Side-by-side comparison

Compare AI Tools

Pick two to five tools. Every cell comes from a verified record; anything unverified says so. There is no overall winner — the right choice depends on your task, budget and technical needs.

AI tools & apps AI models

Tool 1Tool 2Tool 3 (optional)Tool 4 (optional)Tool 5 (optional)

View Order columns

Criterion	Descript	ElevenLabs	HeyGen	Synthesia	Runway
Provider	Descript	ElevenLabs	HeyGen	Synthesia	Runway AI, Inc.
What it is for	Edit video and audio by editing the transcript, with an AI co-editor called Underlord.	Text-to-speech, voice cloning, transcription, music and voice agents from one platform and API.	Create talking-avatar videos, digital twins and translated videos from a script.	Business-focused AI video platform for training, communication and dubbing with AI avatars.	AI video studio offering Runway's Gen-4.5 plus partner models, with a pay-per-credit developer API.
Latest confirmed model	—	Eleven v4 Sep 28, 2026	Avatar V	—	Gen-4.5 Dec 1, 2025
Main capabilities	Text-based editing Underlord AI co-editor (Depends on plan) AI speech with voice clones (Depends on plan) Translation and dubbing (Depends on plan) Descript API	Eleven v4 TTS Voice cloning (Depends on plan) Scribe speech-to-text Eleven Music ElevenAgents	Avatar V Avatar IV (Depends on plan) Video translation (Depends on plan) Video Agent (Depends on plan) API	AI avatars (Depends on plan) Personal avatars (Depends on plan) Dubbing Roleplay training (Depends on plan) APIs (Depends on plan)	Gen-4.5 video Gen-4 / Gen-4 Turbo and Gen-4 Image Partner models (Depends on plan) Audio tools (Depends on plan) Agentic creative collaborator and Runway MCP (Depends on plan)
Free plan	Yes 1 media hour/month; 100 one-time AI credits; 720p export	Yes 10,000 credits/month (about 10 min TTS); 3 custom voice slots; 3 Studio projects	Yes 3 videos/month up to 1 minute each; up to 1080p	Yes 10 minutes of video or dubbing per month; 500 credits/month; 3 survey responses	Yes 125 one-time credits (no expiry); 5GB storage
Cheapest paid plan	Hobbyist: $24/mo $16/mo billed annually	Starter: $6/mo $5/mo billed annually Promo first-month prices may apply	Creator: $29/mo $24/mo billed annually	Starter: $29/mo $18/mo billed annually	Standard: $15/mo $12/mo billed annually
API access	Limited · docs (opens in a new tab)	Yes · docs (opens in a new tab)	Yes · docs (opens in a new tab)	Yes · docs (opens in a new tab)	Yes · docs (opens in a new tab)
Learning curve	Beginner-friendly	Beginner-friendly	Beginner-friendly	Beginner-friendly	Some experience helps
Last verified	Oct 19, 2026	Oct 19, 2026	Oct 19, 2026	Oct 19, 2026	Oct 19, 2026

How to choose

Start from the rows that matter for your job: a free plan and learning curve for casual use; API access, rates and data terms for building products; context window and modalities for long documents or images. Provider claims are labelled as such; we do not rank.

Ready-made comparisons

AI assistants for beginnersGeneral-purpose assistants that need no setup.AI coding tools comparedEditors, agents and assistants that write, explain and review code.AI tools for academic researchPaper discovery, source-grounded answers and document analysis.Free AI tools comparedTools with a genuine free plan or free tier.AI for business automationWorkflow builders, agent platforms and enterprise assistants.AI image generators comparedText-to-image and editing tools.AI video generators comparedText-to-video, avatar and editing tools.AI model APIs comparedDeveloper platforms and inference providers.Open-weight and proprietary modelsModels you can download and run yourself next to hosted proprietary models.AI tools for studentsStudy, writing and research helpers with usable free plans.