Runway is a popular tool for making AI videos. But it’s not perfect. You may have trouble getting the exact output video you desire, for example, or you might feel that the pricing doesn’t exactly offer value for money.
Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome Runway alternatives out there to choose from, offering excellent text-to-video or image-to-video AI technology and additional selling points to set them apart. Let’s take a look at 10 of the best options, with pros and cons of each one.
- Pollo AI - Best Runway Alternative Overall
- Sora - Best Runway Alternative for Realism
- Kling AI - Best Runway Alternative for Performance
- Luma AI - Best Runway Alternative for Speed
- Pika - Best Runway Alternative for Special Effects
- Hailuo AI - Best Runway Alternative for Versatility
- Haiper AI - Best Runway Alternative for Animations
- Vidu AI - Best Runway Alternative for Customization
- PixVerse AI - Best Runway Alternative for Advanced Users
- KREA - Best Runway Alternative for Beginners
Pollo AI - Best Runway Alternative Overall
Pollo AI stands out as one of the best AI video generators on the market today, boasting powerful text-to-video and image-to-video technology, an easy and intuitive user process, and some of the most stunning, engaging video output that you could ever hope to see. And it can handle lifelike, fantastical, and even animated content equally well.
So, no matter what type of videos you want, this tool can generate them all. It empowers you to input detailed text prompts, adjust the aspect ratio, camera movements and much more. It even offers specific templates for certain kinds of videos, like the AI hug generator, making it an excellent alternative to Runway.
Pros:
- State of the art AI video generative technology
- Handy templates to save time when making certain kinds of videos
- Lots of customization options like aspect ratio and camera control
- Completely free to try
Cons:
- Free version can be limited
Sora - Best Runway Alternative for Realism
Sora is the official OpenAI AI video generator, from the same developer behind ChatGPT. It can turn text-based prompts into beautiful, detailed, and extremely realistic video clips of up to a minute in length for you to use in your personal projects, or just for fun.
The technology behind Sora is generally very impressive, allowing it to understand quite detailed and complicated prompts with ease. The output videos are usually very lifelike and impressive, too, and the team behind it is working to improve and update Sora regularly to make the user experience even better.
Pros:
- High-end technology for lifelike videos
- Can understand lengthy and detailed prompts well
- Regularly updated and improved
Cons:
- Struggle with maintaining spatial details in complex scenes
- Has difficulties accurately simulating the physics of some kinds of scenes
Kling AI - Best Runway Alternative for Performance
Kling AI is a next-gen AI video generator, boasting some of the most powerful levels of performance of any tool of this kind. It's very advanced, so it can figure out both basic and complex text prompts and generally understands exactly what sort of video you want to make, providing rich, realistic, and detailed output.
It's very good at generating animated content or fantastical and sci-fi sorts of videos, but can also handle more arty and moody settings. It can also provide AI voiceovers and subtitles to make your videos more accessible.
Pros:
- Powerful technology and high quality output
- Accessibility features, like subtitles or voiceovers
- Comes with handy video templates to save you time
Cons:
- Interface is quite cluttered and messy
Luma AI - Best Runway Alternative for Speed
Luma AI’s “Dream Machine” is another AI video generator you can use to get text-to-video AI functionality. This tool stands out for its speed. It’s lightning fast when it comes to taking textual prompts and converting them into lifelike video clips.
Initially, it had a maximum AI video output length of five seconds. But with the introduction of new versions, users can now generate longer videos. Still, it generally produces lifelike visual effects and can work in a range of styles and genres, from 2D animation to cinematic footage.
Pros:
- Super fast at generating AI videos from text
- Can create videos in various styles
- Designed to be accessible for users of all skill levels
Cons:
- Its advanced functionalities may present a steep learning curve for some users
- Many videos often have a lack of movement or energy
Pika - Best Runway Alternative for Special Effects
Pika is one of the most fun AI video generators to use if you want to create short clips of interesting special effects or niche videos. It works by taking images (that you can upload directly to the platform) and then animating them into videos.
