Open source text to speech refers to publicly accessible code related to text-to-speech technology. Copyright holders of open-source software grant users the rights to use, study, modify, and distribute the software and its source code for any purpose. Open-source software can be developed collaboratively and openly. As for text-to-speech, it refers to the process of transforming provided text into speech using technology.

open source text to speech

Part 1: Top 10 Open Source Text to Speech Software

1. MaryTTS

MaryTTS is an open-source multilingual text-to-speech synthesis platform written in Java. It was originally developed as a collaborative project between the DFKI Language Technology Lab and the Saarland University Speech Research Institute. It is now maintained by the Multimodal Speech Processing Group of MMCI and DFKI's Advanced Research Group.

As of version 5.2, MaryTTS supports German, British and American English, French, Italian, Luxembourgish, Russian, Swedish, Telugu, and Turkish; with more languages in preparation.

open source text to speech marytts

Main Features

  • Multilingual Support: MaryTTS supports multiple languages, including English, German, French, etc., suitable for global users.

  • Modular Architecture: MaryTTS adopts a modular architecture, allowing users to choose and add specific speech synthesis modules according to their needs.

  • Rich Speech Synthesis Features: MaryTTS offers rich speech synthesis features, including pronunciation adjustment, volume control, speed adjustment, etc., allowing users to customize according to their needs.

Limitations:

no High computational resource requirements, requiring significant computing power and storage space.

no Limited simulation of certain speech features, may not be suitable for specific speech synthesis needs in certain scenarios.

2. Mimic

Mimic is a series of text-to-speech engines by Mycroft AI. Over the years, Mimic, like other Mycroft components, has become clearer, faster, and more flexible.

Mimic 1 is a fast, lightweight TTS engine based on the Carnegie Mellon University FLITE software. It concatenates speech to create full phrases.

Mimic 2 is our older machine learning TTS engine designed to run in the cloud. It has been the default voice for most Mycroft installations over the years.

Mimic 3 is a privacy-focused open-source neural text-to-speech (TTS) engine that can run faster than real-time on low-end devices like the Raspberry Pi 4. In human terms, this means it sounds great, it can run entirely offline or in the cloud, and you can trust it with confidence.

text to speech open source minic

Main Features

  • Cross-Platform Support: Mimic can run on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it widely applicable.

  • Multiple Speech Synthesis Methods: Mimic supports various speech synthesis methods, including rule-based synthesis and statistical-based synthesis, allowing users to choose the appropriate method according to their needs.

Limitations:

no User interface may not be very user-friendly, may require some learning and adaptation time.

no Functionality is relatively basic, may not be suitable for users requiring advanced features.

3. eSpeak

eSpeak is a compact open-source software speech synthesizer designed for Linux and Windows. Originally known as Speak, it was initially developed for Acorn/RISC_OS computers starting in 1995. It was later renamed to eSpeak. While eSpeak offers clear and fast speech, it may not sound as natural or fluent as larger synthesizers based on recordings of human speech.

open source text to speech ai espeak

Main Features

  • Lightweight: eSpeak is a lightweight speech synthesis engine with a small footprint, suitable for resource-constrained environments.

  • Multilingual and Voice Style Support: eSpeak supports multiple languages and voice styles, allowing users to choose the appropriate voice and style according to their needs.

  • Flexible Configuration: eSpeak can be flexibly configured through parameters, allowing users to adjust parameters such as pitch, speed, etc., to meet the needs of different scenarios.

Limitations:

no Speech quality may not be as good as other tools, may not be suitable for applications requiring high speech quality.

no Does not support advanced speech features, may not meet certain specific requirements.

4. YakiToMe

YakiToMe is a free online Text-to-Speech (TTS) converter that allows you to convert text into MP3 or WAV audio file formats. You can later download the converted files to listen to them on an MP3 player. You can also share the audio files with others via email, Facebook, and more.

