The Video Creator Stack

Script, generate, edit, and caption AI video end to end

This workflow takes you from idea to a finished AI-generated video, combining five complementary tools that each handle a specific phase of production. You end up with a polished video featuring custom footage, a lifelike avatar presenter, clean audio, and professional captions — all without touching a camera. The power comes from the sequence: Runway creates high-quality raw clips, Kling adds camera control and lip-sync, HeyGen brings in a talking head, Descript lets you edit by just editing text, and Captions auto-polishes the final cut. This stack is built for content creators, marketers, and educators who want to produce professional video at speed, with minimal manual editing. Each tool earns its place by doing one thing exceptionally well and passing a clean asset to the next step.

The workflow, step by step

1
Generate base video clips
Runway
Use Runway Gen-4.5 to create high-quality video from text prompts or images. Its world models produce realistic, consistent clips that form the visual foundation of your video.
Hand-off → Raw video clips with consistent style.
2
Add camera control and lip sync
Kling AI
Kling offers precise camera movement and lip-sync capabilities, enhancing the base clips. Apply dynamic shots and sync lip movements to your script for more engaging visuals.
Hand-off → Enhanced clips with controlled motion and synchronized audio.
3
Create avatar narration
HeyGen
HeyGen generates lifelike avatar videos with accurate lip-sync and optional translation. Ideal for adding a presenter that speaks your script naturally.
Hand-off → Avatar video with accurate lip-sync.
4
Edit video by editing transcript
Descript
Descript lets you edit video by simply editing the text transcript — trim, rearrange, and add effects or overlays without timeline wrangling. It's the fastest way to assemble your rough cut.
Hand-off → Rough cut video with polished audio and captions.
5
Auto-polish and add professional captions
Captions
Captions automatically reframes, cuts silences, and adds dynamic captions with professional taste. One click polishes your video for social platforms.

What this stack costs per month

Running on free tiers$0every tool here has a permanently free plan

All entry paid plans$75.98/mosum of 4 published starting prices, one seat each, plus 1 tool without published pricing

Runwayfrom $15/mo · free tier
Kling AIfrom $6.99/mo · free tier
HeyGenfrom $29/mo · free tier
Descriptfreemium, pricing not published
Captionsfrom $24.99/mo · free tier

Computed from each vendor's published monthly prices as we last verified them — tap a tool for its full pricing breakdown and price history.

All tools in this stack

Runway

freemium

AI media creation platform for generating, editing, upscaling, and automating vi...

Rating

4.4

Category

视频生成与剪辑

Pricing

Runway's official pricing page currently lists Free, Standard, Pro, Max, and Enterprise. Free includes 125 one-time credits. Standard is $15/month monthly or $12/month when billed yearly and includes 625 credits/month. Pro is $35/month monthly or $28/month billed yearly and includes 2,250 credits/month. Max is $95/month monthly or $76/month billed yearly and includes 9,500 credits/month plus one-month unused-credit rollover. Enterprise is custom and adds custom credits, SSO, workspace analytics, configurable teamspaces, onboarding, priority support, and custom team sizes. The official API docs price developer credits at $0.01 per credit, with model-specific generation costs. Current pricing page does not list Unlimited as a new purchasable public plan; Help Center still documents legacy Unlimited behavior and notes that inviting new members to Unlimited accounts is no longer supported, recommending a switch to Max.

Kling AI

freemium

AI platform for generating cinematic videos, images, avatars, and native-audio s...

Rating

4.2

Category

视频生成与剪辑

Pricing

Kling AI uses credits for generation. The creator product has a free Basic tier and paid Standard, Pro, Premier, and Ultra memberships with monthly credits, commercial-use rights, watermark removal, faster generation, higher-resolution video, and feature priority depending on tier. The developer API uses Units, where the official API page listed Video API at 1 Unit = $0.14 and Image API at 1 Unit = $0.0035, with 180-day prepaid packages and custom enterprise packages. Official policy states purchased credits are valid for 2 years, regular membership credits for 1 month, 7-day membership credits for 7 days, and daily login credits until 24:00 the same day; failed generation refunds credits, but credits are not cash, are not transferable, and generally cannot be refunded or withdrawn.

HeyGen

freemium

AI video platform for creating avatar videos, localized dubbing, digital twins, ...

