Arcads vs HeyGen: the comparison that includes agent access
Arcads and HeyGen put side by side on ten dimensions, on price, and on the row most comparisons leave out: whether software can call them without a person in the browser.
Facts verified August 2026 Compiled from each vendor's own public documentation. Domains are arcads.ai and heygen.com, neither of which we link to.
Quick verdict
The short answer, before the tables.
Arcads and HeyGen are both filed as avatar UGC tools on this site, so this is a like for like comparison.
We cannot rank these two on price honestly, because the figures we hold for Arcads are reported rather than confirmed against an official price list.
For anyone driving this from an agent the gap is not close. HeyGen gives you a first-party MCP server and a public API, while Arcads gives you a first-party MCP server and a gated or waitlisted API.
HeyGen answers yes to more of the ten dimensions below, which usually means fewer other tools in the pipeline rather than better output.
Quick specs
The five rows most people check first.
| Arcads | HeyGen | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Avatar UGC tool | Avatar UGC tool |
| Entry price | Pricing not published | Free tier, then $29 per month |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Pricing confirmed | No, not published | Yes, from a published price list |
| Agent access | First-party MCP server. API gated or waitlisted. | First-party MCP server. Public API. |
Entry price is the cheapest paid monthly plan a vendor publishes. Where a vendor does not publish one, this table says so rather than guessing. Facts verified August 2026.
Feature by feature
The same ten questions asked of both, plus the agent access row underneath them.
| Dimension | Arcads | HeyGen |
|---|---|---|
| Avatar library | Yes | Yes |
| Actor licensing | Not clearly stated | Commercial use stated |
| Batch generation | Yes | Yes |
| Public API | No | Yes |
| Watermark on free plan | No free plan | Yes |
| Languages | Not confirmed | 175+ |
| Aspect ratios | 9:16 | 9:16, 1:1, 16:9 |
| Hook variations | Yes | No |
| Editing suite | No | Yes |
| Direct publishing | No | No |
| Agent and MCP access | First-party MCP server. API gated or waitlisted. | First-party MCP server. Public API. |
Not confirmed means the public documentation did not state an answer, not that the answer is no. Facts verified August 2026.
Pros and cons
Straight from the same research pass, unpadded.
Arcads
What works
- First-party MCP connector documented in the Arcads help center
- Large library of AI actors for UGC-style ads
- Fast turnaround from script to finished video
- Documented REST API for programmatic video creation
What does not
- No public pricing page; arcads.ai/pricing returns a 404 and prices are only shown after signup
- No free trial
- Credits reportedly do not roll over
- REST API access is gated behind a custom plan
HeyGen
What works
- Official first-party MCP server with OAuth, no API key management
- Free tier available with no credit card required
- 175+ languages on paid plans
- Credit rollover on Creator and Pro plans
- 4K export on Pro and above
What does not
- Free tier limited to 3 videos/month at 1 minute max, watermarked
- Business plan adds per-seat pricing on top of the base fee
- Higher-fidelity avatar models (Avatar IV/V) cost significantly more credits per minute
Which should you choose
Four buyers, four different answers. Each pick names the row it is based on.
| If you are | Pick | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A solo creator | HeyGen | HeyGen has a free tier, so you can judge the output before spending anything. |
| A performance marketer | Arcads | Hook variations are built in here and not on the other side, which is the feature that decides how fast you can test creative. |
| An agency running several clients | HeyGen | Batch generation is supported, which is the difference between one brief per client and one brief per ad. |
| A developer or agent user | HeyGen | First-party MCP server. Public API. That is the shortest path to calling it from software. |
These picks are derived from the recorded fields on this page, not from a hands on test. Facts verified August 2026.
Arcads vs HeyGen questions
What is the main difference between Arcads and HeyGen?
Arcads turns a script into AI-actor UGC-style ad videos and exposes a first-party MCP connector for agents. HeyGen creates AI avatar videos and digital twins with a free tier, credit-based paid plans, and a first-party hosted MCP server. Both are filed as avatar UGC tools here, so the difference is in the detail: HeyGen reaches further for an agent, with a first-party MCP server and a public API against a first-party MCP server and a gated or waitlisted API on Arcads, and HeyGen answers yes to more of the ten dimensions on this site than Arcads does.
Is Arcads or HeyGen cheaper?
This cannot be answered from confirmed data alone. Arcads: Pricing not published. HeyGen: Free tier, then $29 per month. Where a figure is not confirmed against an official price list, we do not print it as fact.
Can an AI agent use Arcads or HeyGen?
Arcads runs a first-party MCP server, so an MCP client can call it directly even though the underlying API is not openly available. HeyGen is reachable from an agent two ways: the vendor runs its own MCP server, and there is a public API behind it.
Does Arcads or HeyGen have a free plan?
HeyGen has a free tier. Arcads does not on the public record.
Which one includes editing tools?
HeyGen includes an editing suite. Arcads does not, so captions, trims and reframes happen in another tool.
We are not affiliated with Arcads and HeyGen. Product names are used to describe what those products do. This site is built by the team behind wireflow.ai, so wireflow is our own product and we say so wherever it appears.
Pick on the row you cannot change later
Output quality across this category moves every few months and most of these tools share the same underlying models. What does not move quickly is whether your software can call the thing. Decide that row first and the rest gets easier.
Facts verified August 2026. If a cell here is out of date, that is a mistake and not a position.