What Is Synthesia?
Synthesia is an AI video generation platform used by over 50,000 companies including Reuters, BBC, and Heineken. You write a script, choose an avatar, and Synthesia generates a professional presenter video — no filming, no studio, no post-production.
We tested Synthesia and HeyGen side-by-side for 3 weeks. Both are excellent. The right choice depends on your use case.
Who Synthesia Is Built For
Synthesia is an enterprise product. The SCORM export for learning management systems (LMS), SOC 2 security certification, and team collaboration features are clearly built for corporate L&D teams, HR departments, and large-scale content operations.
If you're creating employee training videos, compliance content, product onboarding, or any video that needs to work inside enterprise software infrastructure, Synthesia is the right tool. HeyGen is better for marketing and creative content.
Avatar Quality: Corporate-Clean
Synthesia's 230+ avatars are diverse in age, ethnicity, and style, but tend toward a clean, corporate aesthetic. They're professional-looking but less naturalistic than HeyGen's best avatars. For training content where the avatar is delivering information, this is fine. For marketing content where personality matters, HeyGen edges it.
The lip sync is accurate at standard video speeds. In side-by-side comparison with HeyGen on the same script, HeyGen's sync looks marginally more natural in close-up shots.
Pricing: The 10-Minute Cap Problem
Synthesia's Starter plan at $29/month includes only 10 minutes of video per month. A 3-minute onboarding video, a 4-minute product demo, and two 1.5-minute social clips uses your entire monthly allocation.
The Creator plan at $89/month raises this to 30 minutes, which is workable for moderate production. Enterprise pricing is custom. For comparison, HeyGen's Creator plan at $29/month also gives 15 minutes, but HeyGen tends to overage better.