The Top text To Speech Tools in 2022 (Free & Paid) -
It's not hard to remember the robotic way that early text to speech tools would sound as well as how hilarious a machine with a mouth that isn't clean could be... But is it still true? Do you think that text-to-speech technology is up to speed for digital media creation? Find out!
The greater the number of formats you have to present your online courses The more easily accessible your lessons will be and the better the students learn...Turning text into speech to create an audio lecture, voiceover or video can be a fantastic way to repurpose text-heavy content in new formats.
However, not all people are blessed with the soaring tone of Morgan Freeman. Additionally, the process of converting text to natural speech in the conventional way can eat up the time you could spend creating or promoting your course.
This is where the most recent generation of text-to-speech (TTS) tools come in handy. With the advancement of technology these tools sound less and less robotic, but more like human-like readers.
Together with a variety of applications Text to Speech can help you:
- converts entire book into audiobooks
- convert a text course in to an audio or video class
- transform blog posts to YouTube-style videos
We've looked over the most effective text-to-speech software you can use in 2021 in order to reuse the content you've created and boost student engagement:
The first question is: why bother?
Why use text to speak?
There are a myriad of situations where TTS can help keep students active and engaged in their learning. Like:
- Recorded presentations let you create an experience similar to sitting in a lecture
- Audio version of the course text make it easier to gain access to the course materials students who have visual impairment or who struggle to read
- Audiobook editions published by self-published authors provide a new revenue stream--people who wouldn't go through a 300-page text on the subject may be willing to buy something they could listen to when they drive for work.
- Video adds the flavor of your class, giving your students an opportunity to get away from the course materials and quizzes
- Accessibilityfor visually impaired persons Text-to-Speech can be a fantastic way to accommodate those who can hear better than they can visually
All of these scenarios, TTS saves you the time required recording an audio file on the spot. Once you've got a TTS tool set up as you'd like it, your only major time investment is writing your material.
Standard TTS vs. Neural TTS
Before diving into the realm of text-to-speech, it's important to know the difference between standard and neural TTS tools.
- Standard TTS is the earliest method. If you imagine synthetic, rigid sounding TTS, it's probably thinking of this. However, standard TTS is a benefit being more affordable that neural TTS. Furthermore, most of software that is available lets you make adjustments to normal output. This means you can change the length of pauses, speed of speech and the way the words are spoken.
- Neural TTS uses neural networks, also known as AI for short, to create more natural-sounding speech. The basic idea is that computers are fed thousands of hours of human voice, which is accompanied by text, and learns how to mimic the human voice of a person saying something loudly. Be careful not to let it cause you to feel anxious, though. Even if it's more expensive than standard TTS, neural TTS produces authentically realistic audio.
The only method to access free neural TTS services is to sign-up for a trial for a paid subscription.
A summary of the best text to speech tools that we have looked over:
| Tools for TTS | The Best | The Bad | Best to use for... |
| Amazon Polly | Full-featuredand comes including standard and neural TTS assistance at the lowest cost compared to rivals | The majority of reviews indicate Google Text-to-Speech offers better user service | Creators of courses who are willing to pay for TTS with neural capability |
| Google's Text-to-Speech | According to reports, HTML0 offers superior customer support than Amazon Polly, along with the ability to speak in more languages and with more languages | It is slightly more expensive in comparison to Amazon Polly | Course creators that are ready to pay for TTS and value user support |
| Azure Speech Services | Azure provides more customization of the voice than Google or Amazon | More expensive than either Google or Amazon (neural TTS costs twice the price) | Course creators who want to create audio content with unique voice |
| Natural Reader | Simple, simple text-to-speech software with flexible pricing | Does not support neural TTS. The voice options are frequently used by YouTube creators | Course creators that have lots of text that they must process, looking for a cheaper option over Amazon, Google, or Azure |
| VoiceOverMaker | Edit and create neural TTS audio and videos with the online editors | Significantly more expensive than similar neural TTS services | People who have just begun to play around with videos |
| Balabolka | Text-to-speech is a simple, easy-to-use software, with the ability to include voices from different sources | Simple functionality, there is no community online for help. Works only on Windows. | Simple and dirty TTS that operates out of the box |
| Zabaware Text-to-Speech | Free. Similar features similar to Balabolka and a large online community within Zabaware. Zabaware forum. | Basic function. This only works on Windows. | Course creators seeking simple TTS of standard quality, with support from the online community |
| FreeTTS | Free, simple in-browser TTS that has a greater capacity than rivals as well as the ability to listen to samples of voices prior downloading the files. | The character limit confining any post that is longer than shorter blog article. | On-the-fly TTS to short pieces of content. |
The top text to speech tools you can purchase
Amazon Polly
The top all-round cloud-based TTS solution for teachers.
