ElevenLabs vs Midjourney
ElevenLabs (freemium, AI Score 9.2/10) vs Midjourney (paid, AI Score 9.4/10). Side-by-side pricing, features, pros and cons, and which to pick.
The verdict
- →you need a genuinely free option
- →budget is the constraint
- →you need: design, marketing, content-creation
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | ElevenLabs | Midjourney |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Music | Image Gen |
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Headline pricing | Free tier + Starter $5/mo + Creator $22/mo + Pro $99/mo + Scale $330/mo + Enterprise custom | From $10/mo |
| Free tier | 10,000 characters per month with 3 custom voices — enough to test voice quality and basic cloning | — |
| AI Score | 9.2/10 | 9.4/10 |
| Best for | — | — |
| Editor's pick | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Use cases | — | design marketing content-creation |
| Date added | 2026-04-30 | 2025-06-01 |
Pros and cons
ElevenLabs
Music · freemium
Pros
- ✓Most realistic AI voices available — often indistinguishable from human recordings
- ✓Voice cloning works surprisingly well from very short audio samples (under 60 seconds)
- ✓32+ languages with cross-lingual cloning capability
- ✓Robust API with streaming and WebSocket support for real-time applications
Cons
- ×Character-based pricing adds up fast for high-volume use cases like audiobooks
- ×Free tier is limited to non-commercial use with only 10K characters
- ×Music generation is still early and can't compete with Suno or Udio
- ×Professional Voice Cloning locked behind Creator plan ($22/mo) or above
Midjourney
Image Gen · paid
Pros
- ✓Best-in-class image quality and aesthetics
- ✓Active community and prompt sharing ecosystem
- ✓Consistent updates with major quality improvements
- ✓Excellent at cinematic and artistic compositions
Cons
- ×No free tier available
- ×Discord-based interface has a learning curve
- ×Less control over specific image regions than competitors
- ×No API access for developers
FAQ
Is ElevenLabs better than Midjourney? ▾
ElevenLabs scores 9.2/10 in our evaluation versus Midjourney at 9.4/10. Midjourney edges ahead overall, but "better" depends on your use case — see the verdict block above.
Does ElevenLabs or Midjourney have a free tier? ▾
ElevenLabs has a free tier (10,000 characters per month with 3 custom voices — enough to test voice quality and basic cloning). Midjourney is paid.
Should I choose ElevenLabs or Midjourney in 2026? ▾
If you need a genuinely free option pick ElevenLabs. If you need: design, marketing, content-creation pick Midjourney. Both are credible — neither is a wrong choice.
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Updated 2026-05-26. Spec data sourced from official product pages and tracked in our public directory at /tools.