Introducing Eleven v3 (alpha)

ElevenLabs vs. Play.ai

Feb 17, 2025 • 2 minutes reading time

Which platform is better for conversational AI applications?

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Digital illustration of two holographic human figures, one in blue and one in white, running towards each other in a high-tech environment with waveforms and digital elements.

Summary

ElevenLabs and Play.ai are powerful conversational AI platforms that allow users to create customizable voice agents.
Both platforms offer in-house TTS, providing lower latency by reducing server calls.
ElevenLabs also provides an in-house STT model, further reducing delays.
Both platforms support multilingual capabilities, with ElevenLabs offering 70+ languages and Play.ai supporting over 30 languages.

Overview

ElevenLabs and Play.ai are leading conversational AI creation platforms, each offering unique features to create customizable voice agents. ElevenLabs distinguishes itself by developing in-house TTS and STT models, which enhance latency, control and reliability. Play.ai focuses on delivering realistic voices through integration with external providers. Both platforms support multiple languages and provide solid tools for API calls, knowledge base management, and telephony integrations.

Introduction to ElevenLabs and Play.ai

Conversational AI orchestration platforms, like ElevenLabs and Play.ai, enable developers to create customizable voice agents. These voice agents now handle customer support calls, train 911 dispatchers, and power new journalistic experiences.

Most platforms combine speech to text (STT), a large language model (LLM), and text to speech (TTS), along with built-in turn-taking and interruption handling, to support natural, human-like conversations.

Feature comparison

For a detailed comparison of the two platforms, let’s take a closer look at their features and how they compete:

Provider	ElevenLabs	Play.ai
Includes an extensive voice library	Includes an extensive voice library with over 5,000 voices across 70+ languages and numerous regional accents. Users can design new voices from a text prompt or clone their own.	Offers ultra-realistic AI voices across 30+ languages optimized for real-time applications. Features state-of-the-art voice cloning capabilities, requiring minimal audio input.
Latency	Uses the Flash model, which is the fastest, most human-like TTS available. Also has an advantage for end-to-end latency, saving two server calls through in-house TTS and STT.	Boasts industry-leading latency with less than 130ms time-to-first-byte (TTFB).
Tools & API Calls	Provides server tools to call third-party apps or APIs to fetch real-time information or take action. Also offers client tools to trigger browser events, run client-side functions, or send notifications to a UI.	Provides fast and easy-to-use APIs and SDKs for developers. Offers API access for seamless integration, supporting on-premise deployments.
Languages	Supports 30+ languages. Allows users to set a custom voice or first message for each language.	Supports 30+ languages and accents.
Concurrency	Concurrency by tier for ElevenLabs base plans is available here. Custom limits are available to handle scale for the largest enterprises.	Offers various subscription plans with different concurrency limits.
LLM	Allows users to select from leading models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek or integrate their own custom LLM.	Provides a range of models, including GPT, Llama, Hermes, and Gemma, each with its own strengths and trade-offs. Does not support custom in-house LLMs
Knowledge Base Management	Allows users to import files, URLs, or plain text to equip their agents with relevant, domain-specific information. Offers an industry first, Retrieval Augmented Generation capability for voice agents, helping enterprises ground their agent's responses in their data.	Enhances agents' knowledge using specific information by uploading files (PDFs, FAQs, Epub, .txt) containing relevant details.
Telephony Integrations	Offers PCM 8000 Hz or μ-law 8000 Hz sample rates for integration with any provider. For additional information, refer to the Twilio quickstart guide.	Supports on-premise deployments for enhanced security and privacy.
Data Retention	By default, ElevenLabs retains conversation data for 2 years. Users can modify this period to any number of days, unlimited retention, or immediate deletion. Offers Zero Retention Mode to enterprise clients. This ensures HIPAA compliance.	Committed to protecting user privacy with data encryption both in transit and at rest.
Tracking & Analytics	Offers live call analytics and allows users to review past recordings, transcripts, and call summaries. Offers custom prompts to tag calls based on internal success criteria and extract data from transcripts.	Provides tools to review past recordings, transcripts, and call summaries.

Final thoughts

It’s safe to say that both ElevenLabs and Play.ai offer powerful AI-driven text to speech solutions, each with unique strengths.

ElevenLabs excels in providing a vast voice library and integrated STT and TTS services, optimizing for low latency and reliability. Likewise, Play.ai offers realistic voice generation with low latency and supports many languages, but lacks the enterprise features ElevenLabs excels at.

Your choice between the two will depend on your specific requirements, such as the need for real-time analytics, enterprise-level security, and customisation.

Conversational AI

Flowchart diagram with black and white nodes labeled "USER," "SPEECH TO TEXT," "TEXT TO SPEECH," "AGENT," "LLM," "MONITORING," and "FUNCTION CALLING" connected by curved lines on a blue gradient background.

Add voice to your agents on web, mobile or telephony in minutes. Our realtime API delivers low latency, full configurability, and seamless scalability.

FAQs

ElevenLabs offers superior text to speech (TTS) technology with ultra-realistic, expressive voices, while Play.ai provides broader conversational AI tools but with less emphasis on voice quality and versatility.

ElevenLabs offers extensive customization, allowing users to design new voices from text prompts or clone their own. Play.ai also provides voice cloning but mainly emphasizes realistic, pre-built voice options.

ElevenLabs offers 70 languages, making it far superior for global applications. Play.ai only offers over 30 languages.

ElevenLabs retains conversation data for two years by default, with customizable options for retention or deletion. Play.ai also provides data security, but specific retention policies are not publicly disclosed. Play.ai does not support HIPAA compliance, whereas ElevenLabs does.

Yes. ElevenLabs and Play.ai offer telephony integration capabilities, including support for Twilio and custom telephony systems.