{ "title": "ElevenLabs Alternatives 2027: 14 Paid, Free & Open-Source", "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/elevenlabs/", "summary": "The best ElevenLabs alternatives in 2027 are Fish Audio (best overall, $11/mo), Cartesia (best free plan: 20K credits a month) and Kokoro (best open source, Apache-2.0). ElevenLabs itself starts at $6/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 11 more are compared below, including 3 with a free plan and 7 open source.", "tool": { "name": "ElevenLabs", "starting_price": "$6/mo", "free_plan": "10k credits a month, 3 Studio projects", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://elevenlabs.io/pricing" }, "task": "AI voice generator", "prices_checked": "2026-11-11", "date_modified": "2026-11-13", "alternatives": [ { "name": "Fish Audio", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$11/mo", "free_plan_limit": "8,000 credits a month, 500 characters per generation", "best_for": "Voice cloning with a cheaper plan ladder", "difference": "Free plan gives 8,000 credits a month (up to 7 minutes) with 500 characters per generation; Plus adds Voice Design and one professional voice slot, at roughly 600 credits a minute.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://fish.audio/plan/", "website": "https://fish.audio", "zekai_score": 7.9, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fish-audio/" }, { "name": "Murf.ai", "type": "Paid", "starting_price": "Not checked", "free_plan_limit": "No free plan", "best_for": "Studio voiceovers for presentations and video", "difference": "Lists 120+ text to speech voices in 20 languages on its site; its pricing page needs JavaScript and could not be read, so plan limits are not shown here.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://murf.ai/pricing", "website": "https://murf.ai", "zekai_score": 8.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/murf-ai/" }, { "name": "Speechify", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$11.58/mo billed yearly", "free_plan_limit": "10 robotic-sounding voices, text to speech only", "best_for": "Listening to documents and web pages", "difference": "Consumer reading app: Premium offers 1,000+ voices in 60+ languages with Scan & Listen, AI Summaries and cloud-drive integrations, and playback up to 5x; the free plan has 10 robotic-sounding voices.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://speechify.com/pricing/", "website": "https://speechify.com", "zekai_score": 8.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/speechify/" }, { "name": "WellSaid Labs", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$10/mo billed yearly", "free_plan_limit": "3 download minutes a month, no commercial rights", "best_for": "Studio-grade voiceover for teams", "difference": "Meters downloads in minutes, not credits: Starter includes 20 download minutes a month with unlimited generation, and Business is $160 a month per user, billed yearly, for 1 to 5 seats.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://www.wellsaid.io/ai-voice-pricing", "website": "https://wellsaidlabs.com", "zekai_score": 8.2, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/wellsaid-labs/" }, { "name": "Voicemaker", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$5/mo", "free_plan_limit": "250 characters per conversion, limited generations", "best_for": "Low-cost text to speech with character credits", "difference": "Credits map to characters: default voices cost 1 credit per character, premium voices 2 to 4, and an Audiobook & Podcast plan is $25 a year for 1,000,000 credits.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://voicemaker.in/pricing", "website": "https://voicemaker.in", "zekai_score": 7.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/voicemaker/" }, { "name": "Cartesia", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$5/mo", "free_plan_limit": "20K credits a month (about 27 minutes of text to speech)", "best_for": "Low-latency speech for voice agents", "difference": "Free plan gives 20K credits a month (about 27 minutes of text to speech, 2 concurrent requests) plus a $1 voice-agent balance and one phone number; there are no overages on Free.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://cartesia.ai/pricing", "website": "https://cartesia.ai", "zekai_score": 8.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/cartesia/" }, { "name": "Kokoro", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "Apache-2.0", "best_for": "Small open voice model with Apache weights", "difference": "Kokoro is an 82-million-parameter model whose weights are Apache-licensed, so you can ship it in a product without a licence fee; voices are picked by name, such as af_heart.", "website": "https://github.com/hexgrad/kokoro", "repository": "https://github.com/hexgrad/kokoro", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/kokoro/", "commercial_use": "Yes; the code and the model weights are Apache-2.0.", "runs_on": "82M-parameter model installed with pip plus espeak-ng; Apple MPS acceleration is supported.", "setup": "moderate: pip install kokoro, install espeak-ng, then a few lines of Python.", "github_stars": 10100, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2025-08-06", "zekai_score": 5.