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IN THIS ARTICLE
HeyGen is an AI avatar video platform used for marketing, sales and multilingual talking-head video; Synthesia is an AI avatar video platform used for training, onboarding and compliance video. HeyGen offers three avatar engines, 175+ languages on paid plans and lip-synced translation; Synthesia supports 160+ languages, SCORM export and unlimited standard minutes on Enterprise.
In this article, we compare the plans, pricing, and usage limits so you can see which subscription fits your workflow better. HeyGen is particularly suited for sales videos and lip-synced locationzations.
Pick HeyGen for customer-facing sales videos or lip-synced localization if you can budget 20 credits a minute for Avatar IV or V. Pick Synthesia if you are building a training or compliance library and procurement needs ISO 42001, SCORM and Fortune-100 references before it signs.
Details from this article are captured on September 6th, 2026 from official HeyGen and Synthesia websites. We include user evidence from G2 and Trustpilot reviews.
Key takeaways
A 5-minute Avatar IV video costs about $4.83 on HeyGen Creator plan and $14.50 on Synthesia Starter plan
HeyGen Business at $149 plus $20 a seat
Synthesia holds ISO 27001, 27701 and 42001 certificates that HeyGen does not publish
HeyGen vs Synthesia at a glance
Dimension | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
Free plan | 3 videos a month, watermark, 1-minute cap | 1,200 credits, up to 10 minutes a month, 9 avatars, no card |
Paid entry | Creator $29 a month ($24 annual), 600 credits | Starter $29 a month ($18 annual), 1,200 credits |
Mid tier | Pro from $49, 1,000 credits, 4K | Creator $89 a month ($64 annual), 3,600 credits, API |
Team plan | Business $149 plus $20 a seat, 1,500 shared credits | Enterprise, custom, unlimited standard minutes |
Metered rate | Avatar III 3 credits a minute, Avatar IV/V 20 | 120 credits a minute standard, 240 for lip-synced dubbing |
5-minute avatar video on the $29 plan | 100 credits, $4.83 | 600 credits, $14.50 |
Max video length | Creator/Pro 30 min, Business 60 min | Credit pool in seconds, Enterprise unlimited |
Resolution | 1080p on Creator, 4K on Pro and up | 1920x1080 MP4 on paid downloads |
Languages | 175+ paid, 30+ free | 160+ on all plans |
SCORM and SSO | Business plan | Enterprise plan |
Certifications | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, EU-US DPF, EU AI Act | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, 27701, 42001, GDPR, UK Cyber Essentials |
API | From $5 pay-as-you-go | 360 minutes a year on Creator and Enterprise, 75 credits a minute |
Credit rollover | Monthly unused credits roll one extra cycle | No rollover, no self-serve top-up |
Review scores | G2 4.8 (about 1,966 reviews), Trustpilot 3.7 (3,215 reviews) | G2 4.6 to 4.7 (2,000 to 2,755 reviews) |
HeyGen is cheaper per finished minute on every self-serve plan
HeyGen's pricing FAQ charges 3 credits a minute for the Avatar III model and 20 credits a minute for Avatar IV, Avatar V and Video Agent. A 5-minute Avatar IV video uses 100 credits; the same video on Avatar III uses 15. Synthesia's help center meters standard video at 2 credits a second, 120 a minute, so a 5-minute video uses 600 credits.
Plan | Price | Credits | One 5-minute avatar video | Cost per minute if the whole allowance goes to that engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
HeyGen Creator | $29 | 600 | $4.83 | $0.97 |
HeyGen Pro | $49 | 1,000 | $4.90 | $0.98 |
HeyGen Business | $149 | 1,500 shared | $9.93 | $1.99 |
Synthesia Starter monthly | $29 | 1,200 | $14.50 | $2.90 |
Synthesia Starter annual | $18 | 14,500 a year | $8.94 | $1.80 |
Synthesia Creator monthly | $89 | 3,600 | $14.83 | $2.97 |
Synthesia Creator annual | $64 | 44,000 a year | $10.47 | $2.13 |
Annual billing on HeyGen Creator brings fully used Avatar IV or V down to about $0.80 a minute.
Five seats on HeyGen Business come to $229 a month and share the same 1,500 credits, so the cost per finished minute rises with headcount. Synthesia's self-serve plans hold one editor plus 3 or 5 guests; a second editor means Enterprise.
