Top 7 ElevenLabs Alternatives for Engaging Storytelling
Explore the top 7 alternatives to ElevenLabs for creating immersive audio in your content. Discover CapCut, a desktop video editor offering a powerful text-to-speech tool with a variety of voices.

There is no doubt that ElevenLabs is a quality text-to-speech tool. But there are many worthy Elevenlabs alternatives. These tools have exceptionally realistic and highly nuanced voiceovers, allowing you to easily transform text-to-speech. They can come in handy when you want more features than ElevenLabs can offer or a cheaper tool. This guide will explore 7 free ElevenLabs alternatives and compare their features. Let's dive in.
An overview of ElevenLabs and its alternatives
ElevenLabs is an advanced text-to-speech software that harnesses the power of AI to create natural-sounding voices. It then allows you to customize the converted audio to suit your preference. Moreover, it supports multiple languages. Below is an overview of ElevenLabs and its alternatives.
7 best ElevenLabs alternatives for dynamic narration
This curated list contains text-to-speech tools that are equally or more effective than ElevenLabs. They will upgrade your digital experience and enable you to overcome any limitations of using ElevenLabs.
1. CapCut desktop video editor
The CapCut desktop video editor is a remarkable media editing solution with an advanced text-to-speech tool. It features custom voices and over 100 voice options, allowing you to seamlessly create high-quality text-to-speech voiceovers. It is built for professional use and features incredible power to handle intricate editing needs. The CapCut desktop video editor is available for Windows and Mac.
Before you can start converting your text-to-speech, click the link below to download the CapCut PC editor and install it on your PC. The installation process is straightforward and only takes a few minutes.
How to convert text to speech with CapCut
- Step
- Import media
- Launch the CapCut desktop video editor and select "New project" to open the editing window. Drag and drop your clip into the timeline, or hit the "Import" button and choose your video via the file explorer. If the target media is on your CapCut space, click "Spaces" to import it. Alternatively, you can leverage CapCut PC's stock videos from the "Library" tab.
- Step
- Convert text to speech
- Select your video timeline, then click "Text" from the top left panel. This will open the CapCut text tab. Select "Add text," then click "Default" to add a text box to the video. You can drag it to determine where the text will appear in the video. Next, click on the text box, navigate to the right panel, and type or paste your text under "Basic" in the "Video" tab.
-
- Once you have entered and checked your text for errors, navigate to "Text-to-speech" on the same panel. This will open the AI voices tab with 100+ options. These include male, female, storyteller, British, etc. Select a voice to listen to it, then click "Start reading" to apply it. Once you choose a voice, it is added to a different timeline track. You can add multiple voices.
-
- Select your audio timeline, then adjust the volume, add a fade in/out, enhance voice, isolate vocals, and more from the right panel. You can also apply a voice effect or adjust the playback speed. Next, take advantage of CapCut PC's basic, advanced, and AI features to spruce up your video. Apply effects, filters, AI stickers, transitions, and more. You can also relight it, auto reframe, remove flickers, blur, speed up or down, cut, split scenes, etc. Remember to customize the captions in your video and adjust the style, font, and more, or select a preset.
- Step
- Export and share
Once you are ready to save your video, click "Export" in the top right corner. Adjust the resolution (up to 4K), codec, bit rate, format (MP4 or MOV), and frame rate (up to 60fps). To save the voiceover as an audio, select "Export audio" and choose a preferred format. Hit "Export" at the bottom. If you want to share your video to YouTube or TikTok, you can share it directly from the next window.
- Realistic human-like voices.
- Studio-level editing power.
- Rich audio editing tools.
- Short learning curve.
- Free to use.
- Requires installation.
- Limited export formats.
2. Google TTS
Google Text-to-Speech is a web-based ElevenLabs alternative with 380+ voices and 50+ languages and variants. It is built on DeepMind's speech synthesis and generates voices with humanlike intonation. You can customize the pitch of the voice you select and then use SSML tags to add pauses, numbers, dates, and more to your speech.
- High-fidelity speech.
- Wide voice selection.
- Lets you create a unique voice.
- Can adjust the speed of the speech.
- Can struggle with heavy cultural references and idioms.
- Limited free version.
3. Microsoft Text-to-speech
Microsoft TTS is one of the most popular alternatives to ElevenLabs and lets you build a custom voice to distinguish your brand. It also offers 400+ AI voices with different genders and accents and enables you to customize the pitch, pauses, intonation, and more. This tool has multiple speaking styles and emotional tones to suit various use cases.
- Lifelike synthesized speech.
- Lets you fine-tune your speech output.
- Secure.
- Easy to use.
- Lower audio quality compared to other TTS solutions.
- Relies on an internet connection.
4. PlayHT
PlayHT is an ElevenLabs voice cloning alternative with realistic AI voice models. It provides sliders to adjust a voice's emotions, expressiveness, and uniqueness to help you achieve the perfect sound. This software has 600+ voices, including variations for purposes such as marketing, narration, training, etc.
- Accessible on all major browsers.
- Free unlimited downloads.
- Can regenerate multiple samples.
- Intuitive interface.
