Acast vs ElevenLabs

Acast is a podcast hosting and monetization company founded in Stockholm, Sweden, and listed on Nasdaq First North. Its core job is to host shows, distribute them to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and every other directory, and then turn listens into revenue through one of the largest podcast advertising marketplaces in the world.

The free Starter plan covers hosting and distribution. Paid tiers (Essential, Pro and Video) add multiple shows, unlimited episodes, team management, a publishing API and video publishing to Apple Podcasts. Acast inserts dynamic ads sold by its own sales teams and programmatic partners into back catalog episodes, so older episodes keep earning. Acast+ lets creators sell premium subscriptions with bonus or ad-free episodes, and sponsorship tools connect shows with brands directly.

Acast fits independent and network podcasters for whom advertising is the business model and who want access to advertisers they could not reach alone. The trade-off is a revenue share on ads and less control over which ads appear. Transistor is a better choice for companies running private or branded shows, Buzzsprout is simpler for hobbyists, and Spotify for Creators offers free hosting tied closely to Spotify. For shows with real audiences that want to be paid, Acast remains one of the strongest options.

ElevenLabs is an AI audio company founded in 2022 by Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski, both originally from Poland, and now one of the most widely used voice AI platforms. Its models generate natural, expressive speech in more than 70 languages, including Turkish, and the product line has grown from text to speech into a complete audio stack for creators, developers and enterprises.

Text to speech offers a large voice library and several model families balancing quality and latency. Voice cloning comes in two forms: instant cloning from a short sample and professional cloning trained on longer recordings. Speech to speech converts one voice into another while keeping delivery, Dubbing translates video and audio into other languages while preserving the original speaker's voice, and a sound effects model generates audio from text prompts. Scribe provides high-accuracy speech to text, and the agents platform (launched as Conversational AI) builds voice agents that answer phone and web calls. Pricing is credit-based: a free tier with attribution requirements, then Starter, Creator and Pro plans for individuals and Scale, Business and Enterprise plans with more credits and seats.

ElevenLabs suits audiobook and podcast producers, YouTubers, game and app developers, localization teams and companies building voice agents. Costs can climb at high volume, and voice cloning requires consent and responsible use. OpenAI and Google offer cheaper voices inside their ecosystems, Cartesia competes on low-latency real-time speech, and Play.ht and Murf target creators and voiceover work.