Traditional video production is becoming more expensive, time-consuming, and requires technical expertise yet there’s increasing demand for video creation for both personal and business. This is where Synthesia, the world’s leading AI video generator comes in.

Synthesia allows anyone to turn plain text into professional videos in minutes, without the need for cameras, actors, or studios. It has more than 230 AI avatars, over 140 languages, and advanced features like voice cloning, interactive videos, and multilingual playback.

This review explores everything you need to know about Synthesia (from its key features and practical use cases to pricing, customer feedback, and alternative options). Just grab a coffee as this guide helps you in deciding if Synthesia is the right AI video solution for your needs.

What is Synthesia?

Synthesia is an AI video communication tool used in creating studio-quality videos from simple text input. It takes away the need for cameras, microphones, actors, or editing, and uses artificial intelligence to generate lifelike avatars and natural voiceovers. This makes it possible for you to produce professional video content in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional production methods.

Synthesia was founded in 2017 by a team of AI researchers and entrepreneurs who wanted to simplify the way businesses create video. The vision of these teams is to make video production scalable, affordable, and accessible to everyone, regardless of technical expertise. Over the years, Synthesia became the leading AI video platform trusted by more than 50,000 organizations across various industries.

What sets Synthesia apart is the combination of advanced features such as multilingual voiceovers, custom avatars, interactive elements, and collaboration tools. This eliminates the barriers to video creation while maintaining high production quality.

Key Features of Synthesia

1. AI Avatars and Personal Avatars

Synthesia has an extensive collection of AI avatars with more than 230 stock avatars designed to look natural, diverse, and expressive. These avatars can show subtle emotions, such as smiling or frowning, depending on the context of your script. This makes your generated videos feel more human-like compared to static or robotic alternatives.

In addition to AI avatars, you can create custom avatars. A personal avatar acts as your digital twin, mirroring your likeness and voice in a professional video setting. This will in turn help your brand consistency and leadership communication.The Avatar Builder tool also allows you to customize your avatars further.

2. AI Voices and Languages

Synthesia eliminates the need for manual voice recording by providing a library of AI-generated voices. You can choose from hundreds of natural-sounding options across different tones and accents. This flexibility ensures that videos can be matched to the right audience and message style.

It has over 140 languages which you can pick for training employees across multiple regions or reaching international customers without additional translation costs. Furthermore, it advances its features to voice cloning which can be used to replicate your own voice for personalization and brand alignment. 

In addition, the AI dubbing feature can automatically synchronize speech with lip movements, giving your videos a professional finish. Together, these language and voice features make Synthesia a powerful text-to-video software tool.

3. Video Editing and Templates

Synthesia AI Video Assistant transforms ideas, documents, slide decks, or even website content into polished videos. Instead of working with complex editing software, you can quickly generate a professional video by typing a script and selecting an avatar.

It also has more than 250 ready-made templates ranging from corporate training and onboarding to marketing campaigns and customer tutorials. These templates give you a strong starting point while saving time on design and formatting.

In addition, the AI screen recorder feature makes it easy to capture tutorials, walkthroughs, and demonstrations. Combined with interactive options such as clickable call-to-actions and branching paths, Synthesia videos can guide your viewers to take specific actions.

4. Collaboration Tools

On Synthesia, you can edit in real-time and work on the same video project with your team without the need for endless back-and-forth revisions.

Businesses can set up shared workspaces and organizations where projects, templates, and assets are stored in one central hub. This makes it easy for large teams to coordinate and track video projects across departments.

To maintain consistent branding, Synthesia gives brand kits that include custom fonts, colors, and logos ensuring that every video reflects your company’s identity. 

5. Publishing and Distribution

Once a video is created, Synthesia makes it simple to publish and share across different platforms. The multilingual player also ensures that viewers can automatically watch the video in their preferred language.

The platform also supports smart updates and versioning, allowing you to update a published video without having to reshoot or rebuild the entire project, saving your time and resources.

