These get lumped together as "AI video" but they solve opposite problems. HeyGen and Synthesia turn a script into a presenter-led video with an AI avatar — no camera, no studio. Descript turns recorded footage into a finished video by letting you edit the transcript.
| Entry price | Model | |
|---|---|---|
| HeyGen | $24/mo (Creator $29, Business $149) | avatar video, no monthly minute ceiling on entry |
| Synthesia | enterprise, ~$7,500–$25,000+/year | per-seat, scales with headcount |
| Descript | $24/mo (Creator $35, Business $65; ~$16/mo annual) | transcript-based editing of your own recordings |
The pricing tells you who each is for. HeyGen is priced for individuals and small teams — a real monthly number, no camera required, 100+ avatars across 175+ languages. Synthesia went the enterprise route: no self-serve individual plan that matters, per-seat pricing that runs into five figures a year, aimed at L&D and comms teams standardizing training videos at scale.
Descript isn't in that race at all. There's no avatar library and no multilingual presenter — it's for teams drowning in interviews, webinars and podcast recordings who need to cut them into finished content fast, using the transcript as the editing surface.
Pick HeyGen if you want to make presenter videos without filming and you're an individual or small team — it's the best-priced option for that job. Pick Synthesia only if you're an enterprise standardizing video training across a large org and the price is someone else's problem. Pick Descript if your raw material is recorded footage and the bottleneck is editing it down.