Play.ht is a cutting-edge text to speech (TTS) tool, considered by some to be one of the best AI voice generators on the market. Top competitors to Play.ht include Murf.ai, Amazon Polly, and Speechify Voice Over Studio.
The platform uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to convert written text into natural-sounding, high-quality audio. With its array of applications, from podcast hosting to e-learning, it's popular among bloggers, startups, freelancers, and established businesses alike.
Here, we'll delve into the specifics of Play.ht—exploring how it works, its benefits, and potential drawbacks.
What is Play.ht?
Play.ht is a versatile text to speech software that uses artificial intelligence to create human-like voices. The software provides a platform for content creators to convert their text into realistic voices in different languages, making it a valuable tool for generating podcasts, audiobooks, and e-learning content, among other audio content.
Play.ht isn't just about text to speech conversion. It also offers podcast hosting services. With Play.ht, you can generate an RSS feed for your audio articles and publish them directly to platforms like iTunes and Spotify.
How to Use Play.ht
Play.ht is designed to be user-friendly. After signing up, you can start converting text to speech by pasting your text into the web application. You can then choose from a variety of different voices, including standard voices, premium voices, and ultra-realistic voices, each with distinct pronunciations and intonations.
Once your audio files are created, you can preview them before downloading in different audio formats, such as WAV. You can also embed audio players directly into your web pages or social media posts.
For WordPress users, Play.ht offers a plugin for seamless integration. Moreover, with the Chrome extension, you can convert text from any web page into speech. Play.ht also provides API access for developers, enabling them to incorporate text-to-speech functionality into their applications.
Play.ht offers various resources to assist users, such as FAQs, tutorials, and responsive customer support, ensuring you get the most out of its services.
Play.ht pricing
There are a few different pricing plans for Play.ht. These include:
- Free plan — You get 5000 free words per month, access to premium voices, and the chance to test out voice cloning. Commercial use is not permitted with this plan.
- Professional — For $39/month or $351/year, you can access the premium voices, audio previews, unlimited projects and downloads, and a commercial license. This plan allows 600,000 words per year.
- Premium — For $99/month or $891/year, you get unlimited voice generation, all premium voices, a pronunciations library, audio previews, unlimited downloads and projects, a commercial license, and white-labeled audio players.
- Enterprise — Contact the Play.ht for pricing. The Enterprise plan comes with everything from Premium, plus many more features like team access, voice clones, a dedicated account manager, high priority customer support, and more.
Play.ht: Pros and cons
No platform is perfect. While many users praise Play.ht for its many features, some customers feel like it doesn’t offer enough. Here are the pros and cons of Play.ht.
Pros of Play.ht
- Leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate natural-sounding voices, enhancing listener engagement.
- Supports multiple languages, not just English, which allows for diverse and global use cases.
- Provides a wide range of voice options, including both male and female voices, catering to different content requirements.
- Offers various pricing plans. The paid plans include features such as unlimited voice generation, unlimited downloads, access to premium and ultra-realistic voices, and priority customer support.
- Features a voice cloning option that allows you to create a unique voice, providing a personalized touch to your audio content.
Cons of Play.ht
- Despite offering a variety of voice choices, the selection for non-English languages may be limited.
- The free plan comes with restrictions, including limited access to voices and a cap on the amount of text that can be converted.
- The cost could be prohibitive for some users, particularly those who require extensive text to speech conversion, even with various pricing plans offered.
- While the AI voices are impressively realistic, they may not fully replace the nuanced performance that voice actors can provide, especially for emotionally rich content.
Create ultra realistic voices with Speechify Voice Over Studio
If you want the sound of a human voice to make your audio content more engaging, Speechify Voice Over Studio can help. You can create natural-sounding voiceovers in just a few clicks, with more customization options than Play.ht can provide. Create lifelike voiceovers for YouTube videos, e-learning content, podcasts, and more. Speechify Voice Over Studio offers more than 60 different voices to choose from, in over 20 different languages and accents—all of which are fully customizable. You also get access to unlimited downloads and uploads, 100 hours of voice generation per year, thousands of licensed soundtracks, 24/7 customer support, and much more.
Make your next voiceover with Speechify Voice Over Studio.
