Best for
Best for creators, marketers and agencies who need lifelike presenter videos, translation and cloning.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI Avatars Comparison
HeyGen vs. Soul Machines
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for enterprises putting an interactive digital person in front of customers or staff inside an existing service workflow.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | HeyGen | Soul Machines |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Creator $29 / month $24 / month billed annually. A free plan allows 3 videos a month; Business seats beyond the first cost $20 each per month. | lower value Studio Basic $12.99 / month A free Studio tier exists but carries no conversation minutes. Basic includes 40 conversation minutes a month; annual billing is $140 a year for 480 minutes. Workforce Connect and Digital Workforce are priced separately. |
| Free trial | Free plan, 3 videos a month | Free Studio tier (Studio access, no conversation minutes) |
| Commercial use | Yes on paid plans | Not stated |
| Output | Industry-leading lip-sync (Avatar IV) in 175+ languages | Interactive digital people, plus video downloads on paid Studio plans |
| API | Yes | Yes, API access on Digital Workforce for custom integrations |
| Avatar library | Yes, 1,100+ avatars with best-in-class lip-sync and micro-expressions (Avatar IV) | Yes, AI Assistant templates in Studio covering customer service, HR benefits enrollment, operations coaching and clinical trial onboarding; Workforce Connect and Digital Workforce ship six Digital Workers |
| Custom and cloned avatars | Yes, personal and cloned avatars from a short video | Yes, an Avatar Design Tool on paid Studio plans, with look, tone and personality configuration |
| Languages and translation | Yes, 175+ languages with video translation | Yes, multiple languages and premium voices through an ElevenLabs integration |
| Editor | Yes, brand templates | Yes, Soul Machines Studio, a browser tool for building the conversation, gestures, behaviour and voice, with a reporting dashboard |
| Learning features | Yes, from the Business tier: interactive video, interactive quizzes, video branching and decisioning, and SCORM export into a learning management system | No. The documented use cases are customer service, operations, HR benefits and healthcare guidance, and neither the product site nor the developer documentation describes course authoring, quizzes, branching scenarios or SCORM export |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Chat | Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Zapier, Make, n8n, Canva, Adobe Express, Figma, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Drive, Airtable, Intercom, Zoom, Vimeo, GitHub | Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zapier, ElevenLabs |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price HeyGen Creator $29 / month Soul Machines Studio Basic $12.99 / month
- Free trial HeyGen Free plan, 3 videos a month Soul Machines Free Studio tier (Studio access, no conversation minutes)
- Company size HeyGen Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise Soul Machines Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Support HeyGen Chat Soul Machines Email helpdesk
- Output HeyGen Industry-leading lip-sync (Avatar IV) in 175+ languages Soul Machines Interactive digital people, plus video downloads on paid Studio plans
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
HeyGen
Strengths
- Most lifelike realism and lip-sync
- Most languages
- Self-serve custom avatar cloning
- Strong for marketing and social
Limitations
- Less enterprise governance than Synthesia
- Free tier is very limited and watermarked
Soul Machines
Strengths
- Interactive conversation rather than a rendered clip, with configurable gestures and behaviour
- LLM-agnostic, with custom model integration from the Plus plan
- SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance, SSO and data encryption on Digital Workforce
Limitations
- Steep price ladder, from $12.99 a month to $40,000 a year
- Billed by conversation minutes, so cost scales with how much people talk to it
- Zapier integration needs a separate Zapier subscription
Plans
Pricing
HeyGen
- Free $0 3 videos a month, basic features.
- Creator $29 Per month, or $24 / month billed annually. 600 credits, videos up to 30 minutes, 1080p export.
- Pro $49 Per month, or about $41 / month billed annually. 1,000 credits, 4K export and faster processing.
- Business $149 Per month, or about $124 / month billed annually. 1,500 credits, videos up to 60 minutes, team collaboration, and $20 per additional seat per month.
- Enterprise Not stated Custom. No maximum video duration, highest concurrency and dedicated support.
Soul Machines
- Studio Free $0 Free forever. Studio access, AI assistant creation, templates, gestures and behaviour and voice configuration. No conversation minutes.
- Studio Basic $12.99 Per month for 40 conversation minutes, or $140 a year for 480. One AI assistant, 20 video downloads, live deployment, reporting dashboard, avatar design tool and tech support.
- Studio Plus $99 Per month for 350 conversation minutes, or $1,069 a year for 4,200. Three AI assistants, 100 video downloads and custom LLM integration.
- Studio Pro $2,700 Per month for 10,000 conversation minutes, or $29,160 a year for 120,000. Six AI assistants and unlimited video downloads. Pro with premium integrations is $34,160 a year and adds ServiceNow and Zapier workflow integration.
- Workforce Connect $40,000 Per year. Six Digital Workers, 120,000 conversation minutes, tone and personality configuration, Zapier integration (separate Zapier subscription required) and email support.
- Digital Workforce Not stated Custom pricing. Six or more Digital Workers, premium voices and multiple languages, central knowledge hub, API access, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance, SSO, data encryption and an analytics dashboard.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
HeyGen
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Soul Machines
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
HeyGen https://www.heygen.com · no check date recorded yet
Soul Machines https://www.soulmachines.com · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.