SHSelfHostIndex

MeloTTS vs Speaches

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
ME MeloTTS High-quality multilingual text-to-speech library VS Speaches OpenAI-compatible speech-to-text and text-to-speech server
FeatureMeloTTSSpeaches
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score23 · At risk83 · Excellent
CategorySelf-Hosted AISelf-Hosted AI
LicenseMITMIT
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, source
GitHub stars★ 7,647★ 3,677
First released20242024
ReplacesElevenLabs, Amazon PollyOpenAI Audio API, ElevenLabs

What are MeloTTS and Speaches?

MeloTTS

MeloTTS is an open-source multilingual text-to-speech library from MyShell that supports several languages and accents with fast CPU inference. It can be self-hosted to generate natural speech without cloud services.

  • Multilingual speech synthesis
  • Real-time CPU inference
  • Multiple English accents
  • Open weights

Speaches

Speaches is a self-hosted server that provides OpenAI-compatible transcription, translation, and text-to-speech endpoints. It supports streaming and a range of open speech models for private voice applications.

  • OpenAI-compatible audio API
  • Streaming transcription
  • Text-to-speech support
  • Multiple open models

MeloTTS vs Speaches: key differences

Both projects are written in Python. MeloTTS has the considerably larger community, at 7,647 GitHub stars versus 3,677.

Why pick each one

Choose MeloTTS if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 7.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
MeloTTS details

Choose Speaches if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (3.7k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
Speaches details

Frequently asked questions

Is MeloTTS or Speaches better?

Neither is universally better. MeloTTS has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are MeloTTS and Speaches free and open-source?

Yes. MeloTTS is licensed under MIT and Speaches under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run MeloTTS and Speaches with Docker?

MeloTTS: yes. Speaches: yes.

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