The 5 best voice over softwares available online (In 2023)

A kick-ass video will have perfectly edited frames, color grading, background music, and, most importantly, a well-tailored voice over.

Voice overs are essential to convey essential ideas and express the scenario with emotions to the audience. As a result, many businesses rely on video formats with a perfectly suited voice over to deliver critical messages about their services/products to the customers.

Generally, voice overs are being used in a variety of formats, including podcasts, audio/video commercials, corporate training films, webinars, online coursework, video games, to name a few. Such content would be uninteresting to the audience if it did not include voice overs. For example, in a video course with no voices, or a video game with no narrative, no one would be interested in spending time with such content.

Nevertheless, creating good voice overs is strenuous. Though you could technically make one on your own, you'd still have to shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars on recording equipment, besides the person-hours to be invested in that task.

Even though you are someone with the capacity to make a large investment, chances are you would not be satisfied with the quality of the voice overs you created on your own. Hence, understandably, you would turn to a freelancer or professional voice actor. However, depending on their service experience and the amount of work required, the cost of hiring voice actors is also not the ideal long-term answer.

So are you wondering what you could possibly do about such a situation? Don't worry, let me introduce you to voice over softwares. It's 2023, and we have voice over softwares that runs based on artificial intelligence to produce realistic voices just from text.

Yes! You read that right. You can now convert your video scripts, documents, essays, or any text for that matter into a natural voice of your liking with the help of these voice over softwares. And the best part here is that most of these solutions are super affordable and easy to use. A few of them have lifetime free plans, and a few have trials that you can access without sharing your credit card information.

In addition, you don't have to be concerned about piracy or copyright infringement with these tools.

So, choosing an online voice over software definitely has its advantages. But how do you choose the right one for your use case?

Well, let us simplify it by picking the best 5 and dissecting the Pros and Cons of each of these tools.

Let's get started,

1. Animaker Voice
2. Natural Reader
3. Murf.ai
4. Wideo
5. Play.ht

1. Animaker Voice

Animaker Voice is a DIY online voice over software that allows you to convert text to speech instantly without much hassle. Simply create a free account with Animaker Voice and start making your voice overs without ripping any holes in your pocket.

Whether the use-case be a

• • YouTube intro voice over.
  • Product Explainer Video voice over.
  • Brand video voice over.
  •  Wishes video voice over.
  • Instagram Reels voice over or
  • Tik Tok voice over,

For that matter, Animaker Voice allows you to create human-like voice overs for any use case that you might have in hand.

What’s special about Animaker Voice?

Animaker Voice comes loaded with about 200+ different human-like voices in 50 global languages. That’s insane, right?

Also, you have the complete customization of how the voice should sound.

• • Gender - Under the Gender option, you can choose between Male and Female voices.
  • Language - Under the Language option, you can choose the language for the voice. Animaker's Voice Generator Application comes packed with 50 different global languages.
  • Voice - Under the Voice option, you can choose from different voices available based on the Gender and Language that you have chosen. In total, the Animaker's Voice Generator Application comes packed with over 200 other computer-generated voices.
  • Auto Enhance - The Auto Enhance option is an AI-based neural-voice enhancer that automatically enhances the voice output without manually optimizing other options like breath effect, speed, pitch, etc., to the selected voice.

There are options to control the Pitch, Speed, and Volume of the voice.

• • Pitch - You can control the pitch of the voice from low to high
  • Speed - You get to control how fast the voice pronounces the text
  • Whisper - You can make the voice sound even more incredible with the Whisper option. Click on the Whisper check box to enable it.

Furthermore, Animaker Voice also provides you with editing options to fine-tune the voice manually by introducing a break in between words and introducing breath after the pronunciation of a word.

• • Breath - Animaker Voice pushes the voice editing prowess to the next level by allowing you to add real-life breathing effects in between the words with adjustable volume and duration for the breath in the voice
  • Break - You can even introduce pauses between two words with the Break feature

 

For a more detailed walkthrough about Animaker Voice, check out this blog - How to make a Computer Generated Voice? [The Easiest way]

Pricing:

Animaker Voice’s pricing is simple and straightforward. There is one pricing plan apart from the free plan.

The Free plan provides 5 voice downloads/month, 50+ free AI voices, break and breath effects, and 2GB storage. However, the downloaded audio output is watermarked.

The Voice Pro plan starts at $19 per month, under the yearly subscription. This plan offers 100 voice downloads per month, multi-language voices, and voice effects. Other features like AI enhancement and blog embedding are available in this plan.

The common features in both these plans include team collaboration, file management options, and real-time collaboration. In Security and Support, Animaker Voice provides SSL encryption, 2-factor authentication, and quick support.

Sample voice note from Animaker Voice

2. NaturalReader

 

NaturalReader Commercial is an AI Voiceover software that helps you convert text to speech quickly and download them as audio files.

They use synthesized AI voices to bring you the highest quality natural-sounding voices available in the market today.