Rating

4.4

Category

视频生成与剪辑

Pricing

HeyGen's official pricing page lists Free, Creator, Pro, Business, and Enterprise web plans. Free is $0/month and includes 3 videos per month, videos up to 1 minute, Avatar IV and Video Agent access, 500+ stock Digital Twins, 1 Custom Digital Twin, and 30+ languages. Creator is $29/month, or $24/month if paid annually according to the official pricing FAQ, and includes 600 credits, videos up to 30 minutes, 1080p export, fast processing, unlimited Photo Avatars, watermark removal, Voice Cloning, advanced AI image and video models, 175+ languages and dialects, and credit rollover. Pro is $49/month and includes 1,000 credits, 4K export, faster processing, customizable monthly usage, and edit/proofread controls for translation scripts. Business is $149/month plus $20/seat/month and includes 1,500 credits, 60-minute videos, 4K export, fastest video processing, 2x concurrency, 5 Custom Digital Twins, SAML/SSO, centralized billing, top-up or auto-reload credits, workspace collaboration, interactive video, SCORM export, LMS integrations, and integrations with n8n, Make, HubSpot, and Zapier. Enterprise is Contact Sales and adds flexible video generation, no video duration max, highest concurrency, multi-workspace control, proofreader seats, centralized role and access management, SCIM, MFA, commercial terms, priority support, a dedicated customer success manager, onboarding, Enterprise Community access, and invoice billing. API pricing is separate: Pay-As-You-Go starts with a $5 top-up, while API Enterprise is Contact Sales.

Descript

freemium

Transcript-first AI editor for recording, editing, polishing, translating, and p...

Rating

4.4

Category

视频生成与剪辑

Pricing

Descript's official pricing page lists Free, Hobbyist, Creator, Business, and Enterprise. The paid self-serve tiers are priced per person/month: Hobbyist is $24 monthly or $16 with annual billing; Creator is $35 monthly or $24 with annual billing; Business is $65 monthly or $50 with annual billing. The Free plan is $0 and includes 60 media minutes per month, a one-time 100 AI-credit grant, 720p watermark-free export, limited Underlord and AI tools, 1 GB file upload size, and 5 GB cloud storage. Hobbyist includes 600 media minutes / 10 hours per month, 400 AI credits per month, 1080p watermark-free export, Underlord, Studio Sound, Remove Filler Words, Create Clips, AI Speech, 10 GB file upload size, and 100 GB cloud storage. Creator includes 1,800 media minutes / 30 hours per month, 800 AI credits per month, 4K export, full Underlord access, 20+ AI tools, generated video, unlimited royalty-free stock media, top ups, up to 3 seats, 20 GB file upload size, and 1 TB cloud storage. Business includes 2,400 media minutes / 40 hours per month, 1,500 AI credits per month, team-wide Brand Studio, translation and dubbing proofread, custom avatar generation, priority support with SLA, top ups, up to 5 seats, 50 GB upload size, and 2 TB cloud storage. Enterprise is custom and adds SSO/SCIM, granular brand controls, custom AI credits, custom media minutes, custom legal terms, custom AI controls, flexible licensing, and flexible billing.

Captions

freemium

AI video editor and generator for short-form creators, with captions, avatars, d...

Rating

4.1

Category

视频生成与剪辑

Pricing

Captions uses a subscription and credit model. The official pricing page highlights Max at $24.99/month, Scale at $69.99/month, Scale 2x at $139.99/month, Scale 4x at $279.99/month, and Enterprise with custom pricing, with a note that displayed prices reflect iOS plans. The official Subscriptions & Plans help page adds the Free plan, Android-only Lite at $4.99/month, Pro/Starter at $9.99/month with 200 monthly credits, Max at $24.99/month with 500 monthly credits, Scale at $69.99/month with 1,400 credits, Scale 2x with 2,800 credits, and Scale 4x with 5,600 credits. Credits refresh monthly on paid plans, while Free credits are lifetime credits and do not refresh. Unused paid credits can roll over up to two extra months, so the balance can hold up to 3x the monthly allowance. Separate Mirage API pricing is usage-based: styled video captions cost $0.15 per input minute, and Mirage Video 1 costs $0.175 per generated second in 6-second increments.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the full video creator stack cost?

Each tool has a freemium tier, but for serious use expect to pay around $50–100/month combined. Runway and Descript offer affordable paid plans, while HeyGen and Kling have usage-based pricing. Start with free trials to test the workflow.

Can I replace any tool with a free alternative?

Yes, to some extent. For editing, DaVinci Resolve is powerful and free, but lacks AI transcription. For video generation, you can use free tiers of Runway and Kling, but output limits apply. No single free tool covers the whole stack.

Where should I start if I'm new to AI video?

Begin with Runway to practice text-to-video prompts. Once you have a few clips, try adding a simple avatar with HeyGen. Then use Descript to combine them. The learning curve is gentle; each tool has tutorials.

What's a common mistake when using this stack?

Skipping Descript and trying to edit everything in Captions or manually. Descript's transcript-based editing saves hours. Also, mismatching lip-sync across tools — make sure audio and video are aligned before exporting.