HeyGen or Synthesia?
Two vendors for avatar videos. In companies it is rarely the look that decides, but what happens to your recordings and voices: storage, training, deletion.
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Not fully reviewed yet
We read both vendors’ privacy documents – DPA, sub-processors, server location, training, deletion periods, certifications – and compared them below with source and date. Export options and plan prices come from the pricing and help pages we checked; third-party figures are marked as such. What you won’t find here: a rating or a winner – for that, someone has to use both tools.
Do you represent one of these vendors? A review turns this page into the full comparison – here’s how.
HeyGen Documents reviewed |  Synthesia Documents reviewed Europe | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video & Voice Presentations | Video & Voice Presentations |
| Pricing model | Free plan + paid plans | Free plan + paid plans |
| Into PowerPoint | not applicable | not applicable |
| Into Google Slides | not documented | not documented |
| Builds from a document | yes – Free plan and up PPT, PPTX or PDF up to 50 MB, no password; speaker notes become script; PowerPoint animations/transitions not carried over Pricing table row 'PowerPoint & PDF Imports' per-plan ticks not readable; free availability inferred from landing page wording Vendor page ↗ · checked 2026-10-16 | yes – plan not documented PPTX only, max 1 GB / 150 slides; text, shapes, images, tables become editable elements, speaker notes become script; animations not imported; pricing page lists 'PowerPoint Import' but plan ticks not readable Plan availability not stated in help article; PDF import not mentioned Vendor help center ↗ · checked 2026-10-16 |
| Starting paid plan | Creator: USD 24 per month, billed annually Annual total not shown Vendor page ↗ · checked 2026-10-16 | Starter: USD 29 per month, month-to-month synthesia.io/plans shows Starter $264/yr (~$22/mo) but uses older plan names; not taken Vendor page ↗ · checked 2026-10-16 |
| Cheapest plan with PowerPoint output | not documented | not documented |
| Vendor headquarters | United States | United Kingdom (European provider) |
| Self-hostable | no | no |
| Server location | United States | EU |
| Verified on | pending | pending |
Privacy documents compared
What the vendors commit to in their published documents – every answer with evidence. Not a certification and not legal advice; what counts is the contract you sign.
| Question | HeyGen | Synthesia |
|---|---|---|
| Data processing agreement (DPA) available | yes Public Data Processing Addendum (October 2024), part of the Terms of Service or the Enterprise agreement; no plan restriction stated. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes The DPA is incorporated by reference into the Customer Terms of Service and is publicly available. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Server location disclosed | yes Hosting on AWS in the US; all customer data stored in the US, no EU option found. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes Hosting exclusively on AWS in the EU (data centers in Ireland); backups in Ireland and AWS Frankfurt. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Sub-processors listed publicly | yes List in the security portal (security.heygen.com/#subprocessors) per the DPA; content was not readable when accessed. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes Public sub-processor list with address and category, including a notification option. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Training on customer data: default and opt-out, by plan | business plans only Enterprise: excluded. Other plans: training on – opt out by email to HeyGen. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | not used – every plan All plans: inputs and outputs not used to pre-train; fine-tuning only on written instruction. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| EU representative appointed (Art. 27 GDPR) | yes Jan Czarnocki named as DPO and representative for the EEA, UK and Switzerland (email only, no postal address). Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes EU representative: Synthesia ApS, Vesterbrogade 149, Copenhagen. The contracting party Synthesia Limited is based in the United Kingdom. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transfers outside the EU | yes EU-US DPF incl. the UK and Swiss extensions; the DPA additionally includes EU SCCs Module 2/3 and the UK Addendum. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes The policy bases third-country transfers on adequacy decisions and SCCs under Art. 46 GDPR. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Deletion periods documented | yes After deletion, 60 days in backups, then permanently removed; deletion requests handled within 72 h where possible. DPA: deletion within a reasonable period after contract end. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes Retrieval possible up to 90 days after contract end; deletion on request and automatically within 90 days; backups at least three months. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
| Independent certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2) | yes SOC 2 Type II per the security page; scope and audit period not stated, no ISO 27001 found. Source · Oct 6, 2026 | yes Synthesia itself: ISO 27001, ISO 42001 and SOC 2 Type II; the AWS certifications are separate. Source · Sep 19, 2026 |
What else you need to check
Until the review is done, these are the questions that make the difference – the same for both tools.
| Data processing agreement | Available, and from which plan? Usually not on the free plan. |
|---|---|
| Server location | Stated or selectable? A promise is not a setting. |
| Training on your slides and prompts | Excluded by default, opt-out only, or not at all? |
| Export | Editable PPTX or Google Slides, or only PDF and a share link? |
| Pricing in detail | What does the plan you actually need cost – and what happens when you exceed it? |
| Billing | Company invoice with VAT, or credit card only? |
Full checklists: GDPR questions · Buying checklist
This comparison doesn’t replace your own evaluation for your use case. What a rating means is explained in our methodology; what it doesn’t mean, in the disclaimer. Found something wrong? Please report it – we correct it free of charge.