Main Features

  • Online Service and API Integration: YakiToMe provides online speech synthesis services and API integration, allowing users to access and use them via the Internet, convenient and fast.

  • Multilingual Support: YakiToMe supports multiple languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, etc., suitable for global users.

  • Customization Options: YakiToMe offers customized speech synthesis options, allowing users to adjust parameters such as voice, volume, speed, etc., according to their needs.

Limitations:

no Relies on internet connection, not suitable for offline environments, may have usage limitations.

no Concerns about data privacy and security for sensitive data handling.

5. OpenTTS

OpenTTS is an open-source Text-to-Speech (TTS) server that offers unified access to various TTS systems and voices in multiple languages. It supports a variety of languages and a subset of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), allowing the use of multiple voices and TTS systems within the same SSML document.

A notable feature of OpenTTS is its extensive language support. Integrated with various TTS systems like Larynx, Coqui-TTS, and nanoTTS, it includes languages such as English, German, French, Spanish, and more.

Main Features

  • Multilingual Support: OpenTTS supports multiple languages, suitable for global users.

  • Simple and Easy to Use: OpenTTS provides a simple and easy-to-use interface and operation method, allowing users to use it without requiring a professional technical background.

Limitations:

no Functionality is relatively basic, may not meet complex speech synthesis needs.

no Limited customization, may not meet personalized user requirements.

6. Coqui TTS

Coqui TTS is a super cool text-to-speech model that allows you to clone voices in different languages with just a 3-second audio clip. You can segment the text into sentences and generate audio for each sentence. Then, concatenate the audio files to produce the final audio. Built on top of Tortoise, Coqui TTS has undergone significant model changes, making cross-lingual voice cloning and multi-lingual speech synthesis super easy.

Main Features

  • Multilingual Support: Coqui TTS supports multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, etc., suitable for global users.

  • High-Quality Speech Synthesis: Coqui TTS is based on deep learning technology, capable of generating high-quality speech synthesis that is natural and fluent.

Limitations:

no Requires significant computational resources, may require a large amount of training data and hardware support.

no Requires specific hardware and environment conditions, may not be suitable for resource-constrained or specific application scenarios.

7. CMU Flite TTS

CMU Flite (festival-lite) is a small, fast, runtime open-source text-to-speech synthesis engine developed by CMU, primarily designed for small embedded machines and/or large servers. Flite is designed as an alternative text-to-speech synthesis engine to Festival, for building voices using the FestVox voice building toolkit.

Main Features

  • Lightweight: CMU Flite TTS is a lightweight speech synthesis engine with a small footprint, suitable for embedded systems and low-resource environments.

  • Fast: CMU Flite TTS has fast synthesis speed, capable of achieving real-time speech synthesis.

  • Multilingual Support: CMU Flite TTS supports multiple languages, suitable for global users.

Limitations:

no Speech synthesis quality may not be as good as other tools, may result in poor audio quality.

no Functionality is relatively limited, may not meet certain specific speech synthesis needs.

8. ESPnet

ESPnet is an end-to-end speech processing toolkit that focuses primarily on end-to-end speech recognition and end-to-end text-to-speech. Currently, there are two versions: ESPnet1 and ESPnet2. ESPnet1 only supports multi-GPU training within a single node, while ESPnet2 supports distributed settings across multiple nodes. You can choose according to your needs.

Main Features

  • End-to-End Speech Processing Toolkit: ESPnet provides an end-to-end speech processing toolkit covering multiple tasks such as speech recognition and speech synthesis.

  • Flexible Model Configuration: ESPnet supports flexible model configuration and training processes, allowing users to choose suitable models and parameters according to their needs.

  • Support for Multiple Languages and Voice Styles: ESPnet supports multiple languages and voice styles, suitable for global users.

Limitations:

no Requires technical background and experience, may not be suitable for ordinary users.

no Configuration and debugging are complex, may require a long time to learn and adapt.

