HeyGen

HeyGen sits in the awkward category of "tools that work great but everyone's worried about." Lots of operators are afraid of going avatar-led because of the "AI slop" reputation. After a year of using it across two of our channels, here's the honest take.

What HeyGen actually is

HeyGen generates videos with AI avatars that read from a script you provide. You pick an avatar (or upload your own face for cloning), pick a voice (or clone your own), type the script, and it renders a talking-head video at any length.

The killer feature isn't the rendering, it's the multilingual dubbing. You can take an existing English video and HeyGen will re-render it with the same avatar speaking convincing Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, whatever. For YouTube operators who want to expand into multilingual audiences without filming everything twice, this is the unlock.

Where it actually wins

Faceless channels with branding constraints. If your channel needs a consistent face but you don't want to be on camera yourself, HeyGen is the cleanest path. Pick a stock avatar, lock it in, and ship.

Repurposing existing content. Have 200 hours of podcast audio? Run it through HeyGen with an avatar and a script summary and you have 200 talking-head shorts in a weekend.

Multilingual expansion. This is where it pays for itself. The cost of expanding one English channel into Spanish and Portuguese versions used to require a $50K production budget. With HeyGen it's closer to $200/mo.

Where it underdelivers

The avatar still occasionally drops a frame on facial detail. Eyes go slightly off-axis, lip movement on certain consonants reads stiff. On a 240px thumbnail it's invisible. On a 1080p full-screen reel it can be subtle but present.

If you're using HeyGen for a high-stakes single video (a launch, a major announcement), the avatar uncanny valley is still real enough that we'd film human in those cases.

Pricing reality check

The Creator plan at $24/mo gets you about 15 minutes of video generation per month, which is enough for testing but not enough for a real production cadence. The Team plan ($69/mo) is the realistic starting point for operators running a channel.

The free tier is watermarked. Don't use it for publishing.

Stack fit

We use HeyGen alongside ElevenLabs for voice (HeyGen's built-in voices are solid but ElevenLabs is still better on tone variation) and Submagic for captions on the output reel.

For channels that need scripted long-form, we generate the script, run it through ElevenLabs first to validate the voice and pacing, then push the validated audio into HeyGen for the avatar render. This two-stage process catches voice issues before paying for the avatar pass.

Should you use it

Yes if:

• You run a faceless channel that needs a recurring on-screen face for trust signals
• You're repurposing existing content into talking-head formats
• You want to expand into multilingual audiences cheaply

No if:

• Your channel works specifically because your real face is on camera
• You're publishing under 5 videos a month and the per-minute pricing doesn't amortize
• You need photo-realistic facial detail on full-screen 1080p+ formats

Try it

Try HeyGen free→

Disclosure: this is an affiliate link. We earn a commission if you upgrade. We use HeyGen on our own channels regardless of that.