To get insights into how your videos are performing and measure engagement to refine your strategy, Synthesia has a powerful analytic feature. Additionally, Synthesia integrates with learning management systems (LMS), marketing platforms, and websites.

Use Cases of Synthesia

Learning and Development

One of the most common applications of Synthesia is in employee training and development. Your company can replace lengthy documents, PowerPoint slides, or static PDFs with engaging AI-generated videos. This will be useful while onboarding new hires, delivering compliance training, or updating staff on new processes. 

You can roll out consistent training content across global teams without the cost of hiring translators or filming multiple versions by picking from the library of hundreds of languages.

Marketing

In a matter of minutes, marketers can use Synthesia to create professional-quality video ads, product explainers, and social media. There won’t be a need for expensive production crews or third-party agencies and teams. You can also drive actions using features like interactive elements and branded templates to capture attention.

Sales Enablement

Rather than sending a generic presentation, sales representatives can create customized videos that address specific client needs or market challenges. The ability to add multiple avatars per scene and create interactive walkthroughs makes it easier to explain complex solutions in a way that feels approachable.

Customer Support and Internal Communications

Customer support departments can build clear, step-by-step video guides to answer common questions. This will reduce the demand on live agents. Internal communications also benefit from AI-generated videos that deliver consistent messaging across an entire organization.

Pricing and Plans

Synthesia’s flexible pricing plans come with different credits, avatars, and collaboration features.

Free Plan (Basic)

The Basic plan is free to use and a great way to test Synthesia’s capabilities. It includes one editor, nine AI avatars, and up to three minutes of video per month. While it offers access to more than 140 languages and voices, the free plan has strict limitations. You can try it if you want to experiment before committing to a paid subscription.

Starter Plan

Priced at $18 per month (billed yearly), the Starter plan is a good option for freelancers or small businesses. It expands on the free plan by offering 125+ AI avatars, the AI Video Assistant, AI dubbing, and the ability to remove the Synthesia logo from videos. You also get one editor and up to three guests, along with 120 minutes of video per year.

Creator Plan

At $64 per month (billed yearly), the Creator plan is the most popular tier. It includes all Starter features plus five personal avatars, branded video pages, API access, multiple avatars per scene, and interactive videos. It also comes with 180+ AI avatars, priority support and 360 minutes of video per year. You can use this plan for regular, branded video content for training, marketing, and customer communication.

Enterprise Plan

The Enterprise plan offers custom pricing for organizations that need unlimited video creation and advanced collaboration tools. Features include over 230 stock avatars, unlimited personal avatars, 1-click translations into 80+ languages, live team collaboration, SCORM export for LMS integration, and dedicated onboarding with a customer success manager.

Customer Feedback and Reviews

Synthesia has built a strong reputation among users, earning a 4.7 out of 5 rating from more than 2,000 verified reviews on G2.

Positive Feedback

More than 90 percent of users speak about the ability to publish their first video without needing a tutorial, which shows how intuitive the platform is. Businesses also praise the scalability of Synthesia, noting how quickly they can generate videos in multiple languages and update content as needed.

Global companies for example, users from Teleperformance and Nestlé also report saving significant time and resources when rolling out training programs across international teams. The ability to translate videos into over 140 languages with a single click makes it easy to maintain consistent messaging worldwide.

Testimonials from Leading Brands

• Heineken: Frank C. Van Der Grijspaarde, Global TPM Manager, shared that the platform is enterprise-ready and simplifies video creation for large-scale operations.
  
• Nestlé: Caroline P., a Regional Instructional Designer, described Synthesia as a lifesaver for projects that require fast video delivery while appreciating the regular addition of new avatars and features.
  
• Teleperformance: Ben K., Senior VP of Learning and Development, emphasized that Synthesia helps over 380,000 employees worldwide access engaging and localized training content at scale.

These testimonials show how Synthesia is trusted not only by small teams but also by some of the world’s largest organizations.

Criticisms and Drawbacks

Some users point out limitations about the free plan being restrictive, offering only three minutes of video per month, which is not enough for professional use. Paid plans rely on credits, which can be consumed quickly for longer or multiple videos, making budgeting important for active users.

