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
AI Avatars Comparison
Soul Machines vs. Synthesia
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for enterprises and L&D teams that need governed, compliant training video at scale.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Soul Machines | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | 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 tier; Starter $18 / month $18 is the rate billed yearly, $29 billed monthly. Creator is $64 a month billed yearly, $89 billed monthly. Enterprise is quoted. |
| Free trial | Free Studio tier (Studio access, no conversation minutes) | Limited free plan |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes on paid plans |
| Output | Interactive digital people, plus video downloads on paid Studio plans | 240+ avatars in 160+ languages, produced in a structured Studio editor |
| API | Yes, API access on Digital Workforce for custom integrations | Yes |
| Avatar library | 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 | Yes, 240+ stock avatars on Enterprise, 125+ on Starter and 180+ on Creator, with 9 on the free Basic plan |
| Custom and cloned avatars | Yes, an Avatar Design Tool on paid Studio plans, with look, tone and personality configuration | Yes, personal avatars built from recorded video or from a photo, included on the paid self-serve plans and unlimited on Enterprise, plus voice cloning |
| Languages and translation | Yes, multiple languages and premium voices through an ElevenLabs integration | Yes, 160+ languages with one-click translation |
| Editor | Yes, Soul Machines Studio, a browser tool for building the conversation, gestures, behaviour and voice, with a reporting dashboard | Yes, a structured video editor |
| Learning features | 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 | Yes, SCORM export on Enterprise and interactive video |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk | more entries Email helpdesk, Chat, 24/7, Community forum |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Live online demos and webinars |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zapier, ElevenLabs | more entries Articulate 360, Docebo, Moodle, SAP Litmos, TalentLMS, Thinkific, 360Learning, Workday, BambooHR, HiBob, Microsoft Teams, Slack, PowerPoint, Excel Add-in, Notion, HubSpot, Intercom, monday.com, Make, Workato, WordPress, Shopify, Vimeo, YouTube, Kaltura, Crowdin, Unsplash |
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 Soul Machines Studio Basic $12.99 / month Synthesia Free tier; Starter $18 / month
- Free trial Soul Machines Free Studio tier (Studio access, no conversation minutes) Synthesia Limited free plan
- Support Soul Machines Email helpdesk Synthesia Email helpdesk, Chat, 24/7, Community forum
- Output Soul Machines Interactive digital people, plus video downloads on paid Studio plans Synthesia 240+ avatars in 160+ languages, produced in a structured Studio editor
- API Soul Machines Yes, API access on Digital Workforce for custom integrations Synthesia Yes
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
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
Synthesia
Strengths
- Enterprise-grade governance, compliance and SCORM
- Huge language coverage
- Consistent quality across long videos
Limitations
- The full avatar library, unlimited personal avatars and unlimited minutes are Enterprise-only
- Self-serve plans are capped at 120 or 360 minutes of video a year
- Enterprise is quoted rather than priced
- Mid-market underserved
Plans
Pricing
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.
Synthesia
- Basic $0 Free. Up to 10 minutes of video a month and 9 AI avatars, for trying out the editor, avatars and voices.
- Starter $18 / month Billed yearly, $29 billed monthly. 120 minutes of video a year, 125+ AI avatars, one editor and three guest seats.
- Creator $64 / month Billed yearly, $89 billed monthly. 360 minutes of video a year, 180+ AI avatars, one editor and five guest seats.
- Enterprise Not stated Quoted. Unlimited video minutes, the full avatar library, unlimited personal avatars, shared workspaces and Organizations, brand kits, SSO, higher API rate limits, a dedicated customer success manager and implementation services.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
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.
Synthesia
- 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
Soul Machines https://www.soulmachines.com · no check date recorded yet
Synthesia https://www.synthesia.io · 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.