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
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
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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]
Sample voice note from Animaker Voice
2. NaturalReader Commercial
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 Commercial
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 Commercial 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 monthly subscription are,
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- Free Plan – $0 per month
- Single plan – $99 per month
- Team Plan – $204 per month for four members
Pricing for this particular voice over software lies on the expensive side compared to the market standards. There’s an option for a yearly subscription as well, and the corresponding prices are Single Plan at $49 and Team Plan at $79 (for a four-member team). Still, this is expensive compared to the other players in the market.
Pros
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- Studio editor to completely customize the audio output
- Pronunciation editor
- Commercial licensing to use the audio public purposes
- Advanced controls – SSML tags
Cons
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- 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,
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- Basic plan – $13 per month
- Pro plan – $26 per month
- Enterprise – $83 onwards 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 Single User with Unlimited Downloads, 24 hours of voice generation/year, access to 60 voices in about ten 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 3 users with 96 hours of voice generation/year and 48 hours of transcription/year. You also get access to 120+ voices in about 20 different languages. Also, there are Recorded voice editing and Voice changer features. Commercial Usage rights and Priority Support are also included.
In the Enterprise plan, you get an Account Manager, Custom voice generation time, Custom transcription time, specify the number of users, SSO is enabled. Also, Collaboration features and Centralized invoicing are available.
Pros
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- 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
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- 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.
The basic plan is $59 per month, and the Pro plan is $99 per month. Both provide a limited character count for conversion and download. The Pro plan starts at $99 per month, and the Pro+ plan starts at $199 per month. Unlimited characters limit is included in these two plans for the text to speech conversion.
Pros
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- 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
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- 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 four paid plans (prices below are when billed monthly)
The personal plan starts at $19 per month. This plan is apt for school projects and proofreading content. It includes unlimited previews and downloads, but the catch is you won’t get commercial rights for reuse; podcast hosting is also not included.
The professional plan starts at $39 per month. Premium voices are the key added advantage in this plan. And along with it, you get customizable audio players and exclusive commercial rights. Even Podcast hosting is included in this plan.
The growth plan starts at $99 per month. Under this plan, you get everything included in the Professional plan. In addition, you get a pronunciation library and an automatic audio creation feature along with it.
The business plan starts at $199 per month. Everything in the Growth plan is covered here. Also, priority technical support is offered. You get the rebranding and reselling rights as well. Teams’ access to the project for possible collaboration is also included.
The pricing varies drastically when you opt for the plans yearly,
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- Personal- $14.25 per month
- Professional – $29.25 per month
- Growth- $74.25 per month
- Business – $149.25 per month
But the features included remain the same as when the plans are billed monthly.
Pros
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- 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
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- 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.