HeyGen rolls unused monthly credits into one extra cycle; Synthesia resets credits every period and pauses generation when the pool hits zero.
Synthesia's pricing page advertises a 38% saving on annual billing, while Strategy of Finance dates its move from minutes to credits to 18 August 2025. The same publication dates HeyGen's rename of Generative Credits to Premium Credits to 6 February 2026, when HeyGen retired the old Team plan.
HeyGen's help center has also listed 16, 31 and 48 credits a minute for different Avatar IV and V looks, against the pricing FAQ's 20. In the r/heygen thread of 21 August 2026, one commenter reports a 2m07s Avatar V clip costing 102 credits where a similar clip cost 38 a month earlier. The table above uses the FAQ rate; the meter has moved in 2026.
Synthesia sells its Studio Express-1 avatar as a $1,000 a year add-on for annual plans, with up to 10 days of processing.
HeyGen wins avatar realism, by a narrower margin than in 2025
Venture Harbour's same-script test of 3 July 2026 gave the round to HeyGen: "On lip-sync and mouth tracking, HeyGen's Avatar IV model is the clearest winner in this whole category." Its one-line summary of the pair was "Synthesia's avatars present; HeyGen's avatars perform."
Infinfy's rubric, updated 4 June 2026, scores HeyGen 5/5 on lip-sync against 4/5 for Synthesia, and 5/5 on eye movement against 3/5. It calls HeyGen's skin "film-grade" and Synthesia's "corporate-grade", and rates the uncanny valley "low at 1080p" on HeyGen and "detectable on close inspection" on Synthesia.
Holly Mack's comparison of 29 July 2026 cites DesignRevision scoring HeyGen Avatar IV at 9.2/10 and Synthesia Express-2 at about 8.2/10, a "gap narrow enough that most viewers can't tell". Vidico's 50-video test of 25 June 2026 had three of three testers believe Avatar IV output was a real recording; SaaSIndex (15 June 2026) calls Synthesia "slightly more obviously synthetic". Synthesia 3.0 and the Express-2 motion upgrade closed much of the 2025 gap.
HeyGen sells Avatar III as the cheap engine, Avatar IV as the default, and Avatar V, whose Digital Twins appear only in the enterprise API docs. Synthesia offers stock avatars and Personal Avatars, with five personal versions on Creator and unlimited versions on Enterprise. Studio Express-1 is a separate add-on. No public arena Elo exists for this pair, so practitioner side-by-sides are the evidence base.
Synthesia's "corporate" look is a fit for training rather than a defect: Rashmitha J. on G2, via the AWS Marketplace listing on 27 August 2026, calls its avatars realistic for training content. HeyGen's lead matters where a viewer is judging whether the presenter is a real person.
HeyGen leads lip-synced translation, and Synthesia charges double for lip-sync
Synthesia bills lip-synced AI Dubbing at 240 credits a minute, twice the 120 it charges for dubbing without lip-sync. Dubbing a 5-minute video with lip-sync costs 1,200 extra credits, one full Starter month. HeyGen's help center prices video translation at 4 credits a minute for audio only, 6 for Speed lip-sync and 10 for Precision; the public pricing FAQ lists 2 without lip-sync and 5 with it.
Synthesia offers AI Dubbing in 70+ languages self-serve (140+ on Enterprise) and 1-click translation in 80+ languages on Enterprise, against HeyGen's 175+ languages and dialects for translation on paid plans.
HeyGen's own blog on the G2 Summer 2026 report claims a video translation score of 97 against a competitor average of 62, a vendor recap of G2 data. Serhii S. on G2, 19 August 2026, uses HeyGen to translate Ukrainian educational videos "while preserving the voice timbre, facial expressions, and gestures", with lip movements synchronized to the new language.
Synthesia answers with 1-click localization of a whole training library on Enterprise; an L&D team translating 40 modules needs that more than per-clip lip-sync fidelity.
Synthesia has the thicker compliance packet, but HeyGen Business gets you SSO and SCORM without a sales call
HeyGen puts SCORM export, LMS integrations and SAML/SSO on its Business plan, which you buy on a card. Synthesia puts SCORM export and SAML/SSO on Enterprise, which starts with a demo booking. That placement retires the older line that only Synthesia does SCORM.