9. Festival Speech Synthesis System

Festival provides a general framework for building speech synthesis systems and includes examples of various modules. Overall, it offers full-text speech synthesis through many APIs: from shell-level, through a command interpreter, as a C++ library, and from Java and Emacs interfaces.

It is written in C++, uses the Edinburgh Speech Tools library for low-level architecture, and has a scheme (SIOD)-based command interpreter for control. Documentation is provided in FSF texinfo format, which can generate printed manuals, info files, and HTML.

Main Features

  • Rich Speech Synthesis Features: Festival offers rich speech synthesis features, including pronunciation adjustment and volume control, allowing users to customize as needed.

  • Scalability: Festival is a modular speech synthesis system, allowing users to extend functionality through plugins to meet various needs.

  • Support for Multiple Languages and Voice Styles: Festival supports multiple languages and voice styles, allowing users to choose suitable voices and styles according to their needs.

Limitations:

no Steep learning curve, may require some time to master and use.

no Speech synthesis quality may not be as good as commercial products, may not meet high-demand user requirements.

10. Tacotron2

Tacotron 2 and WaveGlow models constitute a text-to-speech system that allows users to synthesize natural-sounding speech from raw transcripts without requiring additional information such as prosody or speech patterns. Both models are based on NVIDIA GitHub repositories and have been trained on publicly available LJ Speech dataset.

Main Features

  • Deep Learning-Based End-to-End Speech Synthesis System: Tacotron2 is a deep learning-based end-to-end speech synthesis system capable of generating natural and fluent speech.

  • High-Quality Speech Synthesis: Tacotron2, based on deep learning technology, produces high-quality and natural-sounding speech synthesis.

  • Support for Multiple Languages and Voice Styles: Tacotron2 supports multiple languages and voice styles, catering to different speech synthesis needs.

Limitations:

no Requires large amounts of training data and computational resources, may require high-performance hardware support.

no Requires specific hardware and environmental conditions, may not be suitable for resource-limited environments or specific application scenarios.

Part 2: The Pros and Cons of Text to Speech Open Source Software

We've discussed 10 open source text to speech software options earlier. Have you decided which one to choose? Don't rush; take a look at their pros and cons first to gain a deeper understanding.

Pros of Open Source Text to Speech

yesAbsolutely transparent code.

yesHigh flexibility and scalability.

yesEngagement with an open-source community for communication.

Cons of Open Source Text to Speech

noOpen source does not necessarily mean free; some open-source code may require payment to access.

noOpen source models may lack official support channels or dedicated customer support teams.

noUsers of open source models may need to actively monitor security updates and patches.

noVulnerability exposure: With access to the source code, malicious actors can easily identify vulnerabilities in the codebase.

Part 3: AI Text to Speech Software Beyond Open Source

Here, we'd like to recommend iMyFone VoxBox software. It offers a much simpler, sleeker, and more intuitive interface compared to outdated-looking open-source software. Plus, VoxBox has a free version available for use. Unlike open-source software with language limitations, VoxBox supports over 150 languages. With AI assistance, you can even use VoxBox to generate a rap.

Feel free to download VoxBox and convert your text to speech!

ai text to speech open source alternative

Why Choose VoxBox

  • It's a software powered by AI.
  • It offers a wider variety of voices and supports a broader range of languages.
  • It has a low learning curve and a simple interface.
  • It's feature-rich, including but not limited to text-to-speech, speech-to-text, voice cloning, etc.
  • It runs smoothly without lagging.
  • It provides professional customer support for one-on-one assistance.
  • It's an offline software, ensuring 100% security.
  • The voices sound more realistic.

Conclusion

Open-source text-to-speech solutions contribute significantly to the advancement of the software industry by enabling collaboration and innovation. They empower users to customize and enhance software according to their needs.

However, if you're simply looking for a reliable text-to-speech software without the need for coding, VoxBox is the perfect choice. Affordable and feature-rich, it offers an excellent alternative with comprehensive functionality. It's challenging to find such a fantastic software with a reasonable price and full features like VoxBox!