Synthesia

Synthesia turns a script into a video of a presenter saying it. No camera, no studio, no reshoot when the policy changes in March.

What it does well

Consistency at scale. Ninety training videos in twelve languages all look like they came from the same company, because they did. The avatar library is large, the stock ones are convincingly lit, and the editor works like a slide deck rather than a video timeline, which is deliberate: the buyer is usually an L&D manager, not an editor.

Translation is the feature that closes deals. One script becomes twelve localised videos with matched lip-sync, and the alternative is twelve shoots.

What it costs

Paid plans start in the region of $18 to $30 a month for individuals with a limited minutes allowance, and rise steeply for teams needing more avatars, more minutes and brand controls. Custom avatars and enterprise features sit behind sales conversations rather than a pricing page.

Where it falls short

The avatars read as corporate. That is fine for compliance training and wrong for anything that needs personality, and no amount of prompting fixes it. Gestures loop if you watch closely. Minute allowances are tight relative to the price, and revisions burn them.

It is also the wrong tool for anything conversational or spontaneous.

Who it's for

Internal comms, onboarding, compliance and product training teams, plus agencies producing that work for clients. If you need a talking head to deliver information clearly in several languages, it is excellent. If you need someone your audience wants to watch, film a person.