Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

eSpeak VS eSpeak NG

Compare eSpeak VS eSpeak NG and see what are their differences

eSpeak logo eSpeak

eSpeak is a compact open source software speech synthesizer for English and other languages, for...

eSpeak NG logo eSpeak NG

eSpeak NG is an open source speech synthesizer that supports more than hundred languages and accents.
  • eSpeak Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-05
  • eSpeak NG Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-30

eSpeak features and specs

  • Open Source
    eSpeak is open-source software, which means it’s free to use, modify, and distribute. This is ideal for developers who want to customize the software or integrate it into other applications.
  • Multi-Language Support
    eSpeak supports a wide range of languages, making it accessible to a global audience. This is particularly useful for projects that require text-to-speech capabilities in multiple languages.
  • Lightweight
    The software is lightweight and has a small footprint, which makes it suitable for use on devices with limited resources such as embedded systems and older hardware.
  • Cross-Platform
    eSpeak is compatible with various operating systems including Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android. This ensures a wide range of usability across different platforms.
  • Customizable Voice Parameters
    It allows users to tweak various voice parameters such as pitch, speed, and volume, providing some level of customization to the generated speech.

Possible disadvantages of eSpeak

  • Artificial Sounding
    Compared to more advanced text-to-speech systems, eSpeak's generated voice can sound quite artificial and robotic, which might not be suitable for applications requiring natural-sounding speech.
  • Limited Intonation
    The software struggles with natural speech intonation and inflection, making it less ideal for expressive and emotionally nuanced speech requirements.
  • Basic Feature Set
    While eSpeak is functional, it lacks the advanced features found in commercial TTS engines, such as deep learning-based natural language processing and high-quality voice synthesis.
  • Minimal Documentation
    The documentation for eSpeak can be sparse and difficult to navigate, potentially posing a challenge for newcomers or those looking to implement advanced features.
  • Limited Support
    As an open-source project, eSpeak may not offer the same level of professional support or frequent updates that are available with commercial TTS solutions.

eSpeak NG features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

eSpeak videos

How to make eSpeak sing (formant singing synthesis)

More videos:

  • Review - espeak - one of the best text to speech synthesizer
  • Review - What's new in espeak TTS engine - redzok Private limited latest update

eSpeak NG videos

No eSpeak NG videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to eSpeak and eSpeak NG)
Text To Speech
89 89%
11% 11
AI
89 89%
11% 11
Speech Recognition
80 80%
20% 20
Knowledge Sharing
91 91%
9% 9

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, eSpeak seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

eSpeak mentions (10)

  • Show HN: Pi-C.A.R.D, a Raspberry Pi Voice Assistant
    Yes! I'm currently using https://espeak.sourceforge.net/, so it isn't especially fun to listen to though. Additionally, since I'm streaming the LLM response, it won't take long to get your reply. Since it does it a chunk at a time, there's occasionally only parts of words that are said momentarily. Also of course depends on what model you use or what the context size is for how long you need to wait. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Does anyone know any good TTS program for linux? I'm hoping for something free. There's a good option on windows, but I tried messing with wine to use it on linux and it wasn't working for me.
    You might try espeak or - for something that looks more feature-rich - festival. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • I don't know if I'll be able to stream because of my mutism :((
    Hey! I’m mute too and I’ve been wanting to stream. So far I’ve decided on using eSpeak https://espeak.sourceforge.net/, a text-to-speech app for PC that allows commercial usage. You might also be able to find online text-to-speech that allows commercial usage, it just might take awhile to find. Depending on the time of content you make you could also dedicate part of your layout to a spot you could type in and... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Vocaloid 6
    Can someone point to a good open source alternative for vocaloid? I know of Sinsy [0] but I couldn't get it working. Ecantorix [1] is very old and rudimentary (it uses espeak underneath [2]). Searching just now I see OpenUtau [3] but I have no experience with it. Seems crazy there isn't a good FOSS solution for this. [0] http://www.sinsy.jp/ [1] https://github.com/divVerent/ecantorix [2]... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Is there a website that reads the custom phonetically written words?
    The closest that I know of is espeak, https://espeak.sourceforge.net/ . It certainly doesn't cover all of the IPA though. Source: about 2 years ago
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eSpeak NG mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of eSpeak NG yet. Tracking of eSpeak NG recommendations started around Aug 2023.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing eSpeak and eSpeak NG, you can also consider the following products

NaturalReader - Main Feature: Full Common Functions: Read Text Files o Text files o MS Word files

Balabolka - Balabolka is a Text-To-Speech (TTS) program.

RHVoice - RHVoice is a free and open source speech synthesizer.

TextAloud - NextUp.com develops Windows text to speech (TTS) software applications like TextAloud that let your...

Simple TTS Reader - Simple TTS Reader is a small clipboard reader. Simply copy any text, and it will be read aloud.

Mycroft Mimic - Mimic is a powerful TTS tool. Mimic is low-latency and has a small resource footprint. Its range of high quality voices also set it apart from other open source text-to-speech projects.