREATE downloadable MP3s for YouTube, podcasts, courses, or client work, you need full commercial license at $19/month or less, you build apps and want a free public API.
Archived: Play.ht shut down Dec 31, 2025 — what to use instead
Play.ht shut down on December 31, 2025, after Meta acquired the company in July 2025. The comparison is kept as an archival record — if you need a replacement today, see our Play.ht alternative guide.
you needed voices in exotic languages outside the top 75 (Play.ht had 142+), you ran a WordPress blog and wanted the auto-convert plugin, you needed streaming TTS for real-time voice agents, or catalog size was your primary metric. None of that is available anymore — the service shut down on December 31, 2025.
you publish more than 100k chars/month and want $12/mo savings over Play.ht's final entry-tier price, you want consistent voice quality across all 322 voices (single engine, no drift), you want a free public API with no key — or you are a former Play.ht user looking for a new home.
Web vs desktop, subscription vs lifetime
you need a desktop app for Windows or Mac with offline voice support, you read scanned PDFs and need OCR, you buy TTS for a school or university accessibility office, you use Microsoft Office and want native read-aloud integration.
you publish content and need 1M chars/mo, you need 50% more languages (75 vs 50), you want a free public API.
Both free, different trade-offs
your monthly volume is under 80,000 characters and you can live with attribution on commercial use, you do not need full SSML phoneme tags, native SRT, or an API.
your monthly volume is over 80,000 characters, you produce commercial content and do not want any attribution requirement, you want full W3C SSML with phoneme tags.
Headline rows only. Each individual comparison page goes 50+ rows deep on its specific matchup. Pricing verified April 29, 2026 from each provider's public pricing page. Play.ht figures are archival — the service shut down on December 31, 2025.
| Feature | FreeTTS | ElevenLabs | Murf | Speechify | Play.ht (shut down Dec 31, 2025) | NaturalReader | TTSMaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free chars/month | 5k | 10k | ~12k | Daily limit | Trial only | Daily limit | 80k |
| Entry paid tier price | $19/mo | $5/mo | $23/mo | $12/mo (read) | $31/mo | $8/mo | $9.90/mo |
| Entry tier monthly chars | 1M | 30k | ~120k | (reader) | Unlimited std | Reading | 200k |
| Cost per 1k chars (paid) | $0.019 | $0.17 | ~$0.19 | (reader) | Variable | (reader) | $0.0495 |
| Total voices | 322 | 120+ stock | 200+ | 200+ | 900+ multi-engine | ~200 | ~200 |
| Unique languages | 75 | 29 | 20+ | 50+ | 142+ | ~50 | 50+ |
| Free public API | |||||||
| Full W3C SSML + phoneme | PlayHT 2.0 only | ||||||
| Native SRT subtitles | |||||||
| Lifetime deal | $199 | Occasional | $199-299 | ||||
| Desktop app (offline) | Mac/Win | Mac/Win | |||||
| OCR for scanned PDFs | |||||||
| Mobile native apps | iOS+Android | iOS+Android | |||||
| WordPress plugin | |||||||
| PDF to audiobook tool | |||||||
| Streaming WebSocket API |
Click any individual matchup above for the full 50+ row comparison, voice mapping table, six-scenario pricing math, migration guide, and 14-question FAQ on that specific competitor.
Stated up front so you know what you are reading.
We own FreeTTS. We say so on every page. We are not a neutral review site. Our job is to write the most honest comparison we can, which means recommending competitors when they genuinely win on a specific axis. If we say "ElevenLabs has more realistic voice cloning," we believe that.
All competitor pricing is pulled from their public pricing page on the date stamped at the top of each comparison. We re-verify every quarter. If you spot a price that has changed, the page footer says when it was last verified and we will fix it on the next cycle.
FreeTTS voice count of 322 is verified by hitting GET https://freetts.org/api/voices. We market "400+" including expressive style variants per voice. Competitor voice counts are pulled from their public marketing pages and cross-checked where possible.
Zero affiliate links anywhere on these pages. When we link to a competitor's pricing page or voice library, it is a plain link with no tracking. When we recommend a competitor as the right pick for a use case, we are not getting paid to do so.
Every comparison page has a section explicitly titled "Where [competitor] genuinely beats FreeTTS" with 5-6 specific points. If we cannot find five things they do better, we do not publish the page. Every product is genuinely better than us at something.
Every page has a 5-step migration guide with realistic timing. We do not say "migrate in 5 minutes." Real migrations take 30-60 minutes for most users. The guide tells you when you should NOT migrate (if the competitor genuinely fits your job better).
Three rules that work for 95% of buyers.
If you publish more than 100,000 characters per month, the per-character price gap dominates everything else. FreeTTS PRO at $19 / 1M chars = $0.000019 per char is the cheapest commercial TTS on the market. ElevenLabs Creator at $22 / 100k = $0.00022 per char is 11.6x more expensive. Murf at $23 / ~120k chars equiv is roughly $0.00019 per char. Play.ht Creator at ~$31/mo was variable before the service shut down (Dec 31, 2025). TTSMaker VIP at $9.90 / 200k = $0.0000495 is 2.6x more than FreeTTS PRO. At any meaningful creator volume, FreeTTS wins on price-per-char.
Different products serve different jobs. Speechify Premium is best-in-class for LISTENING to your reading list on mobile. Murf is best-in-class for SLIDE-BY-SLIDE corporate voiceover decks. NaturalReader is best-in-class for OFFLINE desktop reading with OCR. ElevenLabs is best-in-class for STUDIO-GRADE voice cloning. FreeTTS is best-in-class for "I need a lot of audio cheaply with a clean API and full SSML." Buy the tool that maps to your job.
If you plan to use TTS for two-plus years and your job-fit lands on a tool with a lifetime deal, take it. FreeTTS PRO Lifetime $199 covers two years of any monthly subscription on the market. NaturalReader Pro Lifetime $199 is the same dollars for desktop+OCR readers. The Lifetime math reliably beats subscription math at the 24-month mark for any consistent user.
First three generations work without signup. PRO at $19/mo if the comparison data above leans your direction. Lifetime $199 if you plan to use TTS for two years or more.