Prices checked October 2026
Arcads vs HeyGen
Two AI ad tools people compare before they buy. Here is what one video ad costs on each, what each does well, and who should pick which.
Price per video ad
Monthly list prices. One finished video ad is the unit.
| Product | Plan | Monthly | Video ads / mo | $ per video ad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcads | Starter~10 videos, reported | $110 | 10 | $11.00 |
| Arcads | Creator~20 videos, reported | $220 | 20 | $11.00 |
| HeyGen | Creator600 credits; Video Agent is 80 credits/min, so 20 credits per 15-second ad. Plain Avatar IV talking heads would be ~77. $24/mo billed yearly | $29 | 30 | $0.97 |
| HeyGen | Pro1,000 credits at 20 credits per 15-second Video Agent ad; ~129 plain Avatar IV clips | $49 | 50 | $0.98 |
| HeyGen | Business1,500 credits at 20 credits per 15-second Video Agent ad; +$20 per extra seat | $149 | 75 | $1.99 |
"Video ads / mo" is the vendor's stated video count, or monthly credits divided by the cost of one video. Sources: Arcads third-party reports, HeyGen pricing page.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Arcads | HeyGen |
|---|---|---|
| Portrait 9:16 video ads | ✓ | ✓ |
| Learns brand from URL | — | URL to video |
| Competitor + Reddit research | — | — |
| Multiple ad formats (16) | — | Partial |
| AI creators that post daily | — | — |
| Reels / TikTok / Shorts scheduler | — | — |
| Launches Meta ads | — | — |
| Winner / loser learning loop | — | — |
| API + MCP | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial without card | Limited | Free plan |
| Photoreal AI actor library | ✓ | 700+ stock avatars |
| Your own face in ads | Actors+ plan | ✓ |
| Remix any winning ad from a link | — | — |
| Never trains on your data | — | — |
Which should you pick?
Pick Arcads if you want: Very realistic cloned actors; Simple script-to-video flow; Strong for performance marketers.
Pick HeyGen if you want: Very realistic avatars and digital twins; Translation with lip-sync in 175+ languages; Free plan (3 watermarked videos a month) and a public API.
Arcads is an actor tool, not an agency. It makes a very good talking-head ad if you bring the script, the plan and the posting. Addy makes the script, the plan and the post, and 15-second ads start at 99¢ instead of about $11. Addy now ships its own photoreal actor library, lets you use your own face and can remix a winning ad from a link, which Arcads does not. If you only need actors and have a team for everything else, Arcads is still a fine pick.
Prefer ads made and posted for you? See Addy vs Arcads and Addy vs HeyGen. More head-to-heads: Arcads vs Creatify, Arcads vs Icon, Arcads vs MakeUGC, Arcads vs Superscale, Arcads vs ReelFarm, Arcads vs Tagshop AI, Arcads vs Captions, Arcads vs Topview, Arcads vs Zeely, Arcads vs Billo, Creatify vs HeyGen, Icon vs HeyGen, MakeUGC vs HeyGen, Superscale vs HeyGen, ReelFarm vs HeyGen, Tagshop AI vs HeyGen, HeyGen vs Captions, HeyGen vs Topview, HeyGen vs Zeely, HeyGen vs Billo, or the 2026 pricing guide.
How we compared
- Prices are each vendor's public monthly list price in US dollars, last checked October 26, 2026. Yearly-billing discounts are noted next to the plan where the vendor publishes them.
- Cost per video ad is the monthly price divided by how many short portrait video ads the plan buys. When a vendor sells credits or minutes, we convert at its published rate; when it publishes no rate, we use third-party reports and label the figure as reported.
- Features come from each vendor's own site and docs. A dash means we could not confirm a feature, not that it is missing.
- Addy is our product. To keep that from tilting the page, tools are listed alphabetically, Addy is scored on the same criteria, and its limits are published on the facts page.
- Something out of date? Tell us on the contact page and we will correct the page and its date.
Sources
- Arcads: third-party pricing reports, checked October 2026 (third-party report; vendor pricing page returned 404).
- HeyGen: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (prices from vendor pricing page; credit rates from HeyGen help center).
- Addy pricing: our own plans, updated whenever prices change.
Questions
+Is Arcads or HeyGen cheaper?
HeyGen, on list prices checked October 2026: about $0.97 per video ad on its best-value plan versus about $11.00 on Arcads. Check what each counts as one video before comparing; some tools count statics or slideshows.
+What is the main difference between Arcads and HeyGen?
Arcads: AI actors reading your script for UGC-style ads. HeyGen: AI avatar video platform with digital twins, translation and a prompt-to-video agent.
+Is there an alternative to both Arcads and HeyGen?
Addy learns your brand from your website, writes hooks you approve, renders 15-second portrait video ads from 99¢ and posts them to Reels, TikTok and Shorts. The first ad is free, no card.
+Where do these numbers come from?
Each vendor's own pricing page or, where a vendor does not publish one, third-party reports, checked October 2026. Email hello@use-addy.site if something is out of date.