Synthesia
AI Video · www.synthesia.io
Synthesia is an AI video platform that lets businesses create videos with AI avatars and voiceovers in 160+ languages, plus tools to translate, collaborate on, manage and publish those videos.
Switching to HeyGen saves $348 / year and covers 50% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Synthesia alternatives
We compared 11 products and found 7 cheaper alternatives · vs Synthesia Starter at $29/mo · scenario: single user, monthly billing, USD.
Synthesia’s own free plan covers this scenario. If you’re paying for features you don’t use, downgrading beats switching. The paid comparison below is for when you’ve outgrown free tiers — the “Free plans” view shows alternatives if you want free with different limits.
Synthesia costs $29/mo on the Starter plan at single user, monthly billing. We found 7 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 0 of them cover at least 75% of the 16 compared capabilities. Synthesia's own free plan covers this scenario, so downgrading may beat switching.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pika Standard plan · missing: AI avatars, Text-to-video, Templates, Auto captions, Translation & dubbing, Voice cloning, Lip sync, Team collaboration, SSO / SAML, Transcription & captions, Browser extension, Custom branding, Viewer analytics generative video — adjacent | 19% | $8/mo how? ⓘ | $252 / year 72% cheaper | |
OpusClip Starter plan · missing: AI avatars, Text-to-video, Voice cloning, Lip sync, Audio generation, Transcription & captions, Browser extension, Custom branding, Viewer analytics video repurposing — adjacent | 44% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $168 / year 48% cheaper | |
Runway Standard plan · missing: AI avatars, Templates, Auto captions, Translation & dubbing, Voice cloning, Team collaboration, SSO / SAML, Transcription & captions, Browser extension, Custom branding, Viewer analytics generative video — adjacent | 31% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $168 / year 48% cheaper | |
LTX Studio Lite plan · missing: AI avatars, Text-to-video, Templates, Translation & dubbing, Voice cloning, Lip sync, API access, Audio generation, Transcription & captions, Browser extension, Custom branding, Viewer analytics ai video generator — adjacent | 25% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $168 / year 48% cheaper | |
Higgsfield AI Starter plan · missing: AI avatars, Templates, Auto captions, Translation & dubbing, Voice cloning, Lip sync, Watermark removal, Team collaboration, SSO / SAML, Transcription & captions, Browser extension, Custom branding, Viewer analytics generative video — adjacent | 19% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $168 / year 48% cheaper |
Which Synthesia alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best free plan
- HeyGen — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 50%
- Need AI avatars, text-to-video, translation & dubbing, voice cloning, API access, watermark removal, team collaboration or SSO / SAML?
- HeyGen — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need templates or audio generation?
- Creatify — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need auto captions?
- OpusClip — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need lip sync?
- Runway — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Synthesia has that the top alternatives lack.
- AI avatars — Generate video of a talking AI avatar.Missing from OpusClip, Runway.
- Text-to-video — Generate video from a written text prompt.Missing from OpusClip.
- Templates — Start a video from a pre-built template.Missing from HeyGen, Runway.
- Auto captions — Automatically generate captions for video.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, Runway.
- Translation & dubbing — Translate and dub video into another language.Missing from Creatify, Runway.
- Voice cloning — Clone a voice to narrate generated video.Missing from Creatify, OpusClip, Runway.
- Lip sync — Sync generated speech audio to a speaker's lip movements.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, OpusClip.
- Team collaboration — Share projects and collaborate with teammates.Missing from Runway.
- SSO / SAML — Sign in through your company's SSO/SAML identity provider.Missing from Creatify, Runway.
- Audio generation — Generate music or sound effects to accompany video.Missing from HeyGen, OpusClip.
- Transcription & captions — Automatically transcribe recordings into captions or text.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, OpusClip, Runway.
- Browser extension — Record directly from a browser extension.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, OpusClip, Runway.
- Custom branding — Apply your own branding to shared recordings.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, OpusClip, Runway.
- Viewer analytics — See who watched a recording and how far they got.Missing from HeyGen, Creatify, OpusClip, Runway.
Feature comparison
Synthesia vs the top alternatives, on the 16 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Synthesia | HeyGen | Creatify | OpusClip | Runway |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI avatars from Basic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Text-to-video from Basic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Templates from Basic | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Auto captions from Basic | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Translation & dubbing from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Voice cloning | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Lip sync | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| API access from Creator | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Watermark removal from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team collaboration from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| SSO / SAML from Enterprise | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audio generation from Basic | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Transcription & captions | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Custom branding from Creator | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Viewer analytics | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $29/mo Starter | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Synthesia covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ AI avatars — from Basic
- ✓ Text-to-video — from Basic
- ✓ Templates — from Basic
- ✓ Auto captions — from Basic
- ✓ Translation & dubbing — from Starter
- ✓ Voice cloning
- ✓ Lip sync
- ✓ API access — from Creator
- ✓ Watermark removal — from Starter
- ✓ Team collaboration — from Starter
- ✓ SSO / SAML — from Enterprise
- ✓ Audio generation — from Basic
- ✓ Transcription & captions
- ✓ Browser extension
- ✓ Custom branding — from Creator
- ✓ Viewer analytics
- ✗ Multiple generation models
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.synthesia.io (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-31)
- https://www.synthesia.io/pricing (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-31)
Frequently asked
How much does Synthesia cost?
Synthesia's Starter plan costs $29/mo in our scenario (single user, monthly billing). A free plan exists.
Is there a free Synthesia alternative?
Yes. HeyGen has a free plan that covers 50% of the 16 capabilities we compared against Synthesia.
What is the cheapest Synthesia alternative?
In our scenario (single user, monthly billing), HeyGen is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
Does Synthesia have a free plan?
Yes. Synthesia's free plan is limited to 1 seat.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-26 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.