Everyone in the AI space knows ElevenLabs. It’s the go-to. The industry leader. The Midjourney of voice.

But what if you want something else? A smaller provider. A bit more niche. Maybe more ethical. Maybe more usable.

I tested two ElevenLabs alternatives – Murf and WellSaid – to see how they stack up.

This isn’t about finding “the best voice.” All of these tools now produce high‑quality audio. That part’s basically solved. This is about everything else – control, pricing, trust, and workflow.

The contenders

ElevenLabs: Huge library of voices (5,000+), loads of languages and standout features like voice cloning. Voice quality is strong, but the UX still has gaps.

Murf: Smaller catalogue – around 120 voices in 20+ languages – but far more control over the voice generation process. Built with creators in mind.

WellSaid: A boutique platform focused on ethical sourcing. High-quality, professional voices only and a lovely UI.

How I tested

I used each tool hands-on to:

  • Search and filter through the voice library
  • Generate voice clips from simple and complex scripts
  • Explore the control functions
  • Stress-test the UI for iteration, playback, and clip management

I also looked at pricing and ethical considerations.

Control and usability

Murf review

Off the mark, this is where Murf takes the lead.

Murf lets you break scripts into blocks – individual paragraphs or sentences – and assign different voices to each. You can adjust pitch and speed using percentage sliders, insert pauses precisely (small, medium, strong, or by time), and use phonetic spelling to control pronunciation.

For one of our tests, we used a purposely awkward business name: Xynotheon. Murf’s pronunciation tool made it easy to spell it phonetically and tweak it until we got exactly what we wanted.

There’s proper word-level emphasis too. Select a word and you can control how the emphasis sounds – slightly slower, slightly higher pitch, that sort of thing. It’s a lot more than just “make this bit louder.”

Murf also gives you variability control – so you can generate multiple takes and set how different they should be. Want four versions that sound broadly similar? Set variability low. Want to try out some wild mood shifts? Push it up. You also get a “Say It My Way” feature – a quick speech-to-speech input where you read the line and the voice mirrors your delivery. That’s built directly into the text editor, not a separate section like in ElevenLabs.

All of this adds up to a platform that feels like it was designed for actual creators. It’s not perfect, but it’s way ahead in terms of control.

WellSaid review

WellSaid looks great. It opens with a dark UI, clean project menus, and voice filtering that feels curated. Voices are clearly named and described, and voice quality is consistently strong – making it one of the more polished ElevenLabs alternatives on the market.

But the features don’t run as deep as Murf. ‘Cues’ is a feature that let you adjust loudness, pitch and pace by clicking on individual words – a genuinely nice experience.

But that only works when you generate a single clip. If you use their other two modes – Render by Paragraph or Render by Sentence – you can’t apply any cues to the results.

And that’s a shame, because those modes are positioned as a flagship feature. You can drop in a long script, and WellSaid will break it down and generate a separate audio file for each paragraph or sentence.

In theory, that’s a brilliant workflow for batch-editing and fine-tuning. But in practice, you can’t actually tweak any of those clips – you can’t apply ‘cues’ or regenerate individual lines with different expressions. You just get what you’re given.

It’s a really solid platform if you want fast, clean generation in a single voice. But it’s more limited than it looks.

ElevenLabs review

ElevenLabs has improved massively since its early versions. Their new V3 model introduces ‘Labels’ – little tags you can drop into your script like [whisper] or [laugh] to control delivery. It’s great to see more tools for expression.

But ‘labels’ are a bit of a blunt instrument. There’s no nuance to them. You can’t say “a little more enthusiastic” or “try that slightly slower.” It’s either whisper or it’s not. Laugh or don’t.

Instead, you still end up relying on sliders – stability, similarity, style exaggeration – and a bit of hope. Generate. Listen. Adjust. Try again. It works, but it’s slow. And if you want precise control over rhythm, pacing or pronunciation, it’s more hassle than it should be.

That said, ElevenLabs has been around the block. They’re now on their third model, and they’ve got a solid track record of releasing different versions to suit different generation speeds and budgets. There’s something reassuring about that – the platform’s maturing, even if the workflow still lags behind.

Pricing

This is a mess. And not because the pricing is bad – it’s just that each platform uses a totally different currency.

  • ElevenLabs uses credits
  • Murf limits your usage by hours per year
  • WellSaid limits you by downloads per year

That alone makes direct comparison tough.

Also, ElevenLabs offers seven different plans, depending on whether you need low-latency generation, professional voice clones, API access, or just basic TTS. It’s powerful but complex.

Murf’s and WellSaid’s plans are more comparable. For example:

  • Murf Business: $199/month
  • WellSaid Business: $160/month

So on paper, Murf looks more expensive. But depending on your workflow – and how many takes you’re generating – that can flip quickly.

Bottom line: if pricing matters to you, go online and read the details:

Ethics and licensing

This is where the smaller tools have an edge in our review.

Murf and WellSaid both make it clear: all their voices are sourced from real professionals. Voice actors are paid fairly, receive royalties, and have contracts in place. They also build in policies around licensing, content use, and IP protection.

ElevenLabs, by contrast, has a more open model. Anyone can submit a voice. Some are brilliant, some are not. There is a notice period system – so if a voice is pulled from the platform, you’ll get some warning – but the overall setup still feels a bit more unpredictable.

If brand safety and usage rights matter to your business, Murf and WellSaid feel like safer ground.

Bonus: What else they offer

ElevenLabs is by far the most feature-rich beyond just TTS. It offers best-in-class voice cloning (especially with professionally trained voices), as well as tools for speech-to-speech, sound effects, real-time conversations, and multilingual models.

If you need every accent and every language – you will not beat ElevenLabs.

But if your primary goal is producing great TTS output, quickly, with control over delivery – then Murf is probably the better tool among the ElevenLabs alternatives.

The verdict

After reviewing all three platforms, we think that if you:

  • Want best-in-class control and a smooth workflow? Go with Murf.
  • Want a beautifully designed interface and some essential control features? Go with WellSaid.
  • Want every voice, every language, and all the extras? Stick with ElevenLabs

My personal choice? Murf. As a creator who’s been genuinely frustrated with the generate-and-hope approach of AI voice, using Murf has been a breath of fresh air. Unless you’re choosing purely for multilingual or extra features, I can’t think of a reason not to recommend it.

 

Get in touch

Written by Jamie Field, GenAI Creative Director at Definition.

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