What's special about NaturalReader

Multi-language

With about 176 voices from 27 different languages, including regional variations like Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese, and US Spanish, NaturalReader Commercial offers the customers the variety to choose their preferences.

Studio Editor

NaturalReader comes with a Studio Editor that helps you assign specific voices and speeds to selected pieces of text or use drag and drop to rearrange sections easily. This Studio Editor is the key feature of this voice over software.

Pronunciation Editor

With the Pronunciation Editor, you can use word substitution or phonetic characters to correct or improve the pronunciation of a given word or phrase.

Advanced Controls

Also, Natural Reader offers advanced controls. For example, you can use SSML tags to adjust pitch, tone, and emphasis or insert silence periods.

Commercial Licensing

NaturalReader offers a commercial license that allows you to publicly use the audio or for redistribution purposes. And this means you can use the audio in your YouTube videos, company training videos, eLearning modules, public announcements or broadcasts, and other business, public, or commercial purposes.

Pricing

The commercial subscriptions available under the yearly subscription are,

Free Plan – $0 per month

Single plan – $49 per month

Team Plan – $79 per month

Pricing for this particular voice-over software lies on the expensive side compared to the market standards. 

While the Free plan and Single plan are for a single user only, the Team plan offers work collaboration of anywhere from 2 to 20 members. 

Pros

• • Studio editor to completely customize the audio output
  • Pronunciation editor
  • Commercial licensing to use the audio public purposes
  • Advanced controls - SSML tags

Cons

• • No export option is available in the Free plan. It doesn't allow you to download any audio files. You can only use the interface and get to know about the software.
  • Synthesized voices are available, but they can sound even more realistic.
  • Language options offered can be increased.
  • Pronunciation editor and advanced controls are not available for all voices.
  • Pricing plans are expensive compared to other software players in the market.

Sample Voice Note

As NaturalReader Commercial doesn't have an export option in the free plan, we couldn't showcase their sample voice notes.

3. Murf.ai

Murf is an AI voice over platform where users can generate synthetic speech from text and add it to their videos and presentations. They specialize in voice synthesis. AI technology is used to create realistic voice overs for various purposes, including e-learning, business presentations, gaming, and more.

Murf promises guaranteed quality and no more robotic voices. Instead, their voices are human-sounding, and quality checks across dozens of parameters. So gone are the days of computerized text to speech; it isn't easy to distinguish between Murf's advanced AI voices and recorded human voices.

What’s special about Murf.ai

Murf provides a wide range of 100% natural-sounding AI voices in 20 languages for professional voice over projects and presentations.

Murf provides a variety of voices in 20 languages. Most languages have voices accessible for quality testing, even in the free plan. In addition, some languages, such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese, accommodate various accents.

 

 

It's more than simple text-to-speech software.

 

Add voice to videos or images

Murf Studio makes it simple to produce voice over videos and presentations. You can attain that ideal video timing by simply uploading videos or photos and altering the timing using the blocks in the bottom timeline. Then, add your text, convert to audio, and match your text blocks with your visuals in minutes to get the perfectly stitched voice over video.

Grammar assistant

Murf Studio includes a free grammar and punctuation checker, so you can always write immaculate scripts for your voice overs. It detects any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation mistakes in your text. It makes recommendations for enhancing the script for a higher-quality voice over.

Free background music

Murf Studio comes with a built-in archive of royalty-free audio tracks that you may use in your projects. Plus, there's more. Each background music file has been labeled and classified based on use cases, such as explainer videos, presentations, advertising, and moods, such as joyful and peaceful. So on, so you can locate what you need quickly. But, of course, you also use your music within the project, and that's also a possibility.

Pricing

Murf offers a free plan and three paid pricing options. Under the yearly subscription,

Basic plan – $19 per month

Pro plan – $26 per month

Enterprise plan – $75 per month

Under the Free plan, you get single-user access, and you can try out all 120+ voices plus get 10 mins of voice generation and 10 mins of transcription. However, you have no downloads in the free plan.

Under the Basic plan, you get up to 5 users access with Unlimited Downloads, 24 hours of voice generation/year, and access to 60 voices in about 10 different languages. Also, Commercial Usage rights are included. In addition, chat and Email support will be provided in this plan.

The Pro Plan supports up to 5 users with 48 hours of voice generation/year and 24 hours of transcription/year. You also get access to 120+ voices in about 20 different languages. Commercial Usage rights and Priority Support are also included.

In the Enterprise plan, you get an Account Manager, unlimited voice generation, transcription, and storage. This plan supports 5+ users, and SSO is enabled. Also, Collaboration features and Centralized invoicing are available.

Pros

• • A total of 120 voice overs in 19 languages
  • All plans include full HD video export
  • Pricing is on the affordable end compared to the market standards
  • Extensive voice over studio
  • A full scope of voice over customization is available

Cons

• • No downloads in the free plan
  • Voice changer is limited to the Pro and Enterprise plans only
  • Recorded voice editing feature can be improved and added to all the plans
  • The number of languages offered can be increased.

