Decide first whether you are producing audio for other people (narration, ads, dubbing) or listening to text yourself. The right tool, and the right price, is completely different.
ElevenLabs is the best voice generator for creators and developers, and its Starter plan ($6/mo) already includes a commercial license and instant voice cloning. For reading articles and books aloud to yourself, Speechify is built for that job instead.
| App | Free tier | Paid from | Top plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Yes | $6/mo | $990/mo | Developers and studios needing voice cloning, dubbing and TTS, with music as a bonus feature |
| Speechify | Yes | $29/mo | $29/mo | Readers, students, and professionals who want articles, books, and documents read aloud in natural voices |
| Descript | Yes | $24/mo | $65/mo | Podcast and video editing, transcript-based cutting, voice cloning for solo creators |
| HeyGen | Yes | $29/mo | $149/mo | Marketers and solo creators who need talking-avatar videos and multilingual dubbing without a camera crew |
Monthly prices in US dollars before tax, from each vendor's official pricing (US list price; weekly-billed plans converted to a monthly figure). Updated October 7, 2026
The voice-cloning and TTS specialist: Starter adds a commercial license and instant cloning, Creator ($22/mo) adds professional voice cloning and 192 kbps audio. The free tier's 10,000 credits are non-commercial.
Pick it if: you publish narration, voiceovers or dubbed content.
Full ElevenLabs pricing →Premium reads documents and articles in 1,000+ natural voices across 60+ languages at up to 5x speed. Free is limited to robotic voices at 1.5x, and cloning is sold separately.
Pick it if: you want to listen to your reading list, not produce audio for others.
Full Speechify pricing →Voice cloning sits inside a transcript-based editor, so you can fix a flubbed line by typing it. You pay for an editor first and a voice tool second.
Pick it if: you already record and edit spoken audio or video.
Full Descript pricing →Creator ($29/mo) includes voice cloning and 175+ languages alongside talking avatars, which suits dubbing a video into other languages.
Pick it if: your voice needs to come with a face on screen.
Full HeyGen pricing →ElevenLabs Free is non-commercial; the commercial license starts at Starter. If you monetize a channel or deliver client work, treat the cheapest paid tier as the real starting price.
ElevenLabs Free gives 10,000 credits a month with TTS, music and sound effects, but not for commercial use. Speechify Free reads text aloud with 10 robotic voices.
ElevenLabs (instant cloning from Starter, professional cloning from Creator), Descript, and HeyGen on its Creator plan. Speechify offers cloning via its API or the separate Speechify Studio product.
How we choose: prices come from each vendor's official pricing page and are re-checked every week. We take no affiliate fees, so rankings aren't for sale.