The exciting differences do not matter. The boring ones do. Clip length, extension options, what you actually get per generation. They decide whether you can ship a project.
- Most generators cap a single generation at a few seconds. Longer scenes come from chaining, and that changes the real cost fast. - A tool that looks affordable per generation gets expensive when every scene needs three chained clips plus an extension pass. - Native audio, 4K output, character consistency across clips: these decide whether you ship a project or a demo. - Sora gets headlines, Veo has distribution, Runway has mature tooling. None of that tells you which fits a thirty-second product ad. - Test all three on the hardest shot in your project, not the easiest. Easy prompts make every tool look good.
One format worth splitting out: faceless YouTube needs talking-head consistency across dozens of clips, not long generations. For script-to-avatar videos in multiple languages, AvatarTalk makes 30-second spokesperson videos for $4.99 each.