Capability | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
Video length cap | Free 1 min, Creator and Pro 30, Business 60, Enterprise none | Metered in seconds against the credit pool, Enterprise unlimited |
Resolution | Creator 1080p, Pro and Business 4K | MP4 1920x1080 on paid downloads |
Brand kit | Creator and up, centralized assets on Business | Brand Kits on Enterprise, branded pages on Creator |
SCORM / LMS | Business | Enterprise |
SSO | SAML/SSO on Business, SCIM and MFA on Enterprise | SAML/SSO on Enterprise |
Seats | Business $20 per extra seat, multi-workspace on Enterprise | 1 editor plus 3 or 5 guests self-serve, custom on Enterprise |
Certifications | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, EU-US DPF, EU AI Act, Trust Center at security.heygen.com | SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27701:2019, ISO/IEC 42001:2023, GDPR, UK Cyber Essentials |
Enterprise signal | G2 #1 Fastest Growing Product of 2025 on the pricing page | "Trusted by 90% of Fortune 100" on the pricing page |
Synthesia's post of 2 September 2025 announced ISO 27001 alongside SOC 2 Type II and called Synthesia the first AI video company with ISO 42001; its alternatives page adds C2PA and EU AI Act Article 50. HeyGen's security page lists SOC 2 Type II and no ISO certificate, and Nudge Security's checklist of 26 August 2026 confirms SSO and Okta support for HeyGen without confirming ISO 27001.
If procurement asks for an ISO 42001 certificate, only Synthesia hands one over. If the team needs SSO and SCORM this month on a card, only HeyGen sells it self-serve.
Synthesia gives you the better free test, and HeyGen the cheaper API start
A team that wants to render a 5-minute test video before paying can do it on Synthesia's free Basic plan and cannot on HeyGen's. Basic includes 1,200 credits a month, up to 10 minutes of video, and 9 stock avatars, with no card required; downloads and logo removal start at Starter. HeyGen's free plan includes 3 videos a month, capped at 1 minute each on the pricing FAQ, rendered at 720p with a watermark and a limited Avatar IV trial.
HeyGen's API starts at $5 pay-as-you-go with no monthly commitment, and the API wallet is separate from web credits. Its API pricing page still shows a Pro tier at $99 a month for 100 API credits and a Scale tier at $330 for 660; 1 credit buys 1 minute of avatar video, 5 minutes of Interactive Avatar streaming or 10 seconds of Avatar IV. The enterprise docs price a credit at $0.50 and Avatar IV or V Digital Twin at 0.1 credits a second, about $3.00 a minute.
Synthesia opens its API on the Creator plan with "Up to 360 minutes of video / year, deducted from the plan's usage limits", and Enterprise includes the same 360 minutes with more as a paid add-on. API usage bills at 75 credits a minute against 120 in the editor. HeyGen sells API access pay-as-you-go, whereas Synthesia bundles API access into the Creator plan's existing allowance.
Users complain about HeyGen's meter and Synthesia's ceiling
HeyGen scores 3.7 on Trustpilot from 3,215 reviews, 1,794 of them in the last 12 months, against 4.8 on G2 from about 1,966; billing and cancellation complaints cluster on Trustpilot and BBB. Synthesia scores 4.6 to 4.7 on G2 from 2,000 to 2,755 reviews.
HeyGen's complaints centre on credits: the end of "unlimited" standard video, Avatar IV as the default engine, and failed renders that still bill. A Trustpilot reviewer on 21 January 2026: "All videos are set to the premium, Avatar IV generation by default ... people use up their credits after only a couple of videos, even on the paid plans." Jóhannes Gunnarsson on Trustpilot, 2 April 2026, writes that HeyGen promotes "up to 30 minutes of video" and calls that figure "a hidden rendering budget that can be drained by a single mistake."
The r/heygen thread of 21 August 2026 adds that "even Avatar 3, which was previously unlimited, is now using credits", and one commenter's 600 credits went from "around 20+ videos per month" to "5 videos." "Mar" on Trustpilot, 17 January 2026, reports a legacy Team plan cancelled by a representative without authorization. On G2, a reviewer on 23 August 2026 writes that HeyGen "works fast and very few problams great value."
Synthesia's complaints are about limits: the hard credit ceiling with no self-serve top-up and no rollover, the Starter minutes matching the free plan, and the one-editor seat model until Enterprise. The Studio Express-1 add-on price and the "corporate" avatar look draw the rest. Ben R. on G2, via the AWS Marketplace listing on 27 August 2026, turns "an instructional concept or written script into a polished, professional video" and says the AI Video Assistant "gives me a strong starting point."
