Synthesys Review: How I Made a Video from a URL in Minutes

You know that feeling when you’ve got a great blog post or product idea, but turning it into a video feels like a whole separate job? That was me until I started testing AI video tools and realized the gap between an idea and a finished video has gotten drastically smaller.

And it matters, because over 80% of online content consumed today is video. So the real question isn’t whether you should be making video content. It’s whether an all-in-one AI platform like Synthesys can actually pull it off without making you jump between five different tools to post one piece of content!

In this Synthesys review, I’ll discuss the pros and cons, what it is, who it’s best for, and its key features. Then, I’ll show you how I used it to generate a professional, marketable video in minutes.

I’ll finish the article by comparing Synthesys with my top three alternatives (HeyGen, Synthesia, and AI Studios). By the end, you’ll know which tool is right for you.

Verdict

Synthesys is a great all-in-one tool for quickly making marketing videos, with natural voices and an easy workflow for creators and small teams. However, it has limited control and team features compared to alternatives, and can be a bit slow at times.

What is Synthesys?

Synthesys is an AI content creation platform for making videos with avatars, voiceovers, and images from text. It’s made for creators, marketers, and businesses that want to produce content quickly without recording in a studio.

History & Background

Synthesys was developed by a company called Nooveau Media Ltd, based in London. They’ve been building Synthesys for a while, and what they’ve landed on isn’t a single tool. It’s more of a content production suite/a “Swiss Army knife” for digital creators (a whole production studio baked into one platform).

5 Product Pillars

The core of what Synthesys offers is broken down into five main product pillars:

1. AI Video: Use digital avatars of real people that lip-sync to your script.
2. AI Voice: Over 300 realistic voices in 140+ languages and accents. You get emotional control and professional voice cloning.
3. AI Images: Create high-quality visuals, social media assets, or backgrounds for your videos with text prompts. Keep your visual assets under the same roof as your video production.
4. AI Dubbing: Upload an existing video and automatically translate it into 29 languages. The AI lip-sync technology allows the person in the video to appear to be speaking the new language, rather than a voice-over on top.
5. AI Phone Calls: One of their newest features, create autonomous AI voice agents. These agents can handle inbound and outbound calls, book appointments (integrating with tools like Zapier and Make), and manage lead qualification with conversations that sound natural.

Synthesys vs. Competitors

Where Synthesys tries to separate itself from competitors is the all-in-one angle.

Tools like HeyGen and Synthesia focus almost exclusively on AI avatars and video. Meanwhile, ElevenLabs is incredible for voice, but that’s mostly where it stops.

Synthesys is betting that creators don’t want to juggle five different subscriptions just to ship one piece of content. Whether that bet fully pays off depends on your workflow, but it makes sense why people find it appealing.

The bottom line is this: Synthesys is a one-stop shop for generating AI content. It’s not perfect at everything, but it covers a lot of ground that most tools don’t even try.

Who is Synthesys Best For?

Synthesys AI is best for creators and businesses needing fast and scalable video/audio production without hiring talent:

• Content creators and YouTubers who want faceless videos, software demos, explainers, or VSLs using AI avatars and voices.
• Marketers and agencies creating UGC ads, sales funnels, multilingual campaigns, and automated lead qualification via AI Phone Calls.
• Coaches, educators, and influencers producing courses, training content, podcasts, or branded clips with AI voices and avatars.
• E-commerce businesses making product demos, ad creatives, and localized marketing videos.
• Affiliate marketers and sales teams who need persuasive video sales letters and promotional videos quickly.

Synthesys Key Features

Synthesys AI offers a suite of tools for content creators, focusing on five pillar features that use AI to generate video, voice, images, dubbing, and phone calls:

• AI Video: 70+ realistic digital avatars (based on real people or custom uploads) that lip-sync to scripts with natural gestures and expressions. Instantly create avatars, face swaps, and talking photos for quick video production.
• AI Voice: 300+ realistic voices across 140+ languages and accents. Emotional controls, voice cloning, and multilingual text-to-speech MP3 export.
• AI Images: Text-to-image generation for visuals, social media graphics, or video backgrounds on a single platform.
• AI Dubbing: Video translation into 29+ languages with automatic lip-sync, making speakers appear to talk natively.
• AI Phone Calls: Autonomous AI agents for inbound/outbound calls, lead qualification, appointment booking, and natural conversations.

