S
SAI avatar videos, dubbing and roleplay sessions for business training and comms
Free, from $19/mo
HeyGen vs Runway
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
H
Choose HeyGen if…
- you're in its core audience: marketers, l&d and training teams
R
Choose Runway if…
- you want the lower entry price ($12/mo vs $24/mo)
- you work on iOS, Android
- you're in its core audience: content creators, marketing teams
Side by side
Feature HeyGen Runway
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$24/mo$12/mo
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your contentYes, unless you opt out—
Data retentionBackups kept 60 days after deletion, then permanently erased—
Security and complianceSOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPASOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR
Updates, last 90 days—30
Photo-to-avatar—
Custom video avatar—
Voice cloning—
Lip-synced translation—
Doc/PPT to video—
Interactive elements—
SCORM export—
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android, API
CategoryAvatar & Talking-Head VideoVideo Generators
CompanyHeyGen Technology, Inc.Runway AI, Inc.
Based inUnited StatesUnited States
Founded—2018
Part of——
Key features
H HeyGen
- Custom AI avatars from your own likeness
- Text, image, audio and PPT/PDF to video
- Video Agent creates editable videos from prompts
- Video translation with lip-sync in 175+ languages
- Voice cloning
- AI Studio script editor with gesture and emotion control
- Brand kit, auto captions and B-roll
- APIs for generation, translation and lip-sync
R Runway
- Text and image to video with Gen-4.5 and Aleph 2.0
- Third-party models such as Kling, Seedance and Nano Banana Pro
- Music, voice, sound effects and text-to-speech generation
- Agentic creative collaborator
- Runway Ads publishes ads to Meta, Google and TikTok
- 4K upscaling, plus HDR and ProRes output on Max
- Custom voice clones and brand kits
- Developer API and MCP server
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
HeyGen
Free$0/mo
Creator$29/mo ($24/mo billed yearly)
Pro$49/mo
Business$149/mo + $20/seat
EnterpriseCustom
Runway
Free$0
Standard$12/mo billed yearly ($15 monthly)
Pro$28/mo billed yearly ($35 monthly)
Max$76/mo billed yearly ($95 monthly)
EnterpriseCustom
Strengths and limitations
HeyGen
- Free plan with no credit card required
- Lip-sync translation in 175+ languages and dialects
- Cites SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA compliance
- Integrations with Zapier, Make, n8n and HubSpot on Business
- Free videos are watermarked and capped at 1 minute
- 4K export requires Pro plan or higher
- Business plan charges $20 per extra seat
- No dedicated desktop or mobile apps listed
Runway
- Free plan with 125 credits that don't expire
- Own models and third-party models available in one workspace
- iOS and Android apps plus an API
- Extra purchased credits never expire
- Free credits are one-time, not monthly
- Monthly credits on Standard and Pro don't roll over
- Minimum top-up purchase is 1,000 credits
- Standard is limited to 3 projects
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Freemium
Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy