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IBM Watson Speech To Text vs Microsoft Azure Speech Service comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Watson Speech To Text
Ranking in Speech-To-Text Services
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure Speech Service
Ranking in Speech-To-Text Services
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Text-To-Speech Services (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Speech-To-Text Services category, the mindshare of IBM Watson Speech To Text is 4.5%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Speech Service is 23.6%, down from 25.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Speech-To-Text Services
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer964722 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to understand, configure, and use
I would recommend it. IBM has several other solutions that can connect to it, so no need to buy different pieces from several providers. If you want to find a good solution for the customer and put some translation tool or machine learning for text understanding and so on, you can get this from IBM. It can be a one-stop shop for a good solution. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. It has good quality, and it's easy to work with.
Abhishek-Rana - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of use and the availability of documentation is great
The simplicity impressed me the most. We just needed a single API key. The documentation was also great. I developed the AI application using Unity, a game engine that uses C#. Then, I searched online for instructions on how to use it. I found Microsoft's GitHub repository, which provided the necessary code for integrating the Speech Service into Unity with C#. The ease of use and the availability of documentation made the process smooth and impressed me the most. The documentation and boilerplate code [a template of code] was available, which I incorporated into my application with modifications. Initially, the code functioned so that when a button was clicked, the microphone would activate and recognize my speech. One of the benefits was the ability to see my spoken words visually on the screen as I spoke. For example, if I said "I am Abhishek Rana," I could see the sentence appear in real-time. When I stopped speaking, it automatically recognized the silence and ceased, sending the text for further processing. So, the real-time translation feature has helped me a lot.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It was easy to understand, easy to configure, and easy to use."
"Overall, in my opinion, the transcription service is rated as ten out of ten."
"The documentation and boilerplate code [a template of code] was available."
"Useful text-to-speech and speech-to-text features."
 

Cons

"The quality needs to be updated. For speech to text, support for additional languages can be included. For example, support for the large markets in Eastern Europe, such as Polish or Romanian, would be nice."
"It can improve based on the native language."
"Lacks a voice recording option."
"The product is limited when it comes to integrating with different platforms and using many other APIs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
31%
Government
15%
University
9%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Speech Service?
The product is included and does not incur any additional costs. Pricing information is not available at the moment.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Speech Service?
The product is limited when it comes to integrating with different platforms and using many other APIs. The marketplace is very limited and it's difficult to implement solutions in it. Enhancing fe...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Azure Speech Service?
I use Microsoft Azure Speech Service ( /products/microsoft-azure-speech-service-reviews ) for communication between different countries. It facilitates communication via emails, documents, and temp...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure Speech Service, MS Azure Speech Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Airlines, UBank, Bitly, Eurobits
KPMG
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Speech-To-Text Services. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.