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Our ElevenLabs review in short: if your business needs voiceovers, phone greetings or audio content in English or Afrikaans, ElevenLabs is the best voice tool we have used, and it starts at about R100 a month. The two gaps we found are isiXhosa, which it doesn't support yet, and background music for radio ads, which needs an Enterprise music licence.
Digital Consulting is a Cape Town agency for web design, SEO and AI visibility. We use ElevenLabs for the voiceovers in our own explainer videos, and clients regularly ask us whether it's worth paying for. This review answers that for business owners, with prices checked on 30 October 2026.
What ElevenLabs does
ElevenLabs turns written text into speech that sounds like a real person. You paste a script, pick a voice and download an MP3 a few seconds later. The same account also gives you speech to text, dubbing (translating a video into another language with a matching voice), sound effects, music, and voice agents that answer phone calls.
The latest model, Eleven v4, came out on 28 September 2026. It sounds more natural than earlier versions, holds a steady tone over long scripts and handles more languages: ElevenLabs advertises more than 90 languages for v4.
The company behind it is well funded. It raised money at an $11 billion valuation in February 2026, and an employee share sale in September valued it at $22 billion.
How South African businesses can use it
Voiceovers for videos and social posts
This is what we use it for most. You generate the voice yourself, so you don't have to book a voice artist for every short video, and you can change the script whenever you like. The Starter plan includes about 30 minutes of speech a month, which is enough for a few dozen short social videos. A TV campaign, or a voice that will represent your brand for years, still deserves a professional voice artist.
Phone greetings and on-hold messages
An after-hours greeting or an on-hold message takes a few minutes to make. The three sample greetings in this review used 478 credits in total, a small fraction of the 30,000 credits a month you get on Starter. Check first that your phone system lets you upload your own audio file.
Radio-style ads
You can use the voice in adverts on any paid plan. The music has stricter rules: ElevenLabs' music licence excludes film, TV and radio on every plan except Enterprise. For a radio ad, pair the ElevenLabs voice with music you have licensed elsewhere.
Audio versions of blog posts
Some people would rather listen than read. We built a small workflow that turns our blog articles into conversational audio with ElevenLabs. If your website has long guides, an audio version lets people listen to them in the car.
Answering calls after hours
ElevenLabs voice agents can answer calls, take messages and answer common questions when nobody is in the office. The Creator plan includes 275 minutes of calls a month. ElevenLabs also documents a ready-made AI receptionist product, Reception.ai, from $29 a month.
Setting this up in South Africa takes a bit more work. Reception.ai doesn't offer South African phone numbers, so you bring your own number, and ElevenLabs agents connect to phone lines through Twilio or a SIP trunk. ElevenLabs' usage policy also says you must tell callers when they're talking to AI. The names and numbers the agent collects are personal information under POPIA, so handle them the way the Information Regulator expects. If most of your calls are complaints or complicated quotes, keep a person on the phone.
Cloning your own voice
AI voice cloning starts on the Starter plan, where you can make an instant clone of your own voice from a short recording. ElevenLabs recommends 1 to 2 minutes of audio, and you have to confirm you have the right and consent to use it. Professional clones, on Creator and above, are for your own voice only: ElevenLabs says you cannot professionally clone someone else's voice, even with their permission. A clone is worth it when the owner's voice is part of the brand, for example on every product video.
What we use it for at Digital Consulting
We have paid for ElevenLabs ourselves since May 2023 and use it every month. Our AI visibility explainer video is narrated by Charlotte, a warm South African voice from the ElevenLabs Voice Library, and our web design promo video uses Marcel, a calm South African narrator with an Afrikaans accent.
AI voices sometimes say local words the American way. In the explainer script we spelt "geyser" as "geezer", so Charlotte says it the way South Africans do.
We also use it for the blog-to-audio workflow. We're on the Starter plan, which is enough for a small agency's own videos.
ElevenLabs pricing in rand
ElevenLabs charges in US dollars, so the rand price moves with the exchange rate. The rand amounts below use R16.61 to the dollar (Xe mid-market rate, 30 October 2026), and your bank adds its own foreign exchange fee on top.
| Plan | Price a month | Speech | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | About 10 minutes | No commercial use |
| Starter | $6 (about R100) | About 30 minutes | Commercial licence, instant voice cloning |
| Creator | $22 (about R365) | About 121 minutes | Professional voice clone |
| Pro | $99 (about R1,644) | About 600 minutes | Higher-quality audio through the API |
| Scale | $299 (about R4,966) | About 1,800 minutes | 3 team seats |
| Business | $990 (about R16,444) | About 6,000 minutes | 10 team seats |
Source: ElevenLabs pricing. Yearly billing gives you two months free.
Before you pay:
- You pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
- ElevenLabs' pricing page says its prices exclude taxes. Our own monthly invoices have never had South African VAT added.
- If you run out of credits, you can top up with pay-as-you-go credits from $5. Your account pauses at zero instead of running up a bill, and top-up credits expire after 12 months.
- Refunds are only possible within 14 days, and only if you have not used any credits.
If you run a small business, start on Starter. Move to Creator when you need more than about 30 minutes of speech a month, or a professional clone of your own voice.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. The free plan gives you 10,000 credits a month, about 10 minutes of speech. You can't use it commercially, and anything you publish from it has to credit "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title, according to ElevenLabs' publishing rules. Use it to test voices before you pay.