HeyGen's complaints are about surprise; Synthesia's are about limits you can read on the pricing page before you buy.
Creatify is the third option only when the job is paid ads
Creatify is an AI ad platform that turns a product URL into video and image ads. Its pricing page, captured 6 September 2026, lists a free plan at $0 for 10 credits and about 2 watermarked video ads, a Starter plan at $39 a month for 100 credits with a 2-minute cap, and a Pro plan at $99 a month from 300 credits with a 10-minute cap. Pro supports five seats, offers 1,500 AI actors and tracks more than 10 million Meta ads.
The app bills 5 credits per 15 seconds, so a 15-second ad costs $1.95 on Starter and $1.65 on Pro, and a 30-second ad $3.90 and $3.30. A forced 5-minute avatar render at that rate is 100 credits, the whole Starter month or a third of base Pro. Clueso's 2026 alternatives guide files Creatify under "ad creative" and HeyGen and Synthesia under "spokesperson".
Neither HeyGen nor Synthesia runs the ad loop. Creatify Agent turns a product URL into ad variations after researching the brand and casting the spot. Performance Agent launches and monitors campaigns on Meta, Google and TikTok; Creatify also lists an AppLovin integration. G2 rates Creatify 4.8 from 1,528 reviews for ease and speed, and one reviewer on a Creatify Agent run writes, "I did not like the fact that the credit charges were not explained." Some reviews report lip-sync glitches, credits expire after about two months, and revisions re-bill at 3 credits per 15 seconds. The result tiles on creatify.ai (a 47.6% CTR increase, a 45% CPA reduction, 3x ROI) are vendor claims.
Choose HeyGen if
Your videos face customers, in sales outreach or social talking heads, and the viewer judges whether the presenter is real
You localize the same video into several languages and need the mouth to match, at 5 credits a minute rather than 240
You want SSO, SCORM and extra seats at $20 each this month, on a card, without a demo
You can hold the team to Avatar III for drafts and reserve Avatar IV or V's 20 credits a minute for finals
Choose Synthesia if
Your output is a training, onboarding or compliance library that an LMS will play for years
Procurement requires ISO 27001 or ISO 42001 certification before signing, or it asks for Fortune 100 references
You would rather hit a visible 10 or 30 minute ceiling than a credit meter that changed rate in 2026
You will move to Enterprise for unlimited standard minutes and unlimited personal avatars rather than buying credit packs
Layer3 Labs (7 July 2026) reports that many larger firms run both, HeyGen in marketing and Synthesia in L&D, by department rather than picking one. Render the same 5-minute script on Synthesia Basic and inside a HeyGen Creator month before either team migrates a library.
FAQs
What is the main difference between HeyGen and Synthesia?
HeyGen is best for customer-facing marketing and sales talking-head videos and multilingual lip-synced localization. Synthesia is best for training, onboarding, and compliance video libraries.
How much do HeyGen and Synthesia cost at $29 a month?
Both have an entry plan at $29 a month. HeyGen Creator includes 600 credits, and Synthesia Starter includes 1,200 credits (but it matches the free plan in minutes).
How many credits does a 5-minute avatar video cost?
On the $29 plans, a 5-minute Avatar IV video costs about $4.83 worth of HeyGen credits versus about $14.50 worth of Synthesia Starter credits, based on the self-serve credit tables and pricing rates described.
Does Synthesia include lip-synced dubbing, and how much does it cost?
Yes. Synthesia charges about double for lip-synced dubbing versus non lip-synced dubbing, which can add about 1,200 credits for a 5-minute lip-synced track on Starter.
Which tool has better avatar realism in 2026?
Most practitioner tests from mid 2026 favor HeyGen for lip-sync and mouth tracking, while Synthesia is often judged slightly more obviously synthetic on close inspection.
Does either platform support SCORM and SSO?
SCORM and SSO depend on the tier. In this comparison, HeyGen offers SCORM and SSO on Business, while Synthesia supports SCORM and SSO on Enterprise.
Which is safer for procurement if we need ISO certifications?
Synthesia is the clearer match if your checklist requires ISO 27001, ISO 27701, or ISO 42001, since those are published by Synthesia and not listed for HeyGen in the same way.
