11 Great ElevenLabs Alternatives: Vapi-Native TTS Models

You know that sinking feeling when you're watching a slick voice AI demo, and then the robot voice kicks in? Suddenly, your exciting project sounds like a 1990s GPS.

Here's the thing: voice quality isn't just about sounding nice anymore. It's about whether people are happy to stick around and use your app. Pick the wrong voice model, and users bail. Pick the right one, and you've got something that feels genuinely helpful.

» New to TTS? Start here

Three discoveries that changed how we think about voice models:

• Some models are ridiculously fast – We're talking 40ms response times that make conversations feel instant, not clunky.
• Each model has different strengths – Some excel at emotional range, others at speed, others at language variety - there's no one-size-fits-all solution.
• You don't have to commit to one – Switch between any of these 11 models in minutes, not months of re-coding.

Besides Elevenlabs, Vapi offers 11 alternative text-to-speech models, built-in and ready to go. No more rebuilding your entire setup when you want to try something new. Just pick what works for your specific situation.

Here's what we learned from running thousands of voice applications:

ElevenLabs Alternatives Model Bios

Neuphonic TTS

Vapi offers Neuphonic voice synthesis via two models, Neu-hq and Neu-fast.

Neuphonic is super for real-time applications where ultra-low latency is critical, conversational agents with strict response time requirements, and projects where noise-cancelled audio quality provides specific advantages.

Cartesia TTS

Cartesia focuses on voice synthesis with performance optimization and speed. When building in Vapi, you have four models to choose from: Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic English, Sonic Multilingual, and Sonic Preview.

Cartesia, like Neuphonic, excels for real-time requirements, like live streaming, interactive applications, and natural conversations that need the snappiest responses.

Azure TTS

Microsoft Azure builds on speech research, offering both standard and neural voice synthesis through deep learning models with enterprise-grade reliability.

Pick Azure if you're building enterprise applications and need diversity: you get up to 449 neural voices across 147 languages. If you're already working within the Microsoft ecosystem Azure is a good choice.

OpenAI TTS

OpenAI offers voice synthesis as part of their broader AI ecosystem, so their TTS models are well developed. Vapi has six OpenAI voices ready to go.

If you're a fan of OpenAI's ecosystem, then you may want to choose one of the built-in voices. For projects requiring broad language support and implementations where integration with GPT models provides workflow benefits, you may have found your best alternative here.

Deepgram TTS

You can pick from 12 Deepgram voices in your Vapi voice agent build.

When your projects need phoneme-level timing control or you're working on enterprise-level implementations where unified speech processing benefits outweigh voice variety limitations, Deepgram is optimal.

Smallest AI TTS

Smallest AI's Lightning model is built into our voice configuration settings.

Building applications requiring extensive multilingual support, projects needing voice cloning capabilities, and implementations requiring fast 100ms response times? Try Smallest AI.

LMNT TTS

LMNT offers high-quality audio output, and you can choose between 20 voice options on Vapi.

Generally speaking, LMNT succeeds for applications needing unlimited custom voice cloning capabilities, projects requiring 24-bit MP3 high-quality audio output, and implementations where voice cloning at scale is essential.

PlayHT TTS

We've added four PlayHT TTS models for voice agent builds in our configuration menu: 2.0, 2.0 Turbo, 3.0 mini, and PlayDialog.

Pick PlayHT for applications requiring extensive multilingual support, projects needing regional accent variations, and studio-grade content creation.

Hume TTS

Hume's Octave offers voice synthesis with empathic voice generation and emotional characteristics.

Some voice agent developers place a premium on emotional voice synthesis with empathic capabilities; if that sounds like you, Hume is great.

Rime AI TTS

Rime AI Mist and Mist v2 are available on Vapi. Mist v2 offers voice generation with demographic tuning and accent control capabilities.

If you need to manage specific demographic voice characteristics and accent control, try out Mist v2.

Just Start Building!

All of these TTS providers have models that work through Vapi. Instead of signing up for 11 different accounts or figuring out 11 different ways to connect them to your app, just create a Vapi profile and start playing around with them.

Want to try Neuphonic's crazy-fast 25ms speeds? Done. Curious if PlayHT's 142 languages might work better for your global app? Just flip a switch. Think Cartesia's 40ms response time might make your chatbot feel more natural? Try it this afternoon.

This isn't one of those "sounds good in theory" situations. We're handling over a million voice calls every day across all these models: the infrastructure works. Your users get clear audio, fast responses, and you don't have to worry about uptime or scaling.

The hard part isn't the technical stuff anymore. It's just deciding which voice fits your specific project.

Pick one from the list above, sign up for Vapi, and you'll be testing it in about five minutes.

» Start testing TTS models here