I have used both and honestly they’re about the same. I have had some difficulty getting echo speaks to recognize my Amazon Fire pads. But echo speaks easily recognizes all of my echo dots and that works very well.
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You don’t even need echo speaks. Amazon offers its own routines (not SmartThings routines) which allow you to have any echo device in your home speak any custom phrase that you want. Or you can have all of them say the same thing.
No custom code required and it’s really easy to use. So unless you have a particular reason for not using echo dots, I think they have become the inexpensive device of choice for this particular use case now. 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202200080
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Am I missing something? What are these?
Basic (very) Rule engine built into Alexa App.
I gave the link in my previous post:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202200080
The Alexa app has a simple rules engine built into it now, as @rontalley mentioned. It’s in “If This then that“ format but with some additional filters available. And among the “that“ options are having an echo device either say a custom phrase or play a sound effect like dogs barking or a siren or a doorbell chime. Very cool.
To connect it up with smartthings, follow the link to the FAQ that I posted. You can create a virtual device that can be used as the “if“ in the Alexa routine.