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/kokoro/" }, { "name": "Piper", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "GPL-3.0-or-later", "best_for": "Offline voices used by Home Assistant and NVDA", "difference": "Piper is a GPL-3.0 engine with a command line, HTTP server and C/C++ library, and its README says the Open Home Foundation is looking for new maintainers.", "website": "https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl", "repository": "https://github.com/OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/piper/", "commercial_use": "Yes; GPL-3.0 copyleft applies if you distribute it; each voice has its own licence.", "runs_on": "Local engine installed with pip; the README lists no GPU or RAM figure.", "setup": "moderate: pip install piper-tts, then download a voice model.", "github_stars": 6300, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-13", "last_release": "2026-09-04", "zekai_score": 7.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/piper/" }, { "name": "Chatterbox", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "MIT", "best_for": "MIT-licensed voice agents with laugh tags", "difference": "Chatterbox embeds Resemble AI's PerTh watermark in every file it generates, and its README says the code now stays public as an archive with no support or updates.", "website": "https://github.com/resemble-ai/chatterbox", "repository": "https://github.com/resemble-ai/chatterbox", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatterbox/", "commercial_use": "Yes (MIT); the README adds a watermark to every output file.", "runs_on": "Nano (110M) runs on CPU, 3x real-time on 8 cores; others want CUDA.", "setup": "moderate: pip install chatterbox-tts; the README develops on Python 3.11.", "github_stars": 27800, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-04", "last_release": "2025-06-13", "zekai_score": 7.2, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/chatterbox/" }, { "name": "F5-TTS", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "MIT", "best_for": "Flow-matching TTS driven by reference audio", "difference": "F5-TTS code is MIT, but its README says the pre-trained models are CC-BY-NC because of the Emilia training data, which rules out commercial output.", "website": "https://github.com/SWivid/F5-TTS", "repository": "https://github.com/SWivid/F5-TTS", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/f5-tts/", "commercial_use": "No for the pre-trained models (CC-BY-NC); the code itself is MIT.", "runs_on": "Nvidia, AMD or Intel GPU through PyTorch; a Docker image with --gpus=all is provided.", "setup": "hard: Install the right PyTorch build for your GPU first, then pip install f5-tts.", "github_stars": 15600, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-03", "last_release": "2026-07-23", "zekai_score": 6.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/f5-tts/" }, { "name": "Coqui TTS (Idiap fork)", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "MPL-2.0", "best_for": "Maintained fork of the original Coqui toolkit", "difference": "This Idiap fork continues the original Coqui repository, which its README calls unmaintained, and offers training tools, dataset utilities and pre-trained models in over 1,100 languages.", "website": "https://coqui-tts.readthedocs.io", "repository": "https://github.com/idiap/coqui-tts", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/coqui-tts/", "commercial_use": "Yes for the code (MPL-2.0); check each model's own licence, including XTTS.", "runs_on": "Python 3.10 to 3.14 with PyTorch; the README gives no VRAM figure.", "setup": "moderate: uv pip install coqui-tts after installing PyTorch; models download on use.", "github_stars": 2400, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-13", "last_release": "2026-10-19", "zekai_score": 6.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/coqui-tts/" }, { "name": "Dia", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "Apache-2.0", "best_for": "English multi-speaker dialogue from a script", "difference": "Dia is a 1.6B-parameter model that generates dialogue from a transcript, can add laughs and coughs, supports English only, and its README says CPU support is still to come.", "website": "https://github.com/nari-labs/dia", "repository": "https://github.com/nari-labs/dia", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/dia/", "commercial_use": "Yes (Apache-2.0); the README forbids identity misuse and illegal use.", "runs_on": "GPU only: CUDA 12.6; about 4.4 GB VRAM in bfloat16, 7.9 GB in float32.", "setup": "hard: CUDA GPU required; install with pip, weights come from Hugging Face.", "github_stars": 19400, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2025-11-19", "zekai_score": 5.