Play.ht 2.0 is the most credible challenger to ElevenLabs at the top tier. Quality is within a hair of v3, with somewhat better intelligibility on technical / proper-noun-heavy text.
The per-character pricing is ~33% lower than ElevenLabs, and the Studio editor includes line-level emotion direction and audio-stitched multi-speaker dialogue out of the box.
Where ElevenLabs still wins: voice library breadth and brand-name expressive nuance. Where Play.ht wins: pricing and multi-speaker.
Verdict: the smart pick if you don't need ElevenLabs' specific voice library. 8.9/10.