The HeyGen Alternative for Translating Real Video
HeyGen builds avatars. Dubly dubs the people already in your footage — with their own voice, lip-synced, on servers in Germany.
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HeyGen is an avatar platform that also dubs video. Dubly is a dubbing platform that does nothing else. Choose HeyGen if you want to generate videos from a script or build AI presenters — that is what it was made for, and it covers 175+ languages. Choose Dubly if you have real footage of real people and the result has to hold up in front of customers: the best lip sync in independent benchmarks at 96.4 against 76.8, the original speaker's own voice, video processed on servers in Germany, and a named person who answers when you call — not an AI reply. Dubly starts at €69 a month on the annual plan; HeyGen's Business plan, the one that covers comparable volume, is $149 a month plus $20 per seat.
What HeyGen is built for
A fair look at the other tool: what it does well, and where it stops.
Built for script-to-avatar video
HeyGen's core product is the AI avatar. You write a script, pick a presenter from a deep library, and a polished talking-head video comes out the other side in minutes — no camera, no studio, no reshoot when the script changes. The library is deep, the interface stays out of the way, and one script fans out into many languages without manual rework. Interactive avatars extend the same idea into real-time conversation.
HeyGen also dubs real footage, and it markets voice cloning and lip sync as part of that. It is not a stub feature. But it was built on top of an avatar-first product, and that is where the two tools diverge: the further your source material gets from one person facing the camera, the more the seams show.
On data, HeyGen documents its compliance carefully — SOC 2 Type II, a data processing addendum, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. What none of that changes is the address. HeyGen processes customer video in the United States, on AWS. Dubly processes it in Germany, under German and EU law, and never uses it to train a model. For a works council, a regulated industry or a public-sector buyer, that is usually where the decision gets made. What that means in practice.
- Built for
- AI avatars, script-to-video, dubbing
- Languages
- 175+ languages & dialects
- Plans
- Creator: $29/mo · Business: $149/mo + $20/seat
- Free tier
- 3 videos a month, up to 1 minute
- Data processing
- United States, on AWS
Where the two tools actually differ
Two rows go to HeyGen. We left them in — you would find them anyway. The rest is why companies move.
Dubly.AI
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HeyGenWhat a real month costs on each
A price only means something once you say what it buys, so this compares the two plans that actually cover the same work — not our entry tier against their cheapest one. Dubly bills in credits: one credit is one minute of dubbing, and lip sync costs two. HeyGen bills credits plus seats, and does not publish how many minutes of translated video one of its credits buys. Every euro below comes from the same price list you see on our pricing page.
50 product videos of 3 minutes — 150 minutes of dubbing a month
- Monthly plan
- €489/mo
- Annual plan
- €359/mo€4,308 billed once a year
- One-time purchase
- €569
- Business
- $149/moplus $20 per extra seat
The Business plan includes 1,500 credits and videos up to 60 minutes. How many minutes of translated video those credits actually buy is not published anywhere, so ask HeyGen directly before you put the two figures side by side. Seats are extra: every additional colleague is $20 a month.
What the lower price does not include
- A named contact on every plan — a person who answers, not an AI reply
- Video processed in Germany, under German and EU law
- A blanket promise that your footage never trains a model
- Lip sync that holds on movement, occlusion and several speakers — 96.4 against 76.8
- Unlimited users, with reviewers who do not consume a seat
HeyGen's list price is lower, and it buys a different product. For a handful of short clips a month that is a fair trade, and we would rather you knew it. For a catalogue that carries your brand — where the sync has to survive a customer watching it twice, and someone has to be able to answer where the footage was processed — the cheaper line item is not the one that decides it.
Four clips where the difference is visible
HeyGen markets lip sync and voice cloning too, so the claim is not that they can't do it — it's that this is what the two look like on the same footage. Full method on the lip sync page.
Four things HeyGen cannot give you
None of this is a knock on avatar video. It is what you run into the moment the footage is real and the audience is your customers.
Lip sync built for avatars, not for the face you filmed
On a synthetic presenter the mouth is generated from nothing, so it always fits. On your footage it has to be rebuilt frame by frame around a real jaw, real motion and a real microphone in the way. That is the gap the independent benchmark measures — 96.4 against 76.8 — and it widens exactly where your videos get interesting: someone walks, turns, gestures, or a second person starts talking.
Your footage leaves the EU
HeyGen processes customer video in the United States, on AWS. The paperwork covering that transfer is in order — and it still does not move the video back. Dubly keeps it on servers in Germany, under German and EU law, and never trains on it. What that means in practice.
