ElevenLabs Review: We Tested It and Here’s What Happened

AI voice solutions are advancing rapidly, and ElevenLabs has quickly established itself as a leading platform. But the question many users have is: Does ElevenLabs really work, and is it worth investing in? That’s exactly why we decided to write this review. Our goal is to provide an unbiased assessment of what ElevenLabs offers, its performance, and whether it lives up to the hype. In this ElevenLabs review, we’ll break down everything you need to understand about it. We will explore its core features, pricing, strengths, limitations, and other key aspects. We’ll also compare it with other alternatives in the AI voice space.

Part 1. ElevenLabs Review

ElevenLabs is a voice generator and voice agent platform powered by artificial intelligence. It specializes in creating highly realistic, natural-sounding speech and voice content using deep learning. It supports text-to-speech, agents, music, speech-to-text, dubbing, voice cloning, and even a text reader. It targets users spanning creators, developers, and enterprises looking to deploy voice agents or automations. The platform aims to make content accessible in any language and in any voice by pushing the boundaries of generative AI for audio.

Part 2. Core Features of ElevenLabs

Text-to-Speech (TTS)

The Text-to-Speech functionality employs advanced AI models to convert written text into highly natural speech. Users can select from various voice models, such as Multilingual v2, Eleven v3 (alpha), or Turbo v2.5. Furthermore, ElevenLabs Text-to-Speech allows you to control tone, pacing, and delivery and even leverage in-line audio to guide the voice's expression.

Agents (Conversational AI)

The tool supports building conversational AI voice agents similar to chatbots and Virtual Assistants (VAs). Its Agents platform allows for deployment on the web, mobile, or even telephony. Additionally, it supports advanced features such as low latency, turn-taking, and integration with Large Language Models (LLMs). These agents can speak in 31+ languages, and you can bring in your own LLM to define how the agent thinks and responds.

Speech-to-Text

In addition to Text-to-Speech, Elevenlabs.io offers a Speech-to-Text functionality. Its automatic speech recognition model supports speaker diarization (which identifies who is speaking) and character-level timestamps. This model, which the company claims is both accurate and cost-effective, is practical for transcribing spoken content, such as meetings and podcasts.

With the Speech-to-Text feature, you can switch up the tone of your podcast. However, before that, you need to download a Spotify podcast as an MP3 file first.

Dubbing

The platform's AI Dubbing feature can translate a video's dialogue into 30+ languages. It includes a Dubbing Studio for greater control, allowing users to manage timing, translation, and voice consistency. This is useful for those who want to adapt video content for global audiences without compromising the original speaker's identity.

Voice Cloning

ElevenLabs Voice Cloning enables you to create a synthetic version of a real voice. It offers two main options: Instant Cloning and Professional Cloning. The latter uses more data to produce a more refined, realistic result. It can replicate emotional nuance, pitch, accent, and style. The cloned voice can then be used in Text-to-Speech, dubbing, or conversational agents.

Music

Beyond speech, the platform offers AI music generation. Using simple text prompts, you can generate studio-quality tracks across various genres. This allows content creators, indie musicians, and marketers alike to produce AI-backed music. The best part? This unique feature requires no full production studio or deep musical expertise.

If you do not want the generated tracks, you can use a YouTube Music downloader to get the music you want.

ElevenReader

ElevenReader is their mobile app that converts text into spoken audio using AI voices. It features Text-to-Speech, Instant Voice Cloning, and access to voice libraries. With the app, you can upload PDFs, ePubs, or articles and listen to them narrated by AI. It's ideal for listening while commuting, studying, or relaxing.

Part 3. Pros & Cons of ElevenLabs

Before considering tools like ElevenLabs AI, it's crucial to understand its pros and cons. Knowing the advantages helps you grasp why it's a powerful and attractive tool, highlighting its strengths and how it can add value to your projects. Equally important is understanding the disadvantages. Since no tool is perfect, being aware of its limitations and risks enables you to make smarter decisions, avoid unexpected costs, and plan for necessary workarounds.

Part 4. How to Use ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs AI Text-to-Speech allows anyone to turn written text into high-quality speech. This feature helps you produce cleaner, more expressive, and more polished audio effectively. It's designed to be user-friendly and adaptable, making it easy even for beginners.

