# Amazon Polly vs eSpeak NG

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Amazon Polly

| Attribute | Amazon Polly | eSpeak NG |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 59.9 (61% (medium)) | 49.5 (26% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 36 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 6,762 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Amazon Polly is a managed cloud service that synthesizes speech from text using neural networks and generative voice technology. It offers multiple voice options and languages, integrates through APIs, and supports various audio formats for use in applications and services. | A lightweight open source text-to-speech engine that converts written text into spoken audio using formant synthesis. Available as a command-line tool and C/library for integration across Linux, Windows, Android, and other platforms. |
| integrations.count | 2 | 3 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon Connect"},{"name":"Amazon Chime SDK"}]` | `[{"name":"MBROLA"},{"name":"SAPI5"},{"name":"C API library integration"}]` |
| language.primary | - | C |
| license.spdx | - | GPL-3.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"android":true,"windows":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Standard Voices","summary":"$4.00 per 1M characters","components":[{"per":{"qty":1000000,"unit":"characters"},"kind":"metered","amount":4,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Basic quality voices with lower latency","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Neural Voices","summary":"$16.00 per 1M characters","components":[{"per":{"qty":1000000,"unit":"characters"},"kind":"metered","amount":16,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"High-quality neural synthesis voices","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Long-Form Voices","summary":"$100.00 per 1M characters","components":[{"per":{"qty":1000000,"unit":"characters"},"kind":"metered","amount":100,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Optimized for longer text passages and documents","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Generative Voices","summary":"$30.00 per 1M characters","components":[{"per":{"qty":1000000,"unit":"characters"},"kind":"metered","amount":30,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Generative voice synthesis with custom voice options","contactSales":false}],"summary":"From $4.00 per 1M characters. Free tier available (5M characters/month for Standard voices).","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/polly/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T22:02:51.594Z","startingPrice":{"unit":"characters","amount":4,"currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Free and open source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://github.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T22:01:16.060Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":4,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | - | 799 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.52.0","date":"2024-12-12T13:47:27Z","type":"stable","version":"1.52.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.51","date":"2022-04-02T19:43:39Z","type":"stable","version":"1.51"},{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.50","date":"2019-12-02T12:34:16Z","type":"stable","version":"1.50"},{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.49.2","date":"2017-09-24T09:37:08Z","type":"stable","version":"1.49.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.49.1","date":"2017-01-21T21:20:08Z","type":"stable","version":"1.49.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/releases/tag/1.49.0","date":"2016-09-10T10:20:46Z","type":"stable","version":"1.49.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 4.5 |

## Capabilities (Text To Speech)

| Capability | Amazon Polly | eSpeak NG |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Voice cloning | - | - |
| Zero shot cloning | - | - |
| Streaming synthesis | - | - |
| Ssml support | - | - |
| Emotion style control | - | - |
| On device offline | - | - |
| Open source | - | - |
| Watermarking provenance | - | - |
| Cloning consent verification | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:52:17.032Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*