Multi-speaker is not on the list
A panel, an interview, two people in one shot. HeyGen does not list multi-speaker support on its translate page — which is not the same as saying it cannot do it, so ask them before you commit. Dubly handles each speaker separately: own cloned voice, own sync, in the same pass. The third clip above is two people in one take.
The bill grows with your team
Credits plus seats means every additional colleague is another $20 a month, and how many minutes of translated video a credit buys is not published anywhere. Dubly charges for credits and nothing else: unlimited users on every plan, reviewers included without a seat, and a rate you can read off the pricing page before you sign.
Four things you get here and nowhere else in this comparison
96.4 lip sync score
Against 76.8 for HeyGen, measured across 1,000 test clips on the same footage — an independent benchmark, not our own scoring.
Processed in Germany
A German company, German servers, and no transfer to a third country in the pipeline.
A person, not an AI reply
A named contact on every plan, from the first euro — someone who knows your material and answers in German or English.
Never trains a model
Your footage is processed and returned. It is not training data, on any plan.
Switching, without the part everyone dreads
There is no migration project here. What there is, is a person who makes sure the first ten videos come out right.
A named person, not a ticket queue
Personal onboarding with one contact who stays with you through the changeover and knows your material.
A test run on your own footage
Upload a video you have already translated elsewhere and hold the two results side by side. That comparison decides it, not ours.
Support for larger volumes
Back catalogues, bulk processing and API access — and help planning it if you are mid-contract somewhere else.
A switcher offer, case by case
If you are carrying an unused plan with another vendor, tell us what it looks like and we will make you an offer that accounts for it.
There is nothing to migrate. Videos are processed fresh either way, so there is no project import and no library to move — you upload the same source files you already have. The one thing that does not come with you is unused credit at your current vendor. Tell us how much, and we will factor it into the offer.
So which one should you buy?
HeyGen is the better choice if you…
- Want AI avatars, or videos generated from a script rather than a camera
- Need interactive avatars for real-time conversation
- Need the longest language list you can get — 175+ against our 40+
- Want to start free: HeyGen has a permanent free tier and we do not
- Are producing short, head-on clips where the sync only has to be good enough
Dubly is the better choice if you…
- Have real footage of real people and want them to keep their own voice
- Need lip sync that holds on movement, occlusion and several speakers — 96.4 against 76.8
- Want a person on the other end: a named contact on every plan, in German or English, not an AI reply
- Have to answer where the video is processed — ours stays in Germany, and none of it trains a model
- Run a catalogue rather than a campaign: long videos, many of them, consistent terminology, unlimited users
7hauben put a Michelin-level cooking school into four languages
“For a cooking course that runs several hours, subtitles aren't enough. Our standard is that every viewer gets the same experience, no matter which language they learn in.”
Markus AuzingerHead of Production, 7hauben- Localized videos in the catalog
- 578
- Localized videos in the catalog
- Less production time per course
- 60%
- Less production time per course
- Home cooks learning with 7hauben
- 100,000+
- Home cooks learning with 7hauben
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Questions people ask before switching
Twelve of them, including the ones where the answer is not in our favour.
What each was built to do. HeyGen generates video — you give it a script, it gives you an AI presenter — and dubbing was added alongside that. Dubly only dubs: it takes footage that already exists and replaces the speech, the voice and the mouth movements. If your starting point is a script, HeyGen fits. If it is a camera file, Dubly does.
Dubly scores 96.4 against HeyGen's 76.8 in an independent lip sync benchmark across 1,000 test clips on the same source material. HeyGen markets lip sync too, so the honest claim is not that they lack the feature — it is that Dubly regenerates the mouth frame by frame as the final step, which is what holds up when the speaker moves, gestures or is partly obscured. The four clips further up this page are the evidence; judge them yourself.
Yes. Voice cloning carries the speaker's own timbre, pace and emphasis into the target language, so your CEO sounds like your CEO in Spanish rather than like a stock narrator. HeyGen offers voice cloning as well; the difference shows up in how the cloned voice lines up with the face, not in whether the voice exists.
Yes — panels, interviews and two-handers are handled per speaker, each keeping their own cloned voice and their own sync. HeyGen does not list multi-speaker support on its translate page, which is not the same as saying it cannot do it; we would ask them directly before assuming either way.
Got any questions left?
We’d be happy to give you a personal demo of Dubly.AI and discuss your specific use cases.
Last checked: 02 September 2026
HeyGen's figures come from their own public pricing, translate and security pages. Ours come from the price list on our pricing page, and the lip sync score from an independent benchmark across 1,000 test clips.