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In this ElevenLabs review, we’ll unpack this hugely popular AI voice generation tool. ElevenLabs was recently awarded unicorn status, but does this reflect its proficiency in generating human-sounding voice overs?
We put it to the test alongside other top AI voice tools, and we’ll highlight our findings, including pricing, features, pros and cons.
What is ElevenLabs Used for?
ElevenLabs is a useful artificial intelligence (AI) voice generation tool for personal use, studying, translation, and accessibility needs. Creators and businesses also use it to create audiobooks, social media voice overs, advertising materials, and dubbing with generative AI technology.
ElevenLabs Pricing
ElevenLabs offers a free plan, four paid plans, and a custom Enterprise plan. Below we’ll unpack what each plan offers.
| Starting Price (billed annually) | Characters/m | Free Version | Templates | Plagiarism Checker | Art Generator | Voice Cloning | Brand Voices | Languages | AI Models | Integrations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 10,000 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | 3 | 23 languages, 12 accents | 4 | API |
| Starter | $4.16/month | 30,000 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | 10 | 23 languages, 12 accents | 4 | API |
| Creator | $18.3/month | 100,000 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅, professional voice cloning | 30 | 23 languages, 12 accents | 4 | API |
| Pro | $82.5/month | 500,000 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅, professional voice cloning | 160 | 23 languages, 12 accents | 4 | API |
| Scale | $275/month | 2 million | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅, professional voice cloning | 660 | 23 languages, 12 accents | 4 | API |
ElevenLabs’ Key Features
ElevenLabs offers robust features to support the creation of AI voice content. Here are some of the most exciting features on offer:
The core feature of ElevenLabs is its text-to-speech (TTS) tool. It offers two modes: simple and advanced, which you can switch between easily. It’s renowned as one of the best tools on the market right now, along with competitors, Murf AI and Lovo AI.
Simple will transform your text into speech but does not allow you to choose or alter the voice. The advanced mode offers a range of different voices to choose from, plus sliders to alter the style of speaking.
While you cannot choose the tone, the AI tool will infer the mood from the context of your text and generate the output accordingly.
Within the same editor as the TTS generator, there is also an option to use audio files rather than text.
You can upload existing voice recordings or record live audio, which will then be transcribed. Utilizing the same editing tools as the TTS feature, you can choose a voice and alter it.
This feature directly copies the intonation of the audio file uploaded, simply switching the voice. You can always move back to TTS to see the transcription of your speech before generating an ai voice, removing your own intonation.
Unlike Murf’s Voice Changer feature, ElevenLabs does not allow you to edit the transcription of your audio before generating the new voice – so you cannot edit out any unwanted pauses or polish up your delivery.
If you don’t like the sound of any of the pre-set options, ElevenLabs lets you create a voice using its generative voice creator, similar to Kits AI voice blender.
You can select a gender, age group, accent, and pitch (or Accent Strength, which is a bit misleading). I did find the American and British accents work well, but the rest lean towards American and felt hit-and-miss.
From the Creator plan and up, you can use this feature to experiment with voice cloning, which means the tool will generate an AI voice based on your own.
ElevenLabs also offers a Projects feature, which is specifically intended for generating audio for audiobooks. This tool offers a wider range of customization options to suit more complex projects than its TTS Generator.
You can use different AI voices for different characters, as well as improve the multiple voices to nail the intonation, tone, and expressiveness of your characters.
ElevenLabs has an easy-to-use AI dubbing feature. This can be used for existing content, or with videos from YouTube, X, or Vimeo. While the process does feel like it takes a bit of time, it’s relatively quick when compared to the process of professionally dubbing with a real vocal artist.
This tool works best when the audio is clear with no background noise or a backing track – if it does, the translation can be a little off, and the output can lack clarity.
When testing, I noticed the end product would sometimes play both the original audio and translated audio on top of each other, which made it difficult to understand.
When it works well, the dubbed audio does sound natural, which I was impressed with. It’s just a shame the results aren’t consistent.
ElevenLabs Performance
What impressed me when testing the platform for this ElevenLabs review was how easy it is to produce natural-sounding voice overs with little effort.
