Speechify Review 2023 – Experience The Power Of Human-Like Voiceover

When Cliff Weitzman founded Speechify in 2016, his primary goal was to use technology to help people with reading difficulties like him. His application transforms text into sound, but its additional features distinguish it from the competitors. In this review, I’m looking for the answer to which areas of life these functions can help us. (Disclaimer: Speechify – does not influence this review; all of this article’s contents and recommendations are purely our own.)

In the last few days, I have invested a lot of time in mapping the elements of the software and deciding whether it is worth keeping the premium package long-term. I believe those who spend hours reading for their studies, work assignments, or even reading as their hobby should consider starting to use the free version of this app. The product’s voiceover function can be handy for content creators and those who want to prepare training materials in different languages with appropriate pronunciation.

FAQ

Speechify Cost

First of all, let me mention an opportunity, which is a personal affiliate program that covers a bonus system for what you can get through a product promotion. If someone subscribes to a premium service through a shared link sent by you, then $30/new account will be deducted from your upcoming renewal bill. This is an option in quite a few places, so it might be worth trying.

Speechify Bundle pricing

Although the different modules of the software (text-to-speech and voiceover) can be used and purchased separately, I would start the cost presentation with the plan that is worth the most. Actually, for the price of the VoiceOver software, we also get the text-to-speech function for free. I got the below offer by registering a free account, processing a text, and when trying to download it to MP3, it redirected to the Voiceover module.

Text-To-Speech pricing

If only this functionality is needed, then 3 plans are available, Speechify Limited (free), Speechify Premium, and Speechify Audiobooks. With both paid solutions, you can choose between monthly and annual subscriptions, where the monthly plan is 60% more expensive(!). For example, the monthly renewal costs $29 per month, equivalent to $348 annually, while if you play once a year, it costs $139. If you use it for at least 4 months of the year, the annual subscription is more than worth it.

Voiceover pricing

The monthly fee and the annual plan are also available for this add-on, but here the savings are 50% if you choose the yearly payment. The free version is more suitable for testing because it has a limited transcription and voice generation length. Regarding price alone, Speechify Voiceover software is in the middle of its category, even though it has one of the most built-in features.

Speechify Text to Speech

iOS and Android Mobile App

The text-to-speech function is also available via a mobile application, so the produced audio materials can be available anytime. Under the Add menu, in addition to the well-known input options from the desktop solution, you can also find the Scan Pages function to take photos of a printed page. The image scanned in this way, is run through the character recognition (1-2 sec), and it is ready to hear the audio. Similarly to the desktop version, it is possible to skip certain parts of the text, so unnecessary information, such as page number, author, etc. will not be read out.

Web Application

It is not necessary to install anything on the computer; we can access the files previously uploaded by us via the web browser. You can create a folder structure that can be used to organize the uploaded/scanned documents according to different aspects. Same as in the mobile app, the settings related to your account can be modified here, including your subscription and the next payment date ,and you can have a view of how many words we could hear read aloud in the past period.

Safari or Google Chrome extension

The Speechify extension is available for the two most used browsers, which, if active (in the red frame in the image below), calculates the reading time of the website at the preset reading speed. If you only want to hear a certain paragraph, that is also possible, because a small blue playback icon appears in front of the text elements, which will start the reading aloud that selected text only. Of course, the desired sound and speed can also be changed instantly in the browser extension too. A few more words about this can be heard from the founder in this video.

Speechify Voiceover

The AI Voice Over Generator can help us when we need a human-quality voice for the narration of a video, for an automated phone operator system, or for the preparation of any audio training material. Speechify’s software is in the middle in terms of price, but it is at the top of its category in terms of functionality. There are much cheaper products on the market with lifetime licenses, but the quality and the features are not on the same level as this one.

User Interface

All functions are accessible through a web browser, so it can actually be used from a mobile phone as well. Considering the screen sizes, it can be used efficiently on a tablet as a minimum, but even more on Laptop or Desktop. Upon entering, you are greeted by a simple tiled surface, where you can organize the audio files produced in the past, and there you can find the “New Project” button too. The user interface is sufficiently clean, and relatively easy to find the correct function even the first time.