Pros and Cons of Synthesia

Like any software, Synthesia comes with strengths and limitations:

Pros

1. Saves time and cost: It saves up to 90 percent of the time and budget normally spent on traditional video production. There is no need to hire actors, rent studios, or purchase expensive equipment.

2. No filming equipment required: Videos can be created with just a script and a few clicks. This makes professional-quality production accessible to anyone, regardless of technical expertise.

3. Multilingual and scalable: With support for more than 140 languages and instant translation, companies can localize videos for global audiences.

Cons

1. Limited free plan: The Basic plan only includes three minutes of video per month, which is not practical for ongoing professional use.

2. High cost of personal avatars: While personal avatars are a powerful branding tool, they come at a premium price, which can be difficult for smaller businesses to justify.

3. Credit-based system: Most paid plans operate on credits, which are consumed based on video length. Heavy users may run out of credits quickly, making budgeting and plan upgrades necessary.

Synthesia Alternatives

Synthesia is not the only AI video generator option available. Other alternatives to consider include;

Pictory

Pictory focuses on turning long-form content such as blog posts, articles, or webinars into short, shareable videos. It is popular among marketers and social media managers who need quick promotional content. Unlike Synthesia, Pictory does not have realistic AI avatars, so it is less suited for training or internal communication videos.

DeepBrain AI

DeepBrain AI focuses on creating highly realistic AI avatars, with a strong emphasis on lifelike human presenters. This makes it a direct competitor to Synthesia for corporate training, education, and customer-facing videos. However, it tends to require more technical setup, and its library of avatars is smaller than Synthesia’s.

Elai.io

Elai.io has a flexible AI video platform that allows you to create avatar-based videos at scale. One of its standout features is the ability to create custom avatars at a lower cost compared to Synthesia. It is a good option for smaller businesses that want personalization but cannot afford enterprise level pricing.

Buying Advice: Is Synthesia Worth It?

The decision comes down to how often you create videos, the type of content you need, and the scale of your audience.

The value of Synthesia lies in the balance between subscription costs and the savings it generates. Businesses avoid spending on filming equipment, actors, studios, and voiceover services, while gaining the ability to produce multilingual content in minutes. 

Verdict: Should I Buy Synthesia?

If your work depends on producing video content regularly, Synthesia is worth the investment. Its ability to save time, reduce production costs, and scale across languages gives it a clear advantage.

If, on the other hand, you only need videos occasionally or operate on a very tight budget, you may not fully benefit from what Synthesia offers. In that case, it may be smarter to explore alternatives or stick with the free plan to test its capabilities.

FAQs

Is Synthesia free?

Yes, Synthesia has a free plan that allows you to create up to three minutes of video per month.

How much does Synthesia cost?

Synthesia has several pricing tiers. The Starter plan begins at $18 per month (billed annually), the Creator plan costs $64 per month (billed annually), and the Enterprise plan provides custom pricing.

Can I create custom avatars?

Yes, Synthesia allows you to create personal avatars that serve as digital twins.

Does Synthesia support 140+ languages?

Yes, Synthesia supports more than 140 languages and voices, making it one of the best AI video platforms for global businesses.

Is Synthesia safe for businesses?

Yes, Synthesia is built with enterprise security in mind. It is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant, with strong safeguards for data privacy and ethical AI use.

Final Verdict

Synthesia is one of the best AI video software solutions available for you today. The list of multilingual capabilities, ability to scale video production for organizations of any size and many more remains its strength. In addition it removes the need for cameras, studios, or actors and makes professional-quality video creation accessible to both beginners and experienced teams.

The people who will enjoy the most value from Synthesia are enterprises, trainers, and marketing professionals because they produce videos regularly. As for casual users or those who only need occasional video content, Synthesia may feel like more than they need. This is because the free plan is limited and higher-tier options rely on credits.

In summary, Synthesia is a good choice if you’re ready to scale video production efficiently without sacrificing quality. It remains the leader and one of the most reliable AI video platforms on the market.