Prices Options
- Freemium
- Standard TTS: Up to five million characters per month over 12 months
- Neural TTS: up to 1,000,000 characters per day for 12 months
- Pay-as-you-go
- Standard TTS $4.00 per 5 million characters
- Neural TTS: $16.00 per 1 million characters
The reasons to purchase
- Ability to stream converted audio from a phone without the need to download any documents
- Choice of 47 voices in 24 different languages
- Speech Marks are used as an added educational tool
More Details
The program is consistently rated by customers as the most reliable choice to use for TTS, Amazon Polly offers regular and neural TTS. Since it's pay-as-you-go it's not necessary to fret about the cost of subscriptions that drain your account in times when you're not producing your course. Polly offers one stand-out option for teaching online: Speech Marks, which allows you to pair streams of audio and text so students can learn along. A review of the aggregated reviews shows that although Polly is the top choice overall, users had more support when making use of Google Text-to-Speech.
Google Text-to-Speech
A Amazon Polly alternative with more voices and languages to choose to choose from.
Pricing Options
- Google Cloud Free Tier: Limited use of the service (unspecified from Google)
- Pay-as-you-go
- Standard TTS $4.00 Per 4 Million characters
- Neural TTS: $16.00 per 1 million characters
Reasons to buy
- More than 200 voices in over 40 languages and language variants
- Neural TTS quality uses WaveNet technology--comparable to Amazon Polly
- Custom Voice (beta) could allow you to create a voice unique to your particular course by through neural technology.
Details
A close contender in the same way as Amazon Polly, Google Text-to-Speech has the most similar attributes, but at a higher price point for regular TTS. If you're concerned that your TTS service stands out from other services, then Google's voice service could be the preferred choice. Not just do they have more created voices than Polly and Google's brand new personalized voice service offers you the option to build your own unique voice to the course you're taking through neural technology. That being said, custom voice is in the early stages of Beta, and you could need to wait a while before you can use it as a viable option. The majority of reviews indicate that Google Text-to-Speech offers better support than Amazon Polly.
Azure Speech Services
The most effective method to make a distinctive TTS voice for your class.
Price Options
- Freemium:
- Standard TTS: Up to five million characters per day
- NUTRAL TTS Up To 0.5 millions characters every month
- Custom TTS: 5,000,000 characters per month
- Pay-as-you-go
- Standard TTS $4.00 for 1,000,000 characters
- Neural TTS: $16.00 per 1 million characters
- Personal TTS $6.00 for 1,000,000 characters
Reasons to buy
- The best option to create custom TTS voices
- Fine-grained controls let you tweak your custom voice
- Support for spoken types like newscast, chat as well as customer service as well as emotions
Details
Microsoft's Azure Speech Services is pricier than Amazon Polly or Google Text-to-Speech especially if you're planning to rely on the standard TTS rather than neural. The main reason it is superior to the other options is its customizability. With an array of options available, as well as the option to select among different styles of speaking and emotions it is possible to create the ideal voice for your online course. It's a good thing if you're worried about your content being buried in the background. After all, there are only so many artificial voices available as well as a lot of YouTube creators use TTS. Also, Azure is developing customized neural voices that are similar to those offered in Google's beta. While they're not always a viable option in the present however, they will give you an even greater degree of customization as time goes on.