HeyGen is an AI avatar video platform used for marketing, sales and multilingual talking-head video; Synthesia is an AI avatar video platform used for training, onboarding and compliance video. HeyGen offers three avatar engines, 175+ languages on paid plans and lip-synced translation; Synthesia supports 160+ languages, SCORM export and unlimited standard minutes on Enterprise.
In this article, we compare the plans, pricing, and usage limits so you can see which subscription fits your workflow better. HeyGen is particularly suited for sales videos and lip-synced locationzations.
Pick HeyGen for customer-facing sales videos or lip-synced localization if you can budget 20 credits a minute for Avatar IV or V. Pick Synthesia if you are building a training or compliance library and procurement needs ISO 42001, SCORM and Fortune-100 references before it signs.
Details from this article are captured on September 6th, 2026 from official HeyGen and Synthesia websites. We include user evidence from G2 and Trustpilot reviews.
Key takeaways
A 5-minute Avatar IV video costs about $4.83 on HeyGen Creator plan and $14.50 on Synthesia Starter plan
HeyGen Business at $149 plus $20 a seat
Synthesia holds ISO 27001, 27701 and 42001 certificates that HeyGen does not publish
HeyGen vs Synthesia at a glance
Dimension | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
Free plan | 3 videos a month, watermark, 1-minute cap | 1,200 credits, up to 10 minutes a month, 9 avatars, no card |
Paid entry | Creator $29 a month ($24 annual), 600 credits | Starter $29 a month ($18 annual), 1,200 credits |
Mid tier | Pro from $49, 1,000 credits, 4K | Creator $89 a month ($64 annual), 3,600 credits, API |
Team plan | Business $149 plus $20 a seat, 1,500 shared credits | Enterprise, custom, unlimited standard minutes |
Metered rate | Avatar III 3 credits a minute, Avatar IV/V 20 | 120 credits a minute standard, 240 for lip-synced dubbing |
5-minute avatar video on the $29 plan | 100 credits, $4.83 | 600 credits, $14.50 |
Max video length | Creator/Pro 30 min, Business 60 min | Credit pool in seconds, Enterprise unlimited |
Resolution | 1080p on Creator, 4K on Pro and up | 1920x1080 MP4 on paid downloads |
Languages | 175+ paid, 30+ free | 160+ on all plans |
SCORM and SSO | Business plan | Enterprise plan |
Certifications | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, EU-US DPF, EU AI Act | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, 27701, 42001, GDPR, UK Cyber Essentials |
API | From $5 pay-as-you-go | 360 minutes a year on Creator and Enterprise, 75 credits a minute |
Credit rollover | Monthly unused credits roll one extra cycle | No rollover, no self-serve top-up |
Review scores | G2 4.8 (about 1,966 reviews), Trustpilot 3.7 (3,215 reviews) | G2 4.6 to 4.7 (2,000 to 2,755 reviews) |
HeyGen is cheaper per finished minute on every self-serve plan
HeyGen's pricing FAQ charges 3 credits a minute for the Avatar III model and 20 credits a minute for Avatar IV, Avatar V and Video Agent. A 5-minute Avatar IV video uses 100 credits; the same video on Avatar III uses 15. Synthesia's help center meters standard video at 2 credits a second, 120 a minute, so a 5-minute video uses 600 credits.
Plan | Price | Credits | One 5-minute avatar video | Cost per minute if the whole allowance goes to that engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
HeyGen Creator | $29 | 600 | $4.83 | $0.97 |
HeyGen Pro | $49 | 1,000 | $4.90 | $0.98 |
HeyGen Business | $149 | 1,500 shared | $9.93 | $1.99 |
Synthesia Starter monthly | $29 | 1,200 | $14.50 | $2.90 |
Synthesia Starter annual | $18 | 14,500 a year | $8.94 | $1.80 |
Synthesia Creator monthly | $89 | 3,600 | $14.83 | $2.97 |
Synthesia Creator annual | $64 | 44,000 a year | $10.47 | $2.13 |
Annual billing on HeyGen Creator brings fully used Avatar IV or V down to about $0.80 a minute.
Five seats on HeyGen Business come to $229 a month and share the same 1,500 credits, so the cost per finished minute rises with headcount. Synthesia's self-serve plans hold one editor plus 3 or 5 guests; a second editor means Enterprise.