How to Use Synthesys

Here’s how I generated a professional, marketable video in minutes with Synthesys:

1. Sign Up for Synthesys
2. Create a New Project
3. Paste a URL
4. Tweak the Settings
5. Generate & View the Video

Step 1: Sign Up for Synthesys

I started by going to synthesys.io and selecting “Get Started Free.”

Step 2: Create a New Project

Next, I was taken to my dashboard.

On the top left was a dropdown menu labelled “New Project” with the following options:

• AI Avatars: Choose an avatar (or create your own) and add a script, background, and more to generate a video with AI.
• UGC Personas: Upload a product and select an actor with a script to generate a UGC video ad instantly.
• AI VSL (Video Sales Letter): Paste a URL, add a prompt, or upload a PDF of marketing materials to generate sales videos based on the content.

To create an AI video with the most customization, choose “AI Avatars.” This option is best for explainer videos, corporate training, and YouTube content.

If you’re a business owner and want to instantly turn a physical product into UGC content without hiring someone, choose the “UGC Personas” option.

For affiliate marketers and sales teams, the fastest (and most impressive) way to generate AI videos is the “AI VSL” option. This was the option I chose.

Synthesys gave me four ways I could create an AI marketing video:

• URL: Paste a website/landing page URL to generate a sales video instantly.
• Prompt: Describe what you are selling and who it’s for, and the AI writes the script and creates the video.
• Upload: Upload a PDF containing marketing material, and the AI will extract the key points to generate a VSL.
• Scenes: Create your VSL scene-by-scene, with control over the message, visuals, and timing.

Step 3: Paste a URL

The URL option is the fastest way you can generate a video with Synthesys, so that’s the one I chose. I pasted a link to my last blog post (HeyGen Review).

Step 4: Tweak the Settings

Before hitting the big green “Generate” button, I made sure the settings looked good. That included choosing one of the styles from the top (e.g., stock footage, animations, doodles, etc.), my AI voice from 300+ options, the duration (up to 106 seconds), and the resolution (9:16 or 16:9).

I stuck with “dynamic stock footage” as the style, the default voice (Rachel), and a 36-second video with a 16:9 resolution. Once I was happy with everything, I hit “Generate,” which consumed 200 credits.

Step 5: Generate & View the Video

Back in my Projects tab under “AI VSL,” Synthesys began generating my video.

A few minutes later, my video was ready. Here’s how it came out:

Overall, the video looked better than I was expecting. It summarized my article, emphasizing the pain points of traditional video editing and highlighting how HeyGen is the solution.

The video quality also looked great, and the scenes made sense and flowed together nicely with some cool transitions. I can easily see this video convincing people that HeyGen is the solution to their problems. It even had a call to action at the end.

However, the text on the video had some typos. That’s my only real criticism. Besides that, the video looked great and is an excellent way to create engaging marketing videos that save time and money.

Overall, Synthesys made creating a professional AI video fast and surprisingly easy, turning my blog post into a professional-looking marketing video in minutes. The scenes in the final result flowed smoothly, highlighted key points, and looked impressive enough to use for marketing without much editing.

Top 3 Synthesys Alternatives

Here are the best Synthesys alternatives I’ve tried.

HeyGen

The first Synthesys alternative worth your attention is HeyGen. I’ve experimented with it myself, so I can give you a real take on it.

HeyGen works similarly to Synthesys. I signed up, gave it a prompt (a travel creator in front of a Tokyo street market, moody neon lighting, dynamic hand gestures), and a few minutes later, HeyGen had built out a full video plan and generated a finished video:

The lip-syncing was impressive, the avatar matched my vision, and the whole process took maybe ten minutes start to finish.

I even cloned myself into an avatar, which was equal parts cool and somewhat unsettling, if I’m being honest!

Both HeyGen and Synthesys make it quick and easy to produce AI videos without a production team. However, they’re built for slightly different goals.

On the one hand, HeyGen stands out with hyper-realistic avatars, voice cloning, and built-in translation across 175+ languages. The text-based editor also gives you lots of control over tone, gestures, and delivery.

Meanwhile, Synthesys leans more toward speed and simplicity. It comes with fast VSL creation, UGC-style ads, and some of the fastest but most impressive workflows I’ve seen, like turning a URL or prompt straight into an engaging marketing video.

For quick content for funnels and campaigns, I’d recommend going with Synthesys. But if you want higher-quality avatars, deeper customization, and content that works across global markets, choose HeyGen.

Read my HeyGen review or visit HeyGen!

