ElevenLabs vs Maestra (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick ElevenLabs: it is first in our ranking of AI voice generators, and it grades higher too, 3.0 against 1.8.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
ElevenLabs grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
ElevenLabs
AI voice platform for speech, voice cloning, dubbing and voice agents
Which one is for you
Pick ElevenLabs if
- Fits if you voice videos, podcasts or audiobooks and will pay for a commercial license
- Works for apps that need an API and voice agents on the same account
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're staying free, since the free plan carries no commercial license or cloning
- Tight if you dub a lot, as dubbing costs 2,000 to 10,000 credits a minute from the same pool as speech
- Not for you if you need a professional clone of a voice that isn't yours
- Pricey if you need more than 30 minutes a month: Creator is $22 monthly for about 121 minutes, Pro $99 for about 600
- Watch out: downgrading or cancelling forfeits rolled-over credits, and there's no desktop app
Pick Maestra if
- Fits if you want transcripts, subtitles and voiceover from one vendor
- Makes sense if you caption live events or meetings
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want to try voiceover first, because there is no free plan or trial
- Pricey if you are one person: $39 a month is in the dearest tenth of the category
- Watch out: pro voices and cloning use the plan's minutes at a different rate, so 120 minutes can become 40
- Watch out: live sessions have separate plans, and one-time events start at $799 a day
- Tight if you want lip sync, which costs an extra $2 a minute on Business
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAElevenLabsVery good | 1.8GPAMaestraWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CAn hour of voiceover a month means Creator: $18.33 a month billed yearly ($22 monthly) for 121,000 credits, about 121 minutes of speech. Starter at $5 covers only about 30 minutes. That's the middle of what this category charges, and dubbing and music eat the same credits. | D$39 a month yearly for 120 voiceover minutes, then $79, $159 and $359. That puts the first plan in the dearest tenth of the category, which starts at $29. |
| Free plan and trial | C10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech, and 3 Studio projects. There's no commercial license and no cloning, so nothing you make on it can go in a video you publish. Enough to hear the voices, not to do the job. | FNo free tier for voiceover. Pay-as-you-go credits exist for transcription and subtitles only, at $12 per 60 credits. |
| Features | AText to speech in 70+ languages, instant and professional cloning, voices designed from a prompt, dubbing, a long-form Studio, transcription, music, sound effects and voice agents. That covers more than any other tool here, and the listing shows no gap. | BTranscription, subtitles, voiceover, cloning, a glossary, DeepL translation, API on Premium and live captioning. It covers a wide job, though pro voices and cloning use the same minutes at a different rate. |
| Ease of use | A4.84 from 22,674 App Store ratings, the highest in this category. Paste text, pick a voice, press play. Working out what each product costs in credits is the fiddly part. | CNo store rating on record. Plans, credit rates and team seats add some setup. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with an API and SDKs, and Zapier, Make, n8n, Salesforce and Zendesk connections. No desktop app, which an A needs. | BWeb and a browser extension, with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, OBS and vMix listed. |
| Best for | AI voiceovers, dubbing and voice cloning | transcription, subtitles and voiceover in one place |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: ElevenLabs and Maestra. How we grade
Price against what you get
ElevenLabs starts at $5 a month and scores 3.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Maestra starts at $39 a month and scores 2.7.
ElevenLabs scores higher and starts $34 a month lower. Of the other AI voice generators on the chart, none scores higher than ElevenLabs for less, and 4 score higher than Maestra for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- ElevenLabs also covers video generation.
At a glance
| ElevenLabs | Maestra | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly) | $39 per month for voiceover, billed annually |
| Free plan | 10,000 credits a month (about 10 minutes of text to speech) and 3 Studio projects. No commercial license and no voice cloning. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Eleven Labs Inc. | Katara Tech, Inc. |
| Price read from | elevenlabs.io | maestra.ai |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
ElevenLabs
- The Free plan has no commercial license or voice cloning; both start on Starter, and Professional Voice Cloning starts on Creator.
- One credit pool covers every product: text to speech costs about 1 credit per character, and dubbing 2,000 to 10,000 credits per minute.
- Professional Voice Clones are limited to your own voice and need a voice check; for instant clones you must confirm you have the right and consent.
- Unused credits roll over for up to two months on paid plans, but downgrading or cancelling forfeits them at the end of the cycle.
Maestra
- The voiceover plans have no free tier; the pricing page lists pay-as-you-go credits only for transcription and subtitles ($12 per 60 credits).
- The prices shown are the yearly-billing figures; the monthly-billing prices were not readable in the page text.
- Minutes are a monthly allowance shared between standard voiceover and pro voices with cloning, which use credits at different rates.
- Real-time sessions have separate plans, such as $15 a month for Maestra Personal, and one-time events start at $799 a day.
Key features
ElevenLabs
- Text to speech
- Generate speech from text in more than 70 languages with Eleven v3 and other models, using stock voices, the shared voice library or voices you design from a prompt.
