VoicedByMe / Use cases / Balabolka alternative
Balabolka alternatives · Windows and Mac · Updated 24 October 2026
Balabolka is free and saves any text as audio, but it only runs on Windows and only uses the voices installed there, which sound robotic next to modern AI voices. VoicedByMe ($30 once) reads and saves text with natural AI voices or your own, offline, on Windows and Mac. Free alternatives: Panopreter Basic on Windows, the Mac's Spoken Content and open-source Piper. TextAloud and NaturalReader's desktop version are paid once.
Samples made offline with ready-made voices. All of them are AI-generated.
Why people look
Balabolka speaks with the voices installed in Windows. The built-in ones are the older, robotic kind.
There isn't one. Balabolka is Windows only.
Narrator's natural voices don't show up in Balabolka without an unofficial adapter, which may break with updates. Why.
Hearing text, or saving an audiobook, in their own cloned voice.
One M4B file with a book's chapters, ready for an audiobook app.
A shortcut that reads the selected text anywhere, without copying it into a program first.
To be fair
Balabolka is free, works offline, opens a long list of file types, converts many files at once and can write subtitle files alongside the audio. If the voices you have are good enough for you, there's no reason to switch.
Download it only from its own site, cross-plus-a.com: several download sites bundle extras with free tools.
The alternatives
Natural AI voices that run on your computer: 70 ready-made voices, or your own from twenty seconds of talking. Select text in any app and press CtrlAltR, open PDF, EPUB and Word files, save audio, and make audiobooks with chapters. It reads English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Russian, and needs a recent graphics card or Apple silicon for fast reading.
A simpler free reader that reads text and documents and saves them as WAV or MP3. Like Balabolka, it uses the voices installed in Windows.
A long-running reader from NextUp that saves text as MP3 and other formats, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. More natural voices are sold separately.
The desktop version of NaturalReader includes two natural voices and MP3 saving in its Personal edition. Extra voices are $39.50 each. More in our NaturalReader comparison.
A neural voice engine with natural voices in dozens of languages that runs on an ordinary processor. It's a command-line tool; a few small community apps put a window around it.
Download a Premium voice in System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content and press OptionEsc to hear any selected text. To save audio, the Terminal command say -f text.txt -o speech.aiff writes a file.
Compared
| Platforms | Voices | Saves audio | Your own voice | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VoicedByMe | Windows, Apple silicon Macs | Natural AI voices, or yours | Yes, plus audiobooks with chapters | Yes | $30 once |
| Balabolka | Windows | Voices installed in Windows | Yes, many formats | No | Free |
| Panopreter Basic | Windows | Voices installed in Windows | WAV, MP3 | No | Free |
| TextAloud 4 | Windows | Windows voices; natural voices extra | MP3 and more | No | $34.95 once |
| NaturalReader desktop | Desktop app | Two natural voices, more at $39.50 each | MP3 | No | From $99.50 once |
| Piper | Windows, Mac, Linux | Natural, open source | WAV | No | Free |
| Mac Spoken Content | Mac | Apple's voices | With the say command | No | Free |
As of October 2026. Check each app's own site for its current features and prices.
No, Balabolka is Windows only. On a Mac, use Spoken Content with a Premium voice (free), the say command to save audio (free), or VoicedByMe for natural AI voices and audiobooks.
Panopreter Basic on Windows, the Mac's built-in Spoken Content, or Piper if you don't mind the command line.
Only through the unofficial NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter, which passes Windows' natural voices to it. Its author calls it a hack that can break after updates. More here.
It's free. Download it only from its own site, cross-plus-a.com, rather than from download portals.
No. It uses installed voices. VoicedByMe clones your voice from twenty seconds and reads or saves anything in it.
Yes, with the voices installed in Windows. VoicedByMe also works offline, with natural AI voices.
$30 once for the first 50 customers, then $50. No subscription. The full app is free for one day so you can try it first. A license is for one computer.
For Windows 10 and 11, and Macs with Apple silicon
$30once. Launch price for the first 50 customers, then $50.
One computer. No subscription.
The full app, free for 24 hours. Purchases aren't refundable, so please try it first.