Sample Voice Note

Since there were no download options available in the free version, we couldn't showcase any sample audios from the Murf voice over software.

4. Wideo

 

 

Wideo is a video-making website with over 2.5 million registered users worldwide. Make promotional films, explainer videos, demo videos, and presentations, among other things.

Wideo also provides a text-to-speech tool that uses the Google text-to-speech API. Wideo's Text to Speech Software (TTS) is a quick and straightforward approach to converting text to audio to make your message more memorable and inclusive to the audience.

What's special about Wideo

With Wideo's TTS, you can convert text to speech, download it as an mp3 file, import the audio file into your video editor, and add a professional voiceover to your videos.

Without creating an account in Wideo, you can still make your own voice overs and download them as mp3 audio files. Under the free version, you get to convert 2000 characters per day.

Pricing

Wideo comes as a video creation suite, and along with it is the text-to-speech tool.

Apart from the free plan, Wideo offers three pricing options. When billed yearly,

Basic plan -  $19 per month

Pro plan -  $39 per month

Pro + plan - $79 per month

The Free plan offers a duration of 1 minute per video and 10 video templates. However, the videos are branded. 

The basic plan offers 10 downloads/month with 1.5 minutes of duration per video. It offers 33 video templates.

The Pro plan offers unlimited downloads, and the video duration extends to 10 minutes in this plan. Users also get access to the full templates gallery.

The Pro+ plan offers unlimited downloads, a video duration of 30 minutes, and an additional account option. There is also Zapier Automation in this plan, which includes 50 videos per month.

Pros

• • Offers more than 40 global languages
  • You can customize the pronunciation speed of the text
  • User-friendly interface
  • Pro plan is economical compared to the market standards
  • Free user plan is available

Cons

• • Customization of the voices are limited
  • More number of global languages can be added
  • Integrations can be included to support other applications
  • Detailed information about the tool can be provided

Sample voice note from Wideo TTS

5. Play.ht

 

Play.ht is a text-to-speech and Al voice synthesis software. You can instantly convert text into natural-sounding speech and download them as audio files in MP3 and WAV formats.

What's special about Play.ht

You can quickly pick the correct voice from an extensive library of 570 Al voices in 60+ languages and generate natural-sounding voices in no time.

Creating Audio files

Play.ht voice over software gives the users basically two options,

1. Create audio from text 2. Source from an article URL. You can enter the text or fetch content from a URL, convert it to audio, and download it as MP3 or WAV files.

WordPress Plugin

The voice over software comes with a Plugin for WordPress. You can easily add audio to blog posts, pages, and e-learning materials from your WordPress dashboard. Use AI voices and audio player widgets to make your textual content audible.

To improve content accessibility, user engagement, and time on page metrics, you may convert your blog posts, articles, and eLearning content into audio with the plugin.

Medium Extension

Play.ht also offers a Chrome browser extension for Medium. You can easily add audio to your Medium stories by installing and using the available Medium Chrome Extension.

API access

Use the API to gain access to Play.ht. For example, if you're a developer, you can use Play.ht's API to incorporate text-to-speech conversions into your software. The API uses a comprehensive collection of voices and languages to provide a single interface for converting text to speech.

Complete Customization

Play.ht allows you to modify the voice overs by simply highlighting the words altogether. To make the speech more human-like, add pauses and emphasis. You may even alter the voice's pace, tone, and pronunciation to mimic genuine human voices in specific scenarios better.

Podcast Hosting

With Play.ht, you can get the RSS feed of the created audio files and distribute them to powerful podcasting platforms such as iTunes and Spotify.

Pricing

Play.ht offers a free plan and three pricing options. Under the annual subscription, 

Creator plan - $31.20 per month

Unlimited plan - $99 per month

Enterprise plan - Custom pricing 

There is a Free Plan that offers limited characters, 1 instant voice clone supported in the English language, and access to all voices and languages.

The Creator plan offers up to 3 million characters, 10 instant voice clones, and access to all voices and languages. It includes faster generations and downloads, and you can even use the videos for commercial use.

The Unlimited plan offers unlimited characters per year, unlimited re-generations, and unlimited instant voice clones. You get access to all voices and languages, commercial use, and faster generations.

The Enterprise plan offers custom usage requirements, team access, unlimited re-generations, and high-fidelity voice clones. It provides advanced security and compliance and is SSO-enabled. Priority support, commercial, and re-sell rights are included in this custom pricing plan. 

Pros

• • Offers 570+ AI Voices and 60+ Languages
  • Supports MP3 & WAV Export of audio files
  • Commercial Use licensing is provided (except personal plan)
  • Full SSML Support
  • Availability of API Access
  • Plugin Integrations with WordPress and Medium

Cons

• • Rebranding and Reselling rights are included in the Business plan only
  • Voice over options are too many, but most of them sound less human-like
  • The free version supports only three downloads.

Sample Voice Note from Play.ht