HeyGen rolls unused monthly credits into one extra cycle; Synthesia resets credits every period and pauses generation when the pool hits zero.
Synthesia's pricing page advertises a 38% saving on annual billing, while Strategy of Finance dates its move from minutes to credits to 18 August 2025. The same publication dates HeyGen's rename of Generative Credits to Premium Credits to 6 February 2026, when HeyGen retired the old Team plan.
HeyGen's help center has also listed 16, 31 and 48 credits a minute for different Avatar IV and V looks, against the pricing FAQ's 20. In the r/heygen thread of 21 August 2026, one commenter reports a 2m07s Avatar V clip costing 102 credits where a similar clip cost 38 a month earlier. The table above uses the FAQ rate; the meter has moved in 2026.
Synthesia sells its Studio Express-1 avatar as a $1,000 a year add-on for annual plans, with up to 10 days of processing.
HeyGen wins avatar realism, by a narrower margin than in 2025
Venture Harbour's same-script test of 3 July 2026 gave the round to HeyGen: "On lip-sync and mouth tracking, HeyGen's Avatar IV model is the clearest winner in this whole category." Its one-line summary of the pair was "Synthesia's avatars present; HeyGen's avatars perform."
Infinfy's rubric, updated 4 June 2026, scores HeyGen 5/5 on lip-sync against 4/5 for Synthesia, and 5/5 on eye movement against 3/5. It calls HeyGen's skin "film-grade" and Synthesia's "corporate-grade", and rates the uncanny valley "low at 1080p" on HeyGen and "detectable on close inspection" on Synthesia.
Holly Mack's comparison of 29 July 2026 cites DesignRevision scoring HeyGen Avatar IV at 9.2/10 and Synthesia Express-2 at about 8.2/10, a "gap narrow enough that most viewers can't tell". Vidico's 50-video test of 25 June 2026 had three of three testers believe Avatar IV output was a real recording; SaaSIndex (15 June 2026) calls Synthesia "slightly more obviously synthetic". Synthesia 3.0 and the Express-2 motion upgrade closed much of the 2025 gap.
HeyGen sells Avatar III as the cheap engine, Avatar IV as the default, and Avatar V, whose Digital Twins appear only in the enterprise API docs. Synthesia offers stock avatars and Personal Avatars, with five personal versions on Creator and unlimited versions on Enterprise. Studio Express-1 is a separate add-on. No public arena Elo exists for this pair, so practitioner side-by-sides are the evidence base.
Synthesia's "corporate" look is a fit for training rather than a defect: Rashmitha J. on G2, via the AWS Marketplace listing on 27 August 2026, calls its avatars realistic for training content. HeyGen's lead matters where a viewer is judging whether the presenter is a real person.
HeyGen leads lip-synced translation, and Synthesia charges double for lip-sync
Synthesia bills lip-synced AI Dubbing at 240 credits a minute, twice the 120 it charges for dubbing without lip-sync. Dubbing a 5-minute video with lip-sync costs 1,200 extra credits, one full Starter month. HeyGen's help center prices video translation at 4 credits a minute for audio only, 6 for Speed lip-sync and 10 for Precision; the public pricing FAQ lists 2 without lip-sync and 5 with it.
Synthesia offers AI Dubbing in 70+ languages self-serve (140+ on Enterprise) and 1-click translation in 80+ languages on Enterprise, against HeyGen's 175+ languages and dialects for translation on paid plans.
HeyGen's own blog on the G2 Summer 2026 report claims a video translation score of 97 against a competitor average of 62, a vendor recap of G2 data. Serhii S. on G2, 19 August 2026, uses HeyGen to translate Ukrainian educational videos "while preserving the voice timbre, facial expressions, and gestures", with lip movements synchronized to the new language.
Synthesia answers with 1-click localization of a whole training library on Enterprise; an L&D team translating 40 modules needs that more than per-clip lip-sync fidelity.
Synthesia has the thicker compliance packet, but HeyGen Business gets you SSO and SCORM without a sales call
HeyGen puts SCORM export, LMS integrations and SAML/SSO on its Business plan, which you buy on a card. Synthesia puts SCORM export and SAML/SSO on Enterprise, which starts with a demo booking. That placement retires the older line that only Synthesia does SCORM.