The process is automated, so you will have less control over the voice settings than you do with competitor Murf, but the output arguably sounds better.
While you don’t have the option to apply moods or tones to the voice, the voice automatically alters to suit the context of your text.
I generated a range of texts, some with a sad context and others using excitement as an undertone. I found that the AI model changed to suit the context, but I’d still have liked to tweak it myself to fine-tune the result.
It’s a really impressive voiceover tool and perhaps one of the best AI tools on the market.
ElevenLabs Integrations
ElevenLabs does not offer third-party integrations, but it does offer API access so you can integrate the audio content you create into your own apps, chatbots, websites, and more.
If you’re still new to API, there’s a Discord community, detailed help documentation, and prompt customer service available.
Comparatively, Murf AI offers a range of third-party integrations with Canva, Google Slides, and various web builders.
ElevenLabs Customer Reviews
ElevenLabs reviews are generally positive, with an average rating of 4.8/5 on G2 and 3.8/5 on Trustpilot. It scored slightly higher than other established voice generation solutions like Murf (4.7) and Lovo (4.4).
Many ElevenLabs reviewers praised the remarkable human quality and its ease of use. Users noted that ElevenLabs completely transformed their way of working, making the process of recording voices for videos quicker, easier, and cheaper.
“What stands out most prominently about ElevenLabs is the exceptional quality of the voice synthesis. The range of available voices is impressive, catering to diverse needs and preferences. The voices not only sound natural, but the intonation is also remarkably lifelike, which greatly enhances the user experience. Additionally, the ease of API integration with other platforms is a significant advantage, streamlining the development process for creators and developers alike. Moreover, the recent advancements in utilizing nuanced intonations have taken the synthetic voice technology to a new level of sophistication, allowing for more dynamic and engaging interactions.”
User review collected from G2
Reviewers also praised the multiple languages in the ElevenLabs voice library, but some said that certain words were mispronounced and were frustrated that credits were still charged in these cases.
One negative we did notice during our ElevenLabs review was that the dubbing left a little to be desired. For an AI platform, it’s an impressive feature and shows potential, but users wrote that the results are often simply unusable.
ElevenLabs vs Top Competitors
Let’s now see how ElevenLabs compares against some of the best audio AI tools on the market.
| Best For | Starting Price | Free Version | Built-In Plagiarism Checker | Top 3 Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Human-sounding voice overs | $5/month | Free for 10,000 characters and 10 minutes of audio per month | ❌ | Professional voice cloning, generous free plan, |
| ClosersCopy | Marketing and sales copy | $49.99/month | ❌ | ✅ | SEO tools, 700+ templates, in-house AI |
| Rytr | Affordable copywriting | $7.50/month | Free Forever plan inc. 10,000 characters per month | ✅ | Keyword generation, outlines, rewriting |
| Jasper AI | AI co-pilot for creating marketing content | $39/month | 7-day free trial | ✅ | Copywriting, brand voice adherence, Grammarly, and SurferSEO integration |
| Lovo AI | All-in-one video production | $24/month | 14-day free trial of the Pro version | ❌ | Video editing, art generator, text-to-speech |
ElevenLabs vs Descript
Descript is a multimedia platform that offers video editing, multi-track audio editing for podcasting, screen recording, transcription, and voice cloning. ElevenLabs, on the other hand, is limited to AI voice features such as cloning, speech synthesis, and dubbing.
The fact that Descript is offers users a comprehensive is one of the defining factors. However, there are differences in the quality of the voice output when compared with ElevenLabs as Descript’s AI voices have a robotic quality.
This makes ElevenLabs a better choice for natural-sounding voice overs. We felt the same towards the quality of Descript’s voice cloning vs. that of ElevenLabs.
ElevenLabs is pricier than Descript, with its Creator plan starting at $22, after the initial 50% off the first month, compared to Descript’s Creator plan at $12 per month. Similarly, ElevenLab’s Pro plan is $99, compared to Descript’s Pro plan at $24 per month.
Overall, Descript is a budget-friendly tool and is a great option if you need a comprehensive tool that combines voice generation with video editing. If you’re only in need of natural-sounding speech, then we’d recommend investing in ElevenLabs because of its superior quality.