Step 1. On the Text to Speech page, type the script or paste any content in the text box. You can add a paragraph, an article, dialogue, or even an instruction.

Step 2. Move to the left navigation of the TTS page to configure voice settings. Select the voice, language, and model you want to use. You can also adjust the speed at how it reads the text.

Step 3. Once you’ve finalized your text, chosen your voice, and customized the settings, click Play. The tool will then process your text and produce a generated speech.

ElevenLabs TTS delivers fast, natural, and expressive voice generation. The platform makes it incredibly easy to turn written content into lifelike audio. However, the quality of the output can vary depending on the voice and settings.

Part 5. Pricing Plans

ElevenLabs offers a range of pricing options tailored to meet the needs of diverse users. These plans are: Free, Starter, Creator, Pro, Scale, Business, and Enterprise. Each provides a different monthly credit allowance, access to specific features, and different support or licensing terms.

Here’s a breakdown of what each of the seven plans generally includes, based on current ElevenLabs pricing:

Part 6. ElevenLabs Alternatives

Murf AI

Murf AI is an internet-based TTS platform you can use as an ElevenLabs alternative. It offers more than 200 realistic AI voices in over 35 languages. It even lets you build voiceovers and sync audio with images or video. For developers, Murf provides a low-latency API with model inference as low as 55ms. It also supports voice cloning and a voice changer, allowing you to replicate your own voice or alter existing recordings.

Lovo AI

Lovo AI is another TTS and voice-generation platform accessible online. Its Genny engine lets you type or paste text and generate very realistic voiceovers. It supports over 100 languages, making it excellent for localization and multilingual narration. The voice styles are expressive and directional, allowing you to guide the sound of the voice. After generation, you can export the audio in familiar formats, such as WAV, MP3, or MP4.

Synthesia

ElevenLabs vs Synthesia is a full AI video creation platform that goes beyond TTS. You can convert text into natural-sounding narration and pair it with a realistic AI avatar. This allows you to produce video content without needing a camera, mic, or real actors. It includes 1,000+ voices across 140+ languages, providing massive localization and style. It also offers voice cloning, allowing you to record your own voice and generate a cloned voice in 32 languages.

Need background music for your generated speech? Try converting Apple Music to MP3 and adding it to your voice-over video.

Speechify

Speechify is an AI voice solution that originally focused on helping people listen to written text. But due to its popularity, it later evolved into a full voice generation tool. Its AI voice generator can convert text into highly realistic speech. It supports voice cloning, dubbing, and production of voiceovers. It allows you to clone your voice, providing a digital replica that you can use whenever you want. It also supports dubbing, allowing you to translate and voice video into over 20 languages.

Part 7. Summary: Who is ElevenLabs Best For

Strengths:

ElevenLabs stands out for its very natural, emotionally expressive voices. Its voice cloning can replicate a real person’s voice and use it consistently in narration or branding. It supports many languages and accents, which is great for localization or global content. Additionally, it offers a developer-friendly API, allowing for seamless integration into apps, voice agents, or other automated workflows. For long-form content, its studio features and pricing tiers scale well.

Weaknesses:

The credit-based pricing model can be confusing and expensive, especially when regenerations consume credits. Additionally, unused credits do not roll over, meaning inefficient use could result in a wasted budget. Voice cloning quality heavily depends on the quality of the source audio. This means poor recordings lead to less convincing clones. Most importantly, some advanced features have a learning curve, making them less accessible to absolute beginners.

Verdict:

ElevenLabs AI voice generator excels in delivering highly realistic, expressive, and versatile speech. It is a great tool for producing audiobooks, podcasts, marketing videos, training materials, and more. However, you should be aware that these benefits come with trade-offs. The credit-based pricing model can become costly with heavy usage. Additionally, the quality of voice cloning depends on the quality of the source audio.

Part 8. FAQs about ElevenLabs

Conclusion

This concludes our review of ElevenLabs. ElevenLabs is a powerful and professional-grade AI voice platform that excels in creating realistic speech. Its features make it an excellent choice for content creators, educators, marketers, and enterprises. However, it may not be the best fit for casual users who only need occasional or low-volume voice generation. ElevenLabs is worth considering if your priority is voice quality, expressiveness, and scalability.