Afrikaans and other South African languages
ElevenLabs supports Afrikaans and has its own Afrikaans text to speech page. When we generated our Afrikaans greeting with Charlotte, an English-speaking voice, ElevenLabs suggested switching to an Afrikaans voice for best results. The Afrikaans still sounded natural when we listened, and the Voice Library has several native Afrikaans voices if you want one.
isiZulu text to speech appears in the Eleven v4 language menu in our account, although ElevenLabs' documentation doesn't list it yet. You can hear our isiZulu sample below, but ask a first-language speaker to check any isiZulu audio before your customers hear it.
isiXhosa, Sesotho, Setswana, Sepedi, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, isiNdebele and siSwati aren't available for voiceovers yet. ElevenLabs' newer dubbing tool does handle Sesotho and Setswana, but not isiXhosa.
Listen: one greeting, three languages
We made the same after-hours greeting for Digital Consulting in three languages with one voice (Charlotte) on Eleven v4, using the default settings. Each clip is the first of two takes, unedited.
South African English
Thanks for calling Digital Consulting in Cape Town. We're helping another client right now, so please leave your name and number, and we'll call you back today.
Afrikaans
Dankie dat jy Digital Consulting in Kaapstad bel. Ons help tans 'n ander kliënt, so los asseblief jou naam en nommer, en ons bel jou vandag nog terug.
isiZulu
Siyabonga ngokushayela i-Digital Consulting eKapa. Okwamanje sisiza elinye ikhasimende, ngakho-ke sicela ushiye igama lakho nenombolo yakho, futhi sizokubuyela namuhla.
South African voices
When we searched the ElevenLabs Voice Library for "South African" on 26 October 2026, it returned 129 voices for text to speech with a South African accent. These four are worth trying first:
- Charlotte, a warm voice for explainers and social videos (the voice in our samples)
- Marcel, a calm, middle-aged Afrikaans man
- Peter, a polished commercial voice for adverts
- Declan, a radio presenter's voice for news-style updates
AI voice or a voice artist?
Professional voice artists still do some jobs better than AI. This is how we decide for clients:
| Use ElevenLabs for | Hire a voice artist for |
|---|---|
| Social and explainer videos | TV and radio brand campaigns |
| Phone greetings and on-hold messages | Characters and animation |
| Training and internal videos | A voice that will be your brand for years |
| Testing a script before the final recording | Scripts where emotion carries the message |
You can also use both. Draft the script with an AI voice, tweak it until it works, then book a voice artist for the final recording.
ElevenLabs vs Murf AI
Of the ElevenLabs alternatives, Murf AI is the one we compared. We haven't used Murf ourselves, so the table uses Murf's published pricing and language lists. For a South African business, language support decides it, and Murf lists no Afrikaans, isiZulu or South African English.
| ElevenLabs | Murf AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $6 a month (about R100) | $29 a month (about R482) |
| Afrikaans | Yes | No |
| isiZulu | Listed for Eleven v4 | No |
| South African English voices | 129 in the Voice Library | None listed |
| Business use | Any paid plan | Murf recommends its $99 Business plan for registered businesses |
Limits, and who should skip it
ElevenLabs is the wrong tool if:
- you need voiceovers in isiXhosa, Sesotho or Setswana
- you want ElevenLabs' music in radio or TV ads, which needs an Enterprise deal
- your business wants to use ElevenLabs' music at all and has 10 or more employees: its music licence limits the Free to Pro plans to individual use, Scale ($299) to organisations with fewer than 10 employees, and Business ($990) to fewer than 50
- you want to clone someone else's voice
- a rand price that moves with the dollar is a problem for your budget
Frequently asked questions
Is ElevenLabs free?
Yes, ElevenLabs has a free plan with 10,000 credits a month, which is about 10 minutes of speech. The free plan is for personal testing only. You can't use the audio commercially, and anything you publish must credit "elevenlabs.io" or "11.ai" in the title. Paid plans start at $6 a month.
Can I use ElevenLabs for commercial use?
Yes, on any paid plan from Starter ($6 a month) upwards. ElevenLabs says audio you create while subscribed can be used commercially indefinitely, even after you cancel. Music has stricter rules: business use needs the Scale plan or higher, and radio, TV and film need an Enterprise agreement.
Does ElevenLabs speak Afrikaans and isiZulu?
ElevenLabs supports Afrikaans on its current models, and the Eleven v4 language menu also lists isiZulu. We tested both with a South African voice, and the Afrikaans sounded natural. Have a first-language speaker check isiZulu audio before customers hear it. isiXhosa, Sesotho and Setswana are not available for voiceovers yet.
How do I pay for ElevenLabs from South Africa?
ElevenLabs bills South African customers in US dollars by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your bank converts the amount to rand and usually adds a foreign exchange fee. Prices on the ElevenLabs website exclude taxes, but our own monthly invoices have never had South African VAT added.
Want it done for you?
Digital Consulting can write and voice your next explainer video, set up an after-hours phone greeting, or build a voice agent that answers calls when the office is closed.
- Animated explainer videos: script, voice-over, music, subtitles and social cut included. From R2,000, ready from 48 hours.
- AI consulting and automation: voice agents and other automations for South African businesses.
If you'd rather do it yourself, start with ElevenLabs Starter.
Last updated: 30 October 2026. Prices checked on 30 October 2026 at R16.61 to the US dollar.
