# ElevenReader

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/elevenreader/

6 people recommended ElevenReader in Hacker News comments and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for turning web novels, essays and text into narrated audio, with a useful free tier. Critics say its voices trail NotebookLM and it lacks interactivity.

Summary written by Claude from 10 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 9 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well for long-form listening (4 comments in the sample): "I listen to web novels with Elevenlabs reader all the time (The 11 dollar a month unlimited plan). I love it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45883265)) "I copy in essays or whatever text I want to listen to and it works decently well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47512403)) "ElevenReader is $11 a month for unlimited personal long-form content." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45881978))
- Good free plan (2 comments in the sample): "ElevenReader works well and has a pretty good free plan" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47038678)) "their free tier has been plenty for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49819723))

## Other text-to-speech models people recommend

- [Kokoro TTS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kokoro-tts/): 43 recommend, 7 mixed, 9 criticize
- [ElevenLabs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/elevenlabs/): 31 recommend, 16 mixed, 19 criticize
- [Qwen3-TTS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qwen3-tts/): 30 recommend, 6 mixed, 12 criticize
- [Pocket TTS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pocket-tts/): 26 recommend, 11 mixed, 14 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://elevenlabs.io/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ElevenReader", https://hackerapproved.com/p/elevenreader/ (6 recommend, 0 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.