Natural Reader
The best TTS solution that's stripped-down for course creators looking for simple solutions
Prices Options
- Trial for free: 20 minutes of voice per day
- Online app: Starting at $9.99/month and $49/month for commercial use
- Software: One-time payment beginning at $99.50 with commercial use charges
Reasons to Buy
- More than 100 voices are available in the version that is paid for
- is compatible with mobile phones to edit while on the move
- supports a variety of types of text, as well as OCR scanning
Details
Its interface is simple and pricing packages free of API frills, Natural Reader is the natural choice for narrating videos or offering students the possibility of listening to texts. Although the basic TTS service may sound stilted compared to more expensive neural alternatives, the built-in pronunciation editor can help you instruct the program on difficult terms. The multiple use options offered online, in the cloud, or natively installed software, offer flexible pricing. Be aware, however, that commercial use will take a bigger bite out of your budget. One thing to keep in mind: Natural Voice is popular among YouTube creators. You have the chance of using an already-celebrity voice users.
VoiceOverMaker
For course creators who are making their first venture into voiceover videos.
Pricing Options
- Trial for free: Up to 800 characters per month
- Subscribers: Beginning at 7 EUR (about $8.50 USD)/month to get up to 40,000 characters
Reasons to buy
- Integrate online video editing with TTS--no need for extra software
- Benefit from neural TTS by using Google's WaveNet technology
- Rights for commercial use included with normal subscription
More Details
If you're only beginning to get started in the field of video and are not comfortable making your own voiceovers VoiceOverMaker could be the best option short of hiring an actor to voice your message. This service makes use of Google's neural WaveNet technology to create natural sounding voices, and gives you a single, cloud-based application for editing your voice track and video files (there's no other non-neural TTS services that's available.) Additionally, you don't have to shell out extra money to use the service for commercial purposes, like with Natural Reader. This is a pretty tidy package; However, when you accelerate your video production, VoiceOverMaker starts digging into your pocket: 300,000 characters each month cost more than 30 dollars (compared to one million characters for the price of $16 on either Google or Amazon). In this case you may decide to take the video editing course to make it your own. But for beginners, VoiceOverApp is a great way to experiment and learn the basics.
The most popular Free text-to-speech applications
Balabolka
A useful option to create Audiobooks.
Reasons to download
- Simple and reliable text to speech software
- Supports a broad range types of texts
- Allows you to use aftermarket voices
More Details
Don't let Balabolka's rudimentary web design put you off. It's an extremely powerful tool for free that consistently gets five star ratings from both TTS and user experts. Once you download it, Balabolka uses the native Microsoft API to convert text documents to speech. Additionally, it is compatible with any voice file that you download onto your PC. Editing tools allow you to adjust the pronunciation of words and also pauses between them. If you want to offer an audio version of the course books or texts for your pupils, you can do worse than Balabolka.
Zabaware Text-to-Speech
Simple software for TTS with an enormous online support community.
Why you should download
- Simple interface
- Help from a huge community of users
- Export audio as MP3 or WAV
Information
On the surface Zabaware's text-to-speech free tool may look dated. It's nevertheless supported by Zabaware along with an active and large forum of Zabaware users and developers. It's the reason it's different from Balabolka, the other tool that we have in our "humble but effective" category. Like Balabolka, Zabaware Text-to-Speech is as practical as you can get, allowing different types of files as well as delivering WAV or MP3 files. It comes with only a few voices, which some reviewers have referred to as "low quality." But you have the option of pointing it to your Windows API, and using the voice that the operating system comes with.
FreeTTS
Your best option for free, online TTS.
Uses and reasons
- Greater character limit than competitors
- Downloadable audio files
- Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSMS) supports
Information
The internet is littered with Text to Speech tools that are free However, FreeTTS stands apart for a few reasons. The first is that it can convert as much as 6,000 words every week, for no cost. It's more than the other software on the market. (For $6, you get 1,000,000 for all of 24 hours.) Second, they offer vocal samples, so that you can listen to the expected results with no downloading of files. FreeTTS is also compatible with SSMS as a standard feature of TTS which you are able to modify the way the program interprets and speaks your test. And, just to be fair, FreeTTS offers a list of free alternatives to use in case you do not like what they've got to provide.
Once you've found your ideal voice and started converting text into speech, there's no going back. Be sure to spend some time experimenting with different choices. Neural TTS may sound attractive initially, however standard TTS can be effective if you are willing to customize it.