Synthesia

The next Synthesys alternative I’d recommend is Synthesia. This one’s in a slightly different lane than the others. I’ve played around with Synthesia quite a bit, and the thing that immediately stands out is how corporate it feels (but in a good way!)

It’s built with teams in mind: real-time collaboration, advanced analytics, SCORM export for LMS platforms, and 160+ languages with built-in translation. If you’re running video production across a department, Synthesia has the infrastructure for it in a way most tools don’t.

However, both Synthesia and Synthesys get you from zero to avatar video fast, without involving a camera or production team. But the target user is pretty different.

On the one hand, Synthesia is built for scale (enterprise teams, compliance requirements, and brand kits). Meanwhile, Synthesys is built more for speed and flexibility, with options like URL-to-video and text prompt generation that are great for marketers and solopreneurs who need content quickly.

Synthesia also has interactive videos (quizzes and branching paths within the video player). This is great for educators and trainers. Meanwhile, Synthesys includes AI Phone Calls, which are useful for sales teams and marketers.

In my opinion, if you’re a one-person operation running ad campaigns, Synthesia might feel like overkill. But if you’re managing video content across a team or building out a corporate training program, Synthesia is hard to beat.

Choose Synthesia if you need to build a library of training content that scales across a global team. Otherwise, choose Synthesys if you are a marketer or solopreneur who needs to turn a product link into a convincing video ad by the time you finish your coffee.

Read my Synthesia review or visit Synthesia!

AI Studios by Deepbrain

The final Synthesys alternative I’d recommend is AI Studios by DeepBrain. I spent a good chunk of time testing this one across four of its creation methods, so I can give you an idea of what it’s like to use.

The dashboard gives you four options: ChatGPT-to-video, URL-to-video, PowerPoint-to-video, and templates. I tried all of them and found the ChatGPT method was the smoothest.

From there, I picked a topic (yoga for stress relief, random, I know), chose a template, hit create, and was inside the editing studio within seconds.

The lip-sync on the avatar was noticeably clean, and the whole thing felt polished without much effort on my end. The URL-to-video tool was a little rougher (it didn’t pull my article content as cleanly as I expected, so there was more manual cleanup involved).

Both AI Studios and Synthesys let you turn text, URLs, or documents into videos quickly, without touching a camera. But AI Studios goes deeper on the enterprise side, including SCORM export for LMS integration, multi-language dubbing with lip-sync, real-time conversational AI avatars, and even deepfake detection for organizations that need that level of security.

Meanwhile, Synthesys keeps things simpler. It’s more focused on quick VSLs, UGC-style ads, and simple avatar workflows built for marketers who need results fast.

Choose AI Studios for enterprise training and global reach. Otherwise, choose Synthesys for marketing videos you need yesterday.

Read my Deepbrain AI review or visit Deepbrain!

Synthesys Review: The Right Tool For You?

After spending some time with Synthesys, I was surprised. I went in a little skeptical, pasted in a URL, adjusted a few settings, and hit generate.

A few minutes later, I had an impressive video that actually looked like something I could see being used for marketing:

The people looked real, the flow was engaging, and the transitions were impressive. Besides the typos, I didn’t feel I had to do much editing afterward.

If you’re a solopreneur, marketer, or just someone who needs solid video content without hiring a production team, Synthesys is worth checking out. Otherwise, you might want to consider these alternatives:

• HeyGen is best for creators who want hyper-realistic avatars, voice cloning, and global reach across 175+ languages.
• Synthesia is best for teams and enterprises needing scalable training content, compliance-friendly workflows, and interactive corporate videos.
• AI Studios by Deepbrain is best for enterprises that want multi-language dubbing, SCORM-compliant training videos, conversational avatars, and security features.

Thanks for reading my Synthesys review! I hope you found it helpful. Synthesys offers a free plan so you can try it for yourself and see if it’s the right AI video generator for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Synthesys free?

Yes, Synthesys.io has a free plan you can try without a credit card. It offers a small amount of credits each month to try some of its features.

Is it legal to use AI voice generators?

Using AI voices is usually legal for personal, creative, or properly licensed commercial projects. But copying a real person’s voice without permission or using AI to impersonate someone fraudulently is illegal.

Is Synthesys good for voiceovers?

Synthesys AI is generally considered a good tool for voiceovers. It’s particularly known for creating natural, high-quality, and lifelike voices that make content sound professional. It offers a wide variety of over 451 voices in 140+ languages, making it suitable for diverse applications like marketing and e-learning.