Social video has requirements that most general purpose AI video tools treat as an afterthought. It has to be vertical. It has to work with the sound off, which means burned in captions rather than uploaded subtitles. And the economics only work if a post costs you minutes rather than an afternoon.
What to judge them on
- Vertical by default, at 1080 by 1920, not cropped from landscape.
- Captions burned in, because most feeds autoplay muted.
- Cost per finished post, not per generation.
- How many steps between an idea and something you can upload.
1. RealClips
Built for this specific job
Vertical at 1080 by 1920, captions burned in, narration included, and the output is finished rather than a layer to assemble. Clips can be 15, 30 or 60 seconds, which maps onto what the platforms want.
Cost per post is the number worth comparing. A 15 second stock clip is 5 credits, so the $9.99 pack of 100 credits is twenty finished posts. The AI footage mode is 25 credits for the same length, for topics where stock has nothing useful.
Free tier is 20 credits at signup with no card.
2. OpusClip
The best option if you already record long form. It finds the moments worth cutting and produces vertical clips with captions. Free forever at 60 credits a month, Starter $15 a month, Pro $29 monthly or $14.50 a month billed annually at $174.
It cannot help you if you have nothing recorded, which is the trade.
3. Fliki
Good at voice and languages, which matters if you run the same channel in more than one market. Free forever is 3 credits a month at 720p, and 720p is below what the platforms prefer, so the free tier is a demo rather than a workflow. Standard at $28 a month, or $16.80 billed annually, unlocks 1080p.
4. InVideo
Workable for social, and better than most if several people run the account. $20 per seat a month billed annually for 400 credits, about 15 Seedance 2 Fast videos.
5. Higgsfield
Use it when a specific shot matters more than throughput. From $19 a month billed annually for 270 credits. You will need something else for narration and captions, so count that in both the time and the cost.
6. HeyGen and Synthesia
Both avatar led, and both better suited to explainer and training content than to feeds. HeyGen Creator is $29 a month for 600 credits with 1080p export. Synthesia Starter is $19 monthly or $14 billed yearly, with a free tier that watermarks output.
If your format is a presenter talking to camera, they are the right answer. For most social video the presenter is the thing people are trying to avoid.
The practical test
Count the steps between your idea and a file you could upload. If the answer is more than two, the tool is not built for posting daily, however good the footage looks. That one measure separates these faster than any feature table.