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/dia/" }, { "name": "VoxCPM", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "Apache-2.0", "best_for": "Multilingual voice cloning and voice design", "difference": "VoxCPM2 is a 2B-parameter model with 30 languages, voice design from a text description and cloning from a short clip, with Apache-2.0 weights and code.", "website": "https://voxcpm.readthedocs.io", "repository": "https://github.com/OpenBMB/VoxCPM", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/voxcpm/", "commercial_use": "Yes; the README says weights and code are Apache-2.0, free for commercial use.", "runs_on": "Python 3.10-3.12, PyTorch 2.5+, CUDA 12+; CPU and Apple MPS are selectable.", "setup": "hard: Needs a CUDA-ready PyTorch environment, then pip install voxcpm.", "github_stars": 42400, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-09", "last_release": "2026-05-11", "zekai_score": 7.7, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/voxcpm/" }, { "name": "WhisperSpeech", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "MIT", "best_for": "Commercially safe TTS trained on licensed data", "difference": "WhisperSpeech inverts OpenAI Whisper to make speech, says its models are trained only on properly licensed data, and currently ships English only.", "website": "https://github.com/WhisperSpeech/WhisperSpeech", "repository": "https://github.com/WhisperSpeech/WhisperSpeech", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/whisperspeech/", "commercial_use": "Yes; the README says code is Apache-2.0 or MIT and training data is licensed.", "runs_on": "README reports 12x real-time on an RTX 4090; no minimum is stated.", "setup": "moderate: Run the Colab notebook, or run the notebook locally.", "github_stars": 4700, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2025-06-08", "zekai_score": 6.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/whisperspeech/" } ], "faq": [ { "q": "What is the best alternative to ElevenLabs in 2027?", "a": "Fish Audio is the best overall ElevenLabs alternative on this page ($11/mo). For no cost, Cartesia has a free plan (20K credits a month (about 27 minutes of text to speech)). To self-host, Kokoro is open source (Apache-2.0)." }, { "q": "Is there a free version of ElevenLabs?", "a": "Yes. ElevenLabs has a free plan: 10k credits a month, 3 Studio projects. Paid plans start at $6/mo, checked on 11 Nov 2026." }, { "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to ElevenLabs?", "a": "Yes. Kokoro, Piper, Chatterbox, F5-TTS, Coqui TTS (Idiap fork), Dia, VoxCPM, WhisperSpeech are open source and free to self-host. Fish Audio, Speechify, WellSaid Labs, Voicemaker, Cartesia have a free plan with limits, shown in the table." }, { "q": "What is cheaper than ElevenLabs?", "a": "Voicemaker starts at $5/mo, against $6/mo for ElevenLabs, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026." }, { "q": "How much do ElevenLabs alternatives cost for a team of 5?", "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Voicemaker $25/mo, Cartesia $25/mo, WellSaid Labs $50/mo, against ElevenLabs $30/mo for ElevenLabs. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size." }, { "q": "Which is better, Fish Audio or ElevenLabs?", "a": "Free plan gives 8,000 credits a month (up to 7 minutes) with 500 characters per generation; Plus adds Voice Design and one professional voice slot, at roughly 600 credits a minute. Choose Fish Audio if you want voice cloning and a 250,000-credit plan priced well under ElevenLabs Creator. Stay with ElevenLabs if you need a bigger library of models and studio tools than Fish Audio's credit plans offer." }, { "q": "Why are people leaving ElevenLabs?", "a": "The documented reasons are: ElevenLabs' Free plan lists 10k credits a month (about 10 minutes) and 3 Studio projects; the commercial licence and Instant Voice Cloning start at Starter (11 Nov 2026); Professional Voice Cloning is listed from the Creator plan at $22/mo, and extra minutes beyond the allowance are priced at about $0.18 to $0.36 depending on plan (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above." }, { "q": "What is the best ElevenLabs alternative?", "a": "It depends on the job: Fish Audio for cloning at a lower plan price, Cartesia for real-time voice agents, WellSaid Labs for commercial voiceover, and Kokoro if you want free software you run yourself." } ], "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.", "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/elevenlabs/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted." }