There are various fun effects you can apply with Pika, like turning something into a cake and seeing it get sliced open in the video, or making videos of items being crushed, crumbled, or inflated. It’s good for making little social media video clips.
Pros:
- Lots of interesting, entertaining Pikaffects to apply with
- Easy to work with – make videos in a few clicks
- Use your own photos to make customized content
Cons:
- Not suitable for more creative videos
- Only a limited range of video types available
Hailuo AI - Best Runway Alternative for Versatility
Hailuo AI is another Runway alternative you might like to consider, and it stands out for its versatile approach to AI video creation. It supports both text-to-video and image-to-video conversion, so you can either type in a text prompt or upload an image to use as a baseline for your video.
Thanks to these, you can get quite creative with Hailuo AI and make videos your way, on almost any subject you like. It can do fast action videos, animals, realism, and more, and you can view hundreds of pre-generated clips from other users on its home page.
Pros:
- Multiple AI video generation modes
- Creates good quality content with lots of color and energy
- Suitable for content creators, influencers, and other users
Cons:
- Can be quite slow at making AI videos
- Sometimes struggles to comprehend detailed text prompts
Haiper AI - Best Runway Alternative for Animations
Haiper AI is a popular AI video generator that offers two main video creation modes: Text to Video or Image to Video. It’s particularly good at the latter, taking still images, like photographs or even art, and then bringing them to life with custom animations.
You can give Haiper AI precise text prompts for what you want to see in your video, and it’s usually very accurate at interpreting those prompts and realizing your ideas. It's also known for generating content with very realistic physics and motion, thanks to its impressive technology.
Pros:
- Capable of creating lifelike videos from text prompts or images
- Powerful animation technology
- Completely free to try
Cons:
- Some users have reported experiencing bugs with this generator
- Lacks customization options compared to other tools
Vidu AI - Best Runway Alternative for Customization
Vidu AI is a leading AI video generator, renowned for its superior video quality, speedy response times, and generally quite user-friendly experience. In short, it gets a lot of things right and even offers extensive customization potential.
You can generate videos in a wide range of styles with Vidu AI, for example, like cinematic, arty, or storytelling videos. The animations are generally quite fluid and realistic, and it can understand really detailed prompts. It also supports image to video and even "reference to video" where it can use existing characters or objects as reference points.
Pros:
- Multiple AI video generation modes
- Creates detailed and deep video content
- Offers almost limitless customization and creativity
Cons:
- Sometimes can be struggled with video details
- Occasionally yields inconsistent results
PixVerse AI - Best Runway Alternative for Advanced Users
If you’ve already got experience of working with AI video generators, PixVerse AI is a good tool to use. It has quite a detailed and layered user interface that may put off beginners, but should appeal to intermediate and advanced users, with lots of superior features to play around with.
You can, for example, customize your videos' length, style, special effects, aspect ratio, and other elements using the many advanced options with PixVerse AI, though it is a little lacking in the camera controls. It runs in Discord too, as well as web browsers, making it quite easy to access.
Pros:
- Produces high quality animations
- Lots of customization options to play around with
- Ideal for more advanced AI video makers
Cons:
- Interface can be cluttered and confusing
- Beginners may struggle to make the most of this tool
KREA - Best Runway Alternative for Beginners
KREA is a popular AI video generator for beginners, as it features a clean, simple, and minimalistic user interface and aims to make AI video generation as easy as possible for its users. As such, it’s a good starting point, though it lacks some of the more advanced features and tech of other tools.
You can enjoy rapid AI video generation with KREA, and it even offers AI video upscaling, too. Plus, users can switch between different AI video generative models as desired to get different results, and there’s a free plan to start off with, though it is a little limited.
Pros:
- Easy to work with
- Quite fast processing times
- Also supports video enhancements
Cons:
- May feel a bit basic to some professional users
- Free plan is quite restrictive
Start Making AI Videos Today
So, if Runway isn’t quite right for you, give one of these other highly-rated AI video generators a try. They can help you make extraordinary AI videos with ease, using nothing but simple text-based prompts or other resources the tool supports. If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend Pollo AI as the best overall option for its strong technology, fast speeds, and many clever customization features.