Top pick: Piper. Switching saves about $60 USD a year.
$60 USDa year
≈$85.54 CAD (converted from USD)
Every pick below has a free version.
3 alternatives
The editor’s first choice for most people switching.
Best for fast offline speech in many languages
GPL-3.0-or-later. Development moved to OHF-Voice/piper1-gpl after rhasspy/piper was archived. Each voice has its own license.
Covers most of the same work, with trade-offs noted on each card.
Best for lightweight English voices on a laptop
The model weights and the library are Apache-2.0. The library has had no release since Apr 2025.
Right for specific needs, or not yet mature enough to recommend widely.
Best for voice cloning experiments and research
Community fork of the code (MPL-2.0) after the original repository went unmaintained. XTTS-v2 weights use the non-commercial Coqui Public Model License.
Sponsor this page: $149 for 30 days. Sponsors appear above the ranking, labeled; the ranking itself is not for sale.
How each alternative covers what people use ElevenLabs for. Numbers link to editor notes.
| Feature | Piper | Kokoro TTS | Coqui TTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speech | |||
| Expressive, natural-sounding voices | PartialNote 1Fast and clear but less expressive than hosted models | PartialNote 2A fixed set of voices; below the top hosted models | PartialNote 3Many models of varying quality |
| Speech in dozens of languages | PartialNote 4Voices for 50+ language codes; quality varies by voice | PartialNote 5English plus 7 other languages | PartialNote 6XTTS covers 17 languages |
| Voices | |||
| Instant voice cloning | PartialNote 7Custom voices need training data and a GPU; no instant cloning | NoNote 8Preset voices only | PartialNote 9XTTS-v2 clones from a short sample, but its weights are non-commercial |
| Output | |||
| API and scripted batch generation | YesNote 10CLI, Python and C/C++ APIs and an HTTP server | YesNote 11Python library for scripted generation | YesNote 12Python API and command-line tool |
| Studio editor for long-form audio | NoNote 13No editor | NoNote 14No editor | NoNote 15No editor |
| Video | |||
| Dubbing and voice changing | NoNote 16Speech synthesis only | NoNote 17Speech synthesis only | NoNote 18Speech synthesis only |
| Parity score | 42% | 33% | 42% |
Not covered by any free alternative yet: Expressive, natural-sounding voices, Instant voice cloning, Speech in dozens of languages, Dubbing and voice changing, Studio editor for long-form audio. See all feature gaps
Switching saves about $60 USD / ≈$86 CAD (estimated from the USD price) a year. Prices checked ; ≈ means converted from USD.
Based on ElevenLabs Starter, annual plan. Price source. USD to CAD at 1.4257 as of Oct 7, 2026.
Last verified . Ranking: tier first, then the published score.
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ElevenLabs is a product of ElevenLabs, named here for comparison only. Platforms listed for ElevenLabs: Web.