Create Dialog

With this software, you can create a complete dialogue, with any number of participants, because the individual parts of the text follow each other in blocks, where you can also use different voices. This is an opportunity to easily create audio material where – for example -, man and a woman talk to each other. Of course, all elements of the individual blocks can be adjusted separately, such as the speed of speech. There are still some voiceover products on the market where this task can only be solved outside of the software, so you need to download the audio separately and merge it together later.

Add Music

On the left-hand side of the screen, there is an option to add music or additional audio file under the speech to make the staff more realistic. For example, the noise of a busy street can be mixed into a conversation, which can be made even more complex with the sound of a car alarm. To solve this task, we have 2 additional sound channels available under the voiceover line under the voiceover.

Speaking Tone

It is quite an exciting function and worth experimenting with adapting the speech’s tone to the subject’s mood. Fortunately, this is possible in Speechify. 16 different styles can be selected, including Normal, Angry, Excited, Narration-professional, Sad, or Customer service. Listening to the same text in several different tones can help you find the most appropriate one for the topic because there are real differences between them. Under the advanced setting, there is a slider where you can adjust the intensity of the tone, which can be used to make a particular mood even more pronounced.

Pauses

There are two different solutions to handling pauses in the software. With the first one, we can choose between which two words we want to insert a pause and how long it should take. There are some built-in options for the length, such as “Weak (500ms)”, but it is also possible to set a custom one.

As an alternative solution, we can assign a pause to different punctuation marks used in the text, or add a pause before or after a dialog block. These two functions can actually be used side by side, so you can definitely find the best solution

Pronunciation

If necessary, it is possible to change the pronunciation of any word in any block by entering an individual setting in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) format. It is hard to imagine a situation where this would be required, but for sure, this is also well illustrated by the level of detail that can be set for the voiceover file generated for a text.

Support

I had a question regarding a piece of information found on the website, which I tried to clarify in the online chat function. After selecting the topic, I got a pretty good answer from the database, but not for all the details. I was promised that would get an answer to my question within ~2-3 hours, but I received their final feedback a little late and in a rather AI style and content. They offered a What’s Up chat, which should probably be used next time.

There are some negative comments on various forums regarding their support/customer service, but apart from what was described above, I had no such experience.

What task is Speechify most effective for?

Students

Speechify Text-To-Speach is an excellent application for those who as challenges with reading, just like the software funder. It can help to read the course material easier and faster, and last but not least, it reduces the frustration caused by reading.

It is beneficial when one needs to finish a longer reading in time. With the built-in acceleration function, the average 200-250 WPM (words per minute) can be increased to 300-350 without any particular strain, which results in almost 1,5 times faster completion.

Freelance Content Creators

Listening to the prepared content right before publishing can improve the work’s quality because the mistakes are more obvious when reading them aloud. The emphasis used by the AI, can help to decide which part of the sentence should be highlighted with a pause or should be separate as that doesn’t sound right via voice.

If someone does not want to add their voice to a YouTube video, or if they want to upload the same content in several languages, then Speechify Voiceover can be a good solution. It can be concluded that the audio materials generated by AI are now really close to human speech, so it is possible to create enjoyable narrations and training audio in any language by anyone.

Business Individuals

One of the most tedious and therefore, most frustrating tasks in today’s fast-paced world is when we have to read longer material, such as contracts, product descriptions, or training materials. Hearing the pronunciation of the text while reading can help a lot in understanding it and indeed help to avoid having to read the same sentence several times to understand it. This is especially true if we have to read a longer text in a foreign language.

For those who prepare informative materials. Documents and videos with voice narration are much more attention-grabbing than just the text and the images. If a work instruction is prepared with voiceovers, there is a chance that the task can be performed in parallel with listening, speeding up the induction and the learning tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Speechify is not a simple text-to-speech software because it has some extra features unavailable in most of its competitors. The read-aloud component is also proven to help many people, but when supplemented with the voice-over module, the package is truly a complete solution for many people. The free version is quite usable, but the premium features are the ones that make Speechify popular. The pricing of this version is in the upper middle category, although the bundle package shows an excellent price-value ratio.