- Instant and Professional Voice Cloning
- Instant clones are made from a short sample and start on Starter. Professional clones are trained on longer recordings, start on Creator and must be of your own voice.
- Dubbing
- Translate a video's speech into another language automatically, or edit the result line by line in Dubbing Studio, which starts on the Starter plan.
- Studio editor
- A long-form editor for audiobooks, podcasts and voiceovers. The Free plan allows 3 Studio projects and Starter allows 20.
- Speech to text, music and sound effects
- Transcribe audio, generate music and sound effects, isolate voices from noise and change one voice into another, all paid from the same credit pool.
- ElevenAgents and API
- Build voice and chat agents for phone, chat and WhatsApp, or call the speech, transcription and dubbing models from your own app through the API and SDKs.
Maestra
- Voiceover into other languages
- Generates a voiceover for a video or audio file in another language, with standard voices on every plan and pro voices with voice cloning from Premium.
- Transcription and subtitles
- Transcribes audio and video in 125+ languages and generates subtitles, with translation into other languages.
- Real-time translation and dubbing
- A separate real-time product covers live captions, translation and dubbing for meetings and events, with OBS and vMix support.
- Team workspaces
- Premium and above include Maestra Teams with centralized billing and extra team members.
- API access
- API access is listed from the Premium plan on the voiceover, transcription and subtitle products.
- Lip sync add-on
- On the Business voiceover plan, lip sync can be unlocked at $2 a minute.
Plans
ElevenLabs
Free$0
10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of text to speech, and 3 Studio projects. Not licensed for commercial use.
Starter$5
per month for 30,000 credits, billed annually ($6 billed monthly)
About 30 minutes of speech a month, a commercial license, Instant Voice Cloning, Dubbing Studio and 20 Studio projects.
Creator$18.33
per month for 121,000 credits, billed annually ($22 monthly)
About 121 minutes of speech a month, 1 Professional Voice Clone and the option to buy more credits. The first month is $11 on monthly billing.
Pro$82.50
per month for 600,000 credits, billed annually ($99 monthly)
About 600 minutes of speech a month, 192 kbps audio and 44.1 kHz PCM output through the API.
Scale$249.17
per month for 1.8M credits, billed annually ($299 monthly)
About 1,800 minutes of speech a month, 3 workspace seats, team collaboration and 3 Professional Voice Clones.
Business$825
per month for 6M credits, billed annually ($990 monthly)
About 6,000 minutes of speech a month, 10 seats and 10 Professional Voice Clones. Enterprise above it is custom-priced, with SSO and BAAs.
Maestra
Basic$39
per month, billed annually (monthly price not shown in page text)
Voiceover into another language for 120 minutes a month, plus AI summary, custom dictionary and subtitle import.
Premium$79
per month, billed annually (monthly price not shown in page text)
300 minutes of voiceover into another language, or 100 minutes of pro voices and voice cloning. Adds a team member, AI rewriting and API access.
Business$159
per month, billed annually (monthly price not shown in page text)
600 minutes of voiceover, or 200 minutes of pro voices and voice cloning. Adds 2 team members, DeepL translation, a glossary and optional lip sync at $2 a minute.
Business Plus$359
per month, billed annually (monthly price not shown in page text)
1,500 minutes of voiceover, or 500 minutes of pro voices and voice cloning, with 4 additional team members.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom pricing and development, a custom agreement, SCORM import and export, and live event captioning.
Ways to pay less
ElevenLabs
- Annual discount
Two months free with annual billing
ElevenLabs prices a year at ten times the monthly price: Starter works out to $5 a month instead of $6, and Creator to $18.33 instead of $22.
- Other savings
First month of Creator for $11
The pricing page shows Creator at 50% off for the first month on monthly billing.
- Startups
Startup Grants: 12 months free
Startups building conversational AI agents can apply for a grant of 33 million characters, valid for 12 months.
- Nonprofit
Impact Program for nonprofits
The Impact Program gives free access to nonprofits in healthcare, education and culture, and to people with accessibility needs or permanent voice loss.
- Education
Impact Program for professors and students
Professors and their students can apply to the Impact Program for free access to ElevenLabs.
Maestra
- Annual discount
Save 20% with yearly billing
The pricing page's yearly tab is labelled Save 20% against monthly billing.
- Education
20% off for students, teachers and nonprofits
Students, teachers and nonprofit organizations get 20% off; after payment you ask for a refund of 20% and later payments are charged at the discounted rate.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, ElevenLabs or Maestra?
As of Nov 12, 2026, ElevenLabs is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $39 a month for Maestra. ElevenLabs starts at $5 per month, billed annually ($6 billed monthly), and Maestra starts at $39 per month for voiceover, billed annually.
Which has a free plan, ElevenLabs or Maestra?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ElevenLabs has a free plan. Maestra does not.
Which platforms do ElevenLabs and Maestra run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only ElevenLabs lists iOS and Android apps and only Maestra lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.