Arcads vs HeyGen vs Captions for Performance Ads (2026)

Short answer: pick Arcads if your best ad is an AI actor reading a script, especially across languages. Pick HeyGen if you want a digital twin of your founder or translation into 175+ languages. Pick Captions if you film yourself and want an AI editor plus avatars on a small budget. If you run paid social for a D2C or e-commerce brand and need static ads, competitor ad recreation and Meta results as well, read the AdGraam section near the end.

We build AdGraam. The first part of this post compares Arcads, HeyGen and Captions on their own terms, using their pricing, help centers and public reviews, checked on September 26, 2026. AdGraam gets its own labelled section.

Arcads vs HeyGen vs Captions at a glance

What is each tool in 2026?

Arcads is a French company founded in 2024. It raised a $16M seed round in December 2025, reporting 6,000+ clients and a profitable business. Its core is talking-head AI actors, and in 2026 it added a Workflows node canvas, an in-app agent, an MCP connector and newer video models such as Seedance 2.5.

HeyGen is the category's largest player. It passed $200M ARR in June 2026 and calls itself identity-first: your face and voice in any language. Avatar V builds a twin from about 15 seconds of video. Ads are one use case, served by an AI Ad Maker and Product Placement.

Captions is an app made by Mirage, the name its company adopted in September 2025. Mirage raised $75 million in March 2026 and has merged its brand tool, Mirage Studio, into Captions. The app is an AI editor first, with AI Ads from a product URL and Mirage Avatar X behind every avatar since July 2026.

What does a 30-second presenter video really cost?

Plan prices hide the real number. Here is what each vendor's own credit guide implies for one 30-second presenter video on its entry paid plan:

Sources: Arcads' credit guide and third-party paywall captures, HeyGen's credit guide, and Captions' credit guide.

Three caveats keep this fair. First, the outputs differ: Captions' Prompt to Video includes generated B-roll and an edit, while Arcads and HeyGen price the presenter clip. Second, Arcads bills talking actors per actor and rounds every clip up to a full minute, so two actors in one ad double the cost; a 30% promotion seen in August 2026 would bring Starter to about $7.70 per video. Third, HeyGen's older Avatar IV costs 31 credits a minute, which lowers its number further.

And when credits run out, all three push you up a plan rather than selling small top-ups. Arcads Starter and Creator credits don't roll over, HeyGen Creator and Pro can't buy top-ups, and Captions' standard plans can't buy extra credits at all.

Where do retakes eat the budget?

The table assumes every render is usable. Reviews say it often isn't, and each vendor handles a bad take differently.

• Arcads restores credits only for platform errors. Its refund policy excludes unsatisfying lip sync, unexpected accents and results that miss the brief. Its Trustpilot one-star reviews mention blurry output and characters changing between generations.
• HeyGen calls payments "generally non-refundable" outside a 15-day, case-by-case window (refund policy). Recent Trustpilot complaints include failed or wrong generations that still used credits, and the Avatar V rate rising from 20 to 48 credits a minute.
• Captions spends credits on every generation whether or not you export, and monthly plans are non-refundable (cancellation page). Recent Trustpilot one-star reviews mention credits used on generations that never finished and charges after cancelling.

Budget for two or three renders per usable ad until you know how a tool handles your product and scripts.

Which one looks the most real?

Each vendor claims the lead, and we know of no independent, controlled test of all three. Arcads points to its actor depth and three talking-actor models. HeyGen points to Avatar V and its 4.7/5 on Capterra, though some reviewers there say avatars can still feel slightly unnatural in longer videos. Captions says Avatar X generates face, voice and motion in one pass, so lips and eye contact line up.

The honest advice: write one 20-second script for your real product, run it through your two finalists on the same afternoon, and show the results to someone who doesn't know which is which.

What happens after the file renders?

This is the part most comparisons skip. All three tools end at a video file. Arcads, HeyGen and Captions each have automation for making more video (canvases, agents, APIs and MCP), but none connects to your ad account. As of September 2026 we found no ad performance analytics, competitor ad research or static ad batch generator in any of them.

So someone still uploads each variation to Ads Manager, waits for data, and works out which hook held attention. If that someone is an agency, a freelancer or your own evenings, count that time in the cost per ad.

Which of the three should you pick?

• Arcads if AI actors reading scripts are your whole creative plan, you run the same ad in several languages, and you can confirm pricing on a sales call.
• HeyGen if you want your founder on camera without filming every week, or you localize video into many languages.
• Captions if you film yourself on a phone, want the edit done for you, and want AI twins at $24.99 a month.

Where does AdGraam fit? (We build it)

AdGraam is an AI ad platform for D2C and e-commerce brands. It isn't a digital twin or translation tool, and it doesn't edit your raw camera footage. What it does is cover the video jobs a performance team actually buys these tools for, then the jobs none of the three touch:

• Presenter-led UGC-style video. The Video Agent writes UGC, talking head, product showcase or podcast scripts, casts from an AI avatar library, recommends a model per shot and prices the whole ad before any credits are spent.
• Product and B-roll video. 200+ image, video and audio models in the Playground, including Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0, each priced before the run.
• Finished, stitched ads at volume. Flow Builder chains script, image, video, voice, music and stitching, lets you approve storyboard frames first, and runs batches across products and angles.
• Competitor ad recreation. Paste a competitor ad, get your version: Copy Ads rebuilds the hook, beats, pacing and on-screen text for your product with new footage and cast, never their footage, faces or logo. Track competitors' Meta ad libraries or browse the free Ad Library.
• Static ads. The Creative Generator turns a product URL into 20+ static ads in feed, story and square sizes.
• Meta analytics. Read-only ROAS, CPA, hook and hold for every video, audience splits, a Scaling Score per campaign and anomaly alerts, so the next batch follows the data.

Pricing: free to start with no credit card, and new accounts get free credits. After that you pay credits per generation, and every run shows its exact price first.

Side-by-side detail: AdGraam vs Arcads, AdGraam vs HeyGen and AdGraam vs Captions.

The bottom line

If you're a D2C or e-commerce performance team, start with AdGraam: it makes the presenter, product and static ads, starts from formats that already win in your category, and tells you which creatives worked. Add HeyGen if you need a founder twin or many languages, Captions if your founder films daily organic content, and Arcads if you need the deepest actor bench.

Start free and make your first ad with the free credits, or book a 15-minute demo to see it on your own products. Still shopping? See the Arcads, HeyGen and Captions alternatives lists.