Capability | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
Video length cap | Free 1 min, Creator and Pro 30, Business 60, Enterprise none | Metered in seconds against the credit pool, Enterprise unlimited |
Resolution | Creator 1080p, Pro and Business 4K | MP4 1920x1080 on paid downloads |
Brand kit | Creator and up, centralized assets on Business | Brand Kits on Enterprise, branded pages on Creator |
SCORM / LMS | Business | Enterprise |
SSO | SAML/SSO on Business, SCIM and MFA on Enterprise | SAML/SSO on Enterprise |
Seats | Business $20 per extra seat, multi-workspace on Enterprise | 1 editor plus 3 or 5 guests self-serve, custom on Enterprise |
Certifications | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, EU-US DPF, EU AI Act, Trust Center at security.heygen.com | SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27701:2019, ISO/IEC 42001:2023, GDPR, UK Cyber Essentials |
Enterprise signal | G2 #1 Fastest Growing Product of 2025 on the pricing page | "Trusted by 90% of Fortune 100" on the pricing page |
Synthesia's post of 2 September 2025 announced ISO 27001 alongside SOC 2 Type II and called Synthesia the first AI video company with ISO 42001; its alternatives page adds C2PA and EU AI Act Article 50. HeyGen's security page lists SOC 2 Type II and no ISO certificate, and Nudge Security's checklist of 26 August 2026 confirms SSO and Okta support for HeyGen without confirming ISO 27001.
If procurement asks for an ISO 42001 certificate, only Synthesia hands one over. If the team needs SSO and SCORM this month on a card, only HeyGen sells it self-serve.
Synthesia gives you the better free test, and HeyGen the cheaper API start
A team that wants to render a 5-minute test video before paying can do it on Synthesia's free Basic plan and cannot on HeyGen's. Basic includes 1,200 credits a month, up to 10 minutes of video, and 9 stock avatars, with no card required; downloads and logo removal start at Starter. HeyGen's free plan includes 3 videos a month, capped at 1 minute each on the pricing FAQ, rendered at 720p with a watermark and a limited Avatar IV trial.
HeyGen's API starts at $5 pay-as-you-go with no monthly commitment, and the API wallet is separate from web credits. Its API pricing page still shows a Pro tier at $99 a month for 100 API credits and a Scale tier at $330 for 660; 1 credit buys 1 minute of avatar video, 5 minutes of Interactive Avatar streaming or 10 seconds of Avatar IV. The enterprise docs price a credit at $0.50 and Avatar IV or V Digital Twin at 0.1 credits a second, about $3.00 a minute.
Synthesia opens its API on the Creator plan with "Up to 360 minutes of video / year, deducted from the plan's usage limits", and Enterprise includes the same 360 minutes with more as a paid add-on. API usage bills at 75 credits a minute against 120 in the editor. HeyGen sells API access pay-as-you-go, whereas Synthesia bundles API access into the Creator plan's existing allowance.
Users complain about HeyGen's meter and Synthesia's ceiling
HeyGen scores 3.7 on Trustpilot from 3,215 reviews, 1,794 of them in the last 12 months, against 4.8 on G2 from about 1,966; billing and cancellation complaints cluster on Trustpilot and BBB. Synthesia scores 4.6 to 4.7 on G2 from 2,000 to 2,755 reviews.
HeyGen's complaints centre on credits: the end of "unlimited" standard video, Avatar IV as the default engine, and failed renders that still bill. A Trustpilot reviewer on 21 January 2026: "All videos are set to the premium, Avatar IV generation by default ... people use up their credits after only a couple of videos, even on the paid plans." Jóhannes Gunnarsson on Trustpilot, 2 April 2026, writes that HeyGen promotes "up to 30 minutes of video" and calls that figure "a hidden rendering budget that can be drained by a single mistake."
The r/heygen thread of 21 August 2026 adds that "even Avatar 3, which was previously unlimited, is now using credits", and one commenter's 600 credits went from "around 20+ videos per month" to "5 videos." "Mar" on Trustpilot, 17 January 2026, reports a legacy Team plan cancelled by a representative without authorization. On G2, a reviewer on 23 August 2026 writes that HeyGen "works fast and very few problams great value."
Synthesia's complaints are about limits: the hard credit ceiling with no self-serve top-up and no rollover, the Starter minutes matching the free plan, and the one-editor seat model until Enterprise. The Studio Express-1 add-on price and the "corporate" avatar look draw the rest. Ben R. on G2, via the AWS Marketplace listing on 27 August 2026, turns "an instructional concept or written script into a polished, professional video" and says the AI Video Assistant "gives me a strong starting point."