- May not pronounce complex words and acronyms correctly.
- Limited selection of non-English voices.
5. LOVO
Lovo is a cutting-edge text-to-speech solution and a powerful ElevenLabs alternative. It offers 500+ voices across 100+ languages and allows you to customize pronunciation. Moreover, it helps you to localize your content and captivate the audience with natural-sounding voices.
- Provides sound effects.
- Cost-effective.
- Customizable accents.
- Fast text-to-speech conversion.
- Limits you to only 5 projects on the free version.
- Few audio editing options.
6. Murf.ai
Murfs.ai is an ElevenLabs free alternative that lets you generate high-quality text-to-speech voiceovers from your browser. It allows you to select from 10+ emotions like conversational, angry, sad, and more to define the voice parameters. You can also add pauses, adjust the speed, change the pronunciations, and more to customize the audio output.
- Multiple accents.
- Studio-quality voiceovers.
- Audio editing features.
- It lets you upload and add the voiceover to a video.
- Limited language selection.
- Offers only 10 minutes on the free version.
7. Listnr
With 1,000+ voices spanning 140+ languages, Listnr is among the most capable ElevenLabs alternatives. It also lets you clone your own voice and use it for text-to-speech voiceovers to enhance personalization. Listnr's voices are realistic, and each has one or more accents for precise content localization.
- Multiple audio download formats.
- 100+ accents.
- Has a voice changer.
- Supports voice cloning.
- Limited to 1000 words on the freemium.
- Textbox only accepts 5000 characters.
Why CapCut desktop editor is the best free ElevenLabs alternative
Renowned text-to-speech experts recommend the CapCut desktop video editor as the most user-friendly ElevenLabs alternative. Here's why:
- Enhance your content with natural-sounding narration
- Accurately convert text to speech with human-like voices and avoid hiring a voiceover artist or equipment. CapCut PC offers 100+ voices, including storyteller, British, male, female, and more.
- Reach a global audience with seamless language conversion
- Localize your content and break down language barriers with nuanced translations. CapCut supports languages such as English, Chinese, German, and more and lets you edit and correct the output.
- Translate videos with AI-powered technology
- Automatically dub your videos into a different language to make them accessible. This tool retains the speaker's original sound and tone and adjusts their mouth movements for a natural translation.
- Elevate your videos with industry-standard editing features
- Harness studio-level features such as stabilization, noise reduction, motion blur, mask, and more. CapCut PC lets you edit all types of videos, including YouTube, social media, business, education, etc.
- Streamline your editing process with artificial intelligence
- Leverage the power of AI through tools such as relight, voice enhancement, auto reframe, auto cutout, and more for versatile editing. AI tools improve your productivity.
- Access a wealth of media elements for creative projects
- Enhance your videos with AI stickers, background music, sound effects, cinematic filters, effects, captions, in/out/loop animations, etc. These resources make your content more engaging and captivating.
- Share your creations quickly and easily across the platform
- Streamline your workflow with instant sharing to YouTube and TikTok. You do not need to exit the CapCut desktop editor to post your videos.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is a game changer in text-to-speech conversion. Fortunately, these ElevenLabs alternatives will allow you to fully harness its power, saving you the cost of hiring a voiceover artist. Among them, the CapCut desktop video editor provides the most versatile editing power. In addition to multiple natural-sounding human voices, it supports rich audio customization. This allows you to improve the clarity of the voiceover and enhance it with background music and sound effects. Besides, you can add the voiceover to a video and sync it to subtitles. Download the CapCut desktop video editor today and achieve realistic text-to-speech conversion.
FAQs
- Why would I consider an ElevenLabs free alternative?
- You can seek an alternative if you want a tool that allows you to type in more characters since ElevenLabs accepts 2500-5000. It also has a limited free version, so consider an alternative for more capabilities. Moreover, if you want to add the voiceover to a video, you will need a separate tool. This is why you should use the CapCut desktop video editor. It supports text-to-speech and allows you to merge the text with footage for an enhanced viewing experience. CapCut PC also supports extensive audio customization, enabling you to fine-tune the voiceover. Install the CapCut desktop editor today and leverage the best ElevenLabs alternative.
- Are ElevenLabs AI alternatives as good?
- Yes, they are. The ElevenLabs alternatives in this guide are equally good and built on cutting-edge technology. Some even offer more features than ElevenLabs. For example, the CapCut desktop video editor also provides extensive video and audio editing features. Thus, after converting text-to-speech, you can enrich the audio and even leverage CapCut PC stock videos to give it visuals. Besides, this tool supports multitrack editing and allows you to create multiple voiceovers for the same project. Download the CapCut desktop tool and experience a versatile editor.
- How do I find the best ElevenLabs alternative free for me?
- For the best ElevenLabs alternatives, look no further than this guide. Although multiple options are available online, this article has curated all the best options. In particular, the CapCut desktop video editor is the one-stop solution you need. Its text-to-speech feature is highly accurate and offers 100+ voices. This allows you to find a suitable sound for any use case. You can also customize the voiceover to suit your preferences further. Install CapCut PC on your device and create text-to-speech voiceovers with the best ElevenLabs alternative.