ElevenLabs vs Murf
Murf offers many of the same AI voice synthesis features as ElevenLabs, including text-to-speech, speech-to-speech, dubbing, and voice cloning.
ElevenLabs’ pricing is more accessible than Murf’s, especially with its monthly pricing deal that begins at $1 per month. Even on its basic plan, users can experiment with instant voice cloning. With Murf, users have to contact the sales team to try voice cloning.
We found that ElevenLabs’ voice output was extremely accurate, and it was quick to create usable results with little input. The voices are remarkably human-like and don’t need to be edited.
However, if you do want to edit the voices, there aren’t many opportunities to do so with ElevenLabs. Comparatively, Murf offers in-depth editing tools, such as a method to tweak the emphasis on individual words.
Therefore, we’d recommend Murf for those who want to really polish their results, but overall, we found ElevenLabs to be a better tool.
For more information, read our full review of Murf AI.
ElevenLabs vs Jasper
Jasper AI and Elevenlabs are both prominent AI tools, but they serve distinct purposes and cater to different needs.
Our in-depth Jasper AI review highlights it as a comprehensive writing assistant capable of generating human-like content across a wide range of verticals, from blog posts to product descriptions. ElevenLabs specializes in voice synthesis, allowing users to create high-quality, natural-sounding synthetic voices.
Deciding between Jasper AI and ElevenLabs hinges on the specific needs of the user. Jasper stands out as a versatile AI writing tool capable of handling a wide array of content creation tasks.
In fact, Jasper is also easily one of the best AI art generators. Conversely, ElevenLabs caters to users who require top-tier, customizable synthetic voices to be used in audiobook production, voice overs, and the development of virtual assistants.
Learn more with our full Jasper AI review
How to Use ElevenLabs
In this walkthrough, we'll demonstrate how you can use ElevenLabs speech synthesis feature.
Sign Up
First, sign up with ElevenLabs. You can sign up with your Google account or with your email.
Describe Your Use Case
ElevenLabs will ask you a few questions, but it’s not immediately clear whether this is for its own research or whether it customizes your experience.
Enter Text
You’ll be directed to the Speech Synthesis tool, giving you the choice to switch from ‘simple’ or ‘advanced.’ The ‘simple’ setting does not allow you to edit the voices or move the sliders shown on the right-hand side, but you can do this in ‘advanced’ mode. Then, just start typing or paste your pre-written script in the text box.
Record Speech
Alternatively, you can record your own voice or upload an audio file for ElevenLabs to transcribe, then switch to AI-generated vocals. Once you’ve got your text, whether written or spoken, hit “Generate.”
Choose a Voice
The Voice Library offers a range of voice options, giving you the freedom to find the style of voice you need, such as genre, language, accent, age, and gender. Listen to the voice samples rather than testing the voice on your own text because this will use up your limited characters.
How to Choose the Best AI Tool
With an abundance of options available, selecting the most suitable AI tool can be tough. The following are some of the factors to keep in mind:
Assess whether the tool aligns with your particular needs and goals. Do you want to produce a voiceover for advertisements, instructional content, or YouTube videos? Check the capabilities on offer against your intended application.
Not all AI tools generate high-quality material as some are untrustworthy. Get a free trial or sample, or read reviews to see how other people rate its performance.
Look for customization as well as integration possibilities because products that interact with your current software could potentially save you time. If you have experience with coding, you should look into API access so that you can employ the results in your own applications or websites.
If an AI tool isn’t user-friendly, it will prove difficult to fulfill its potential. Use a free trial or plan before you sign a contract.
When handling sensitive data, security features are essential in AI technologies. Look for strong security measures such as data encryption, access control, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.
Does the tool offer good value for money, or does it have a free plan? It’s also essential to assess how effectively it can scale with your needs over time without becoming too expensive.
Before making your final decision, evaluate the exact features supplied by each platform pricing tier to make sure that it offers the tools you need to reach those goals.
FAQs
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References
- ElevenLabs Reviews 2024: Details, Pricing, & Features (G2)
- Read Customer Service Reviews of elevenlabs.io (Trustpilot)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) (U.S. Department of State)