HeyGen's complaints are about surprise; Synthesia's are about limits you can read on the pricing page before you buy.
Creatify is the third option only when the job is paid ads
Creatify is an AI ad platform that turns a product URL into video and image ads. Its pricing page, captured 6 September 2026, lists a free plan at $0 for 10 credits and about 2 watermarked video ads, a Starter plan at $39 a month for 100 credits with a 2-minute cap, and a Pro plan at $99 a month from 300 credits with a 10-minute cap. Pro supports five seats, offers 1,500 AI actors and tracks more than 10 million Meta ads.
The app bills 5 credits per 15 seconds, so a 15-second ad costs $1.95 on Starter and $1.65 on Pro, and a 30-second ad $3.90 and $3.30. A forced 5-minute avatar render at that rate is 100 credits, the whole Starter month or a third of base Pro. Clueso's 2026 alternatives guide files Creatify under "ad creative" and HeyGen and Synthesia under "spokesperson".
Neither HeyGen nor Synthesia runs the ad loop. Creatify Agent turns a product URL into ad variations after researching the brand and casting the spot. Performance Agent launches and monitors campaigns on Meta, Google and TikTok; Creatify also lists an AppLovin integration. G2 rates Creatify 4.8 from 1,528 reviews for ease and speed, and one reviewer on a Creatify Agent run writes, "I did not like the fact that the credit charges were not explained." Some reviews report lip-sync glitches, credits expire after about two months, and revisions re-bill at 3 credits per 15 seconds. The result tiles on creatify.ai (a 47.6% CTR increase, a 45% CPA reduction, 3x ROI) are vendor claims.
Choose HeyGen if
Your videos face customers, in sales outreach or social talking heads, and the viewer judges whether the presenter is real
You localize the same video into several languages and need the mouth to match, at 5 credits a minute rather than 240
You want SSO, SCORM and extra seats at $20 each this month, on a card, without a demo
You can hold the team to Avatar III for drafts and reserve Avatar IV or V's 20 credits a minute for finals
Choose Synthesia if
Your output is a training, onboarding or compliance library that an LMS will play for years
Procurement requires ISO 27001 or ISO 42001 certification before signing, or it asks for Fortune 100 references
You would rather hit a visible 10 or 30 minute ceiling than a credit meter that changed rate in 2026
You will move to Enterprise for unlimited standard minutes and unlimited personal avatars rather than buying credit packs
Layer3 Labs (7 July 2026) reports that many larger firms run both, HeyGen in marketing and Synthesia in L&D, by department rather than picking one. Render the same 5-minute script on Synthesia Basic and inside a HeyGen Creator month before either team migrates a library.
FAQs
What is the main difference between HeyGen and Synthesia?
HeyGen is best for customer-facing marketing and sales talking-head videos and multilingual lip-synced localization. Synthesia is best for training, onboarding, and compliance video libraries.
How much do HeyGen and Synthesia cost at $29 a month?
Both have an entry plan at $29 a month. HeyGen Creator includes 600 credits, and Synthesia Starter includes 1,200 credits (but it matches the free plan in minutes).
How many credits does a 5-minute avatar video cost?
On the $29 plans, a 5-minute Avatar IV video costs about $4.83 worth of HeyGen credits versus about $14.50 worth of Synthesia Starter credits, based on the self-serve credit tables and pricing rates described.
Does Synthesia include lip-synced dubbing, and how much does it cost?
Yes. Synthesia charges about double for lip-synced dubbing versus non lip-synced dubbing, which can add about 1,200 credits for a 5-minute lip-synced track on Starter.
Which tool has better avatar realism in 2026?
Most practitioner tests from mid 2026 favor HeyGen for lip-sync and mouth tracking, while Synthesia is often judged slightly more obviously synthetic on close inspection.
Does either platform support SCORM and SSO?
SCORM and SSO depend on the tier. In this comparison, HeyGen offers SCORM and SSO on Business, while Synthesia supports SCORM and SSO on Enterprise.
Which is safer for procurement if we need ISO certifications?
Synthesia is the clearer match if your checklist requires ISO 27001, ISO 27701, or ISO 42001, since those are published by Synthesia and not listed for HeyGen in the same way.
