Comparison

How many kinds of video does your company make? Count them.

HeyGen is a presenter platform for companies making sales, support, training and marketing video across languages. Across departments that is the right buy. A presenter render is still only the first third of an ad. Here is what the other two thirds cost, and how Cutroom finishes them in four minutes.

A young Muslim woman using her phone to record a video indoors, with a ring light.
Photo by Hanna Pad on Pexels
video type Cutroom produces
1
per minute of avatar render here
320 CR
the batch that cuts the ad
100 CR

Four departments needing video is a platform problem, and HeyGen is a platform

Sales wants personalised outreach. Support wants explainers. HR wants onboarding. Marketing wants ads.

One system that serves all of them, with an avatar library, translation and an API, is a sensible way to buy that.

Translation is the standout. One recording becoming nine markets with matched lip movement is not something a cutting room can do.

Procurement usually settles it before anyone compares features. One vendor, one contract, one security review, one invoice.

If the requirement spans departments, buy the platform and stop there.

Here is what the render does not include. The file arrives as one person speaking cleanly for sixty seconds.

It still needs captions, coverage on the claims, a first line that interrupts and a pace that does not sag.

Cutroom is that second stage. Any talking-head take under three minutes goes in, including a presenter render.

Back comes a finished 9:16 MP4, captions burned in and coverage sitting on the words you marked.

A presenter render is the first third of an ad, and the other two thirds are the work

Most of the feed is muted, so captions are not optional. A minute of one framing is where a viewer leaves.

That second stage is what people quietly do in another app afterwards, and it is where the hour goes.

Here it is one batch of 100 credits and eleven marks on the transcript.

So the two are more often sequential than competing, until you are only making ads.

The evidence is in your own folder. Count the renders that went live untouched against the ones that went into another app first.

If the second number is larger, the second app is the product this replaces.

Where the ad actually gets finished

Both routes need the second half. Cutroom collapses it into marks on a transcript for a 100-credit batch.

  1. A person speaking

    Filmed, or an avatar render

  2. Transcribed

    Every word indexed

  3. Cut drafted

    Coverage placed under the caps

  4. You mark the transcript

    Delete, highlight, pace

  5. Captioned 9:16 MP4

    20 CR a minute

This is the whole editor

Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.

CLIPS · 5I have thisexact conversationeverysingle week. Somebody sits down and says,oh yeah, I takecinnamonevery day.And honestly, doc, I have no idea if it works.So let me tell you what isin that capsule.a clip lands on these wordscut from the editTAKING CINNAMONEVERY DAY?is it doing anythingHeadlineMusicCaptionsTHIS VIDEOLength25.0sClips5Words removed18Export video

Highlight a phrase and the picture arrives on those exact words

Upload a talking-head take of up to three minutes. It comes back transcribed, drafted and captioned as a vertical MP4.

Highlight a phrase and a clip lands over exactly it. Swap the clip, or search millions of free ones.

Delete the line that sagged and the cut rebuilds around the gap. Change the pace and the whole piece re-cuts.

Emphasise the word your claim turns on so it pops in the captions. Fix a mis-heard word and the burned-in text follows.

Six caption packs cover the look. Five entrances cover how each clip arrives. Music sits under the read at a level you set.

There is no timeline, no keyframes and no layer stack. That is the entire reason the loop is four minutes.

Coverage is capped by pace: 40 percent on chill, 45 on normal, 52 on fast. The presenter is on screen for most of the ad.

Trim the opening or the ending, and write the headline that carries the first three seconds.

  • Coverage capped at 40, 45 or 52 percent depending on pace
  • A second export from the same take does not re-charge the batch
  • Basic is 39.99 dollars for 2,500 credits a month, top-ups 15 dollars for 1,000
  • Somebody has to film, or own a photo the avatar module can drive

One video type, one language, one shape: the specification

One talking-head take of up to three minutes goes in. One 9:16 MP4 comes out, captions burned in.

One language per take. There is no translation and no dubbing route of any kind.

There is no API and no way to put video generation inside another product.

There is no avatar library. The module animates a photo you already own and nothing else.

There is no approval flow, no shared workspace and no version history.

There is no timeline underneath, and nothing of yours is stamped on the finished file.

Those are the facts to plan around. The one number they do not touch is attempts, which is next.

One video type and thirty a month is where the narrow tool wins outright

Count the kinds of video your company ships this quarter. More than one means buy the platform.

One kind, twenty or thirty times, means the constraint is the finishing work rather than the presenter.

Winners run at 5 to 8 percent of creatives, per Motion's analysis of 550,000+ Meta ads. Attempts decide the account.

Six a month draws under one winner. Reaching thirty needs a second attempt costing minutes, not an afternoon.

Here that is 20 credits a finished minute from a take already batched, and about four minutes of attention.

One finished minute from a fresh take is about 120 credits. Seven days and 300 credits with no card covers two.

Send one presenter render through the batch and see what comes back before anything is committed.

Head to head, platform rows first

The top two rows go to HeyGen, and a company-wide requirement should weigh them heavily. The rest is the second two thirds of an ad.

HeyGenCutroom
Many languages from one scriptTranslation and lip matchOne take, one language
Avatar library, API, every formatA platform, four departmentsOne photo, vertical ads
Cut rebuilds when a line goesRender it againDelete, and it recompiles
Pace change re-cuts everythingFixed at renderChill, normal or fast
Captions burned in as standardAvailable, not the focusSix packs, every export
Coverage on a marked phrasePresenter outputHighlight, clip lands
Recut without regeneratingNew render each time20 CR a minute

Questions people ask

Can I bring a presenter render into Cutroom?
Yes, if it is under three minutes. It is treated as a video take: transcribed, drafted, captioned, and directed by marking the transcript. That is the most common way people run the two products together.
Does Cutroom translate or dub?
No. One take, one language, one finished vertical file. If a campaign has to exist across markets from a single recording, a translation-first platform is the correct purchase and this is not a gap we would promise to close.
What does the avatar module cost?
320 credits per minute of render, plus 70 credits per minute if you generate the voice-over, on top of the 100-credit batch that cuts the ad. It exists for people who will not film, not as a roster to browse.
Who should walk away?
Companies producing training, onboarding, support and sales video across markets. Buy the platform for that. Send the marketing renders here, because a render is not an ad yet.

HeyGen hands you the presenter. Cutroom hands you the ad around it, captions burned in and coverage on the phrase you marked, for 100 credits.

Start with one take300 free credits · no card · cancel anytime