TTS Comparison · April 2026 · SideGuy

OpenAI TTS vs Self-Hosted vs Browser Speech Synthesis

Four real options for adding voice to your web app. Costs, quality, setup time, and when each one is the right call — built from a real dev session with Toby.

Option 1 Self-hosted piper TTS No API cost Privacy-first

Local neural TTS that runs on a $5/mo VPS. No API calls, no per-character billing, no data leaving your server. Best for privacy, offline use, or high-volume scenarios where API costs would compound. Setup takes an afternoon.

Cost

$5/mo VPS only

Quality

Good — neural

Setup

Half day

Privacy

Full — local

Voices

Community models

API key needed

Option 2 OpenAI TTS API Toby's pick · Best quality

Nova and Alloy voices are the best sounding browser-compatible TTS available right now. $0.015 per 1,000 characters — a 30-second walkthrough costs under $0.01. Plug in your API key, works instantly. Already wired into SideGuy's two-tier engine as the Tier 1 path.

Cost

$0.015/1k chars

Quality

Excellent

Setup

Minutes

Privacy

OpenAI servers

Voices

Nova, Alloy, Shimmer +

API key needed

Yes — yours

Option 3 pocket-tts proxy endpoint No key for users

A serverless function (Vercel or Netlify) that proxies any TTS model. PJ's API key lives server-side — visitors never need one. Combines quality of OpenAI with zero friction for end users. Natural path to x402 micropayment gating per request.

Cost

API cost + hosting

Quality

Excellent (proxied)

Setup

1–2 hours

Privacy

Proxied

Voices

Any model

API key needed

No — server-side

Option 4 Browser speechSynthesis (polished) Zero cost · Zero setup

The Web Speech API built into every modern browser. Free, instant, no API key. Voice quality varies by device and OS — macOS Siri voices sound great, Android can be robotic. SideGuy uses this as the Tier 2 fallback when no API endpoint is configured.

Cost

Free

Quality

Device-dependent

Setup

Zero

Privacy

On-device

Voices

OS voices only

API key needed

Side by side

Option	Cost	Quality	Setup	No user key	x402-ready
piper self-hosted	$5/mo flat	Good	Half day	✓	✓
OpenAI TTS API	$0.015/1k chars	Excellent	Minutes	✗ user needs key	Partial
pocket-tts proxy	API + hosting	Excellent	1–2 hrs	✓	✓ best path
Browser speechSynthesis	Free	Variable	Zero	✓	✗

Not sure which path is right for your build?

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