HeyGen review

What it is

HeyGen makes avatar-led video and, increasingly, video translation. It occupies the ground between Synthesia's corporate training focus and consumer social tools, and its translation feature is the one most people encounter first.

Where it shines

Video translation is the standout. Upload a video of yourself speaking English and it returns you speaking Spanish, Hindi or Japanese in a cloned version of your own voice, with lip movement re-synced to the new audio. The illusion holds well enough that creators use it to open entire new-language channels from existing footage.

Avatar creation is unusually low-friction — a couple of minutes of phone footage produces a usable avatar, where competitors historically wanted a studio session. Combined with an API, this enables personalised video at scale: thousands of prospect videos that each open with the recipient's name and company, which converts far better than a generic recording.

Where it falls short

Credits again. Translation and higher-resolution renders consume them quickly, so a plan that looks affordable becomes expensive once translation is part of the routine.

Quality is good but not flawless: fast speech, strong accents and heavy gesturing produce visible lip sync artefacts, and the fix is usually to re-record more slowly, which undercuts the promise. Enterprise governance — approval workflows, granular permissions, audit trails — is thinner than Synthesia's, which matters for regulated buyers.

There is also an ethical dimension worth naming: voice and likeness cloning demands explicit consent, and organisations should have a written policy before rolling this out.

Pricing in plain English

Free for 3 watermarked videos monthly. $29 a month for Creator with a custom avatar. $89 per seat for Team. Enterprise quoted for API volume.

Who should use it

Creators expanding into new languages, sales teams doing personalised outreach at scale, and marketers making avatar-led social content. Choose Synthesia for structured corporate training programmes.