Comparison
ElevenLabs alternatives: which one?
Short answer: it depends on what you're building. Here's who each one is for. We haven't run a hands-on benchmark yet, so this page sticks to what each vendor publishes.
- Stay with ElevenLabs if you want realistic voices, cloning and dubbing with a free plan to start.
- Try Cartesia if you need low-latency speech for real-time apps and want a free plan.
- Try Deepgram if your main need is speech-to-text through an API.
- Try Vapi if you want to build phone or web voice agents and pay per minute.
| Tool | What it does | Free tier? |
|---|---|---|
| ElevenLabs | Realistic text to speech, voice cloning, dubbing and voice agents. | Yes 10,000 credits a month · source |
| Cartesia | Low-latency text to speech, speech to text and voice agent APIs. | Yes Free plan with 20K credits a month · source |
| Deepgram | Speech-to-text and voice APIs for developers. | No Pay as you go, starts with $200 free credit · source |
| Vapi | Developer platform for building phone and web voice agents. | No Pay per minute, $5 free credits to start · source |
Free tiers
ElevenLabs' free plan gives 10,000 credits a month. Cartesia has a free plan with 20K credits a month. Deepgram and Vapi are pay as you go and start you with free credits ($200 and $5).
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