Runway, Luma, and Pollo AI are three of the biggest names in AI video generation today. It’s not hard to see why. They’re all popular tools with great tech that you can use to make some very impressive AI videos in various styles and forms.
But they’re not all equal. They differ in a bunch of key areas, like pricing, video quality, customization, and features, too. If you are having a hard time choosing the best for you, you've come to the right place. In this Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI guide, we’re going to take a close look at all three to see which one comes out on top.
The TL;DR Version
If you’re a busy person, you may not have time for a full-length Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI review. That’s fine – here’s the condensed version with our final verdict:
All three tools are worth trying and using to certain degrees. However, Pollo AI is the easiest one to recommend and the best, in our view. This is because it’s the simplest to work with, while also boasting the best tech and the most extensive range of features, like its helpful templates, special effects, and AI video enhancements.
The table below sums up all the main pros and cons of all three tools:
| Pros | Cons | |
| Runway |
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| Luma |
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| Pollo AI |
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Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI - Comparing Their Output Quality
Runway
Quality-wise, Runway is a good AI video generator. The videos it makes tend to look great, with smooth, fluid shapes, mostly realistic movement, and lots of detail. It’s great for animated, fantasy, or sci-fi-style videos. However, it sometimes has blurry or obscure elements and can get confused with complex prompts that involve a lot of actions.
Luma
Luma is also known for producing very high quality output, with lots of realistic movements and details. It’s great at generating videos with human subjects that look and move just like real people, providing users with authentic output. However, it sometimes struggles to understand prompts and you have to regenerate multiple times to get what you want.
Pollo AI
Out of the three, Pollo AI ranks No. 1 in terms of video quality. It has really strong technology that is regularly being improved and built upon to deliver the finest video output, so you tend to get really impressive, detailed videos with this tool. It also understands prompts very intelligently and often gives you exactly what you want, with consistent motion and lifelike physics.
Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI - Comparing Their Features
Next, let’s take a closer look at some of the core features that Runway, Luma, and Pollo AI are capable of, comparing the ways in which you can use them and how well their main features actually work.
Text to Video Generation
We’ll start off with the basics: text to video. This is when you type in a prompt and the AI makes a video from that text. It’s the fundamentals of AI video generation, and all three tools offer it.
And of the three, Pollo AI is best at it. As an all-in-one AI video generator, Pollo AI offers access to multiple AI video models, such as Kling AI, Runway, Hailuo AI, Vidu AI, Luma AI, and PixVerse AI. It manages to understand even complex prompts to accurately deliver the videos you want, and it supports negative prompts for extra control.
Runway is also relatively good at understanding prompts, especially if you use the newer and more intelligent Gen-3 Alpha version of the tool. Gen-2, meanwhile, sometimes has a harder time figuring things out. In terms of understanding prompts, Runway is generally good but sometimes struggles if the prompt has a lot of different elements and involves lots of movement or action.
It’s a similar story with Luma. It’s not bad at all when it comes to working with quite simple prompts, but when you start to add more details and specifics, it sometimes struggles to give you what you need. Indeed, a lot of users have criticized this tool and complained they have to rewrite their prompts many times to get the output they’re looking for.
Image to Video Generation
Next, image-to-video generation – using images as the baseline to make AI videos or animations.
Again, this is something Pollo AI does amazingly well. It also comes with the multi-model support that its text-to-video generator has. And It’s really good at keeping the core elements of the image consistent while animating it, and it even has
With Pollo AI’s image to video generation, you can also upload not just one but several images to use as reference points, and you get full control over all aspects of your video, like its length and aspect ratio. In contrast, Luma is really restrictive here and doesn’t give you anywhere near as many options in terms of generating videos from images, nor does it offer templates.
Runway is certainly better than Luma in that regard. You can generate images in Runway to use for making videos or upload your own, and you have more control over the end result. You can use their Motion Brush feature, for example, to designate different elements in your images that you want to move around.
Customizable Output
Next, let’s talk about customization. This is something Pollo AI excels in. When you make a video with this tool, you get to pick from different generative models, choose your desired duration, pick from a bunch of aspect ratios, and even choose between different output styles such as anime, claymation, 3D animation, and more!
In second place, we have Runway. This also gives you a good level of control. You can control the movement and camera angles of your videos, and you can choose from lots of preset styles, like Cinematic or Cartoon, for example. There are also multiple aspect ratios to pick from and different versions of the Runway model.
Luma's Dream Machine AI video generator, however, doesn’t offer much customization at all, which could put off users who want to feel more in control of their videos. It does give you the option to set different images as the start and end frames of your video, along with some other minor options, but lacks the many configurable features of the other two tools.
Templates and Tools
Pollo AI doesn’t just let you make AI videos from prompts or images. It gives you tons of extra templates and tools to make your video creation experience more engaging, efficient, and fun. There are , for example, tools to enhance your videos, like the video enhancement, denoise video and face enhancer features.
On top of that, you can use Pollo AI to make special effects videos, too, like AI muscle, AI kiss, and AI squish-it videos. This gives you so many different ways to play around with the AI video generation technology and make videos in numerous styles, quickly and easily.
Luma does not offer these kinds of features. It just has a singular interface that you can use to make text or image to video creations. Runway meanwhile, has a dashboard where you can switch between different features and templates set up if you want to make specific videos, like the Act One animation maker and the Lip Sync audio syncing feature.
Camera Controls and Motion
The best AI video generators give you full control over camera angles, pans, zooms, and movement. Runway does a good job with this. It has some of the most advanced and flexible camera controls of any AI video creator. You can adjust sliders to control zoom, pan, and horizontal or vertical camera movement.
You can also use the Motion Brush feature in Runway to have total control over individual movements of elements and items within your videos. This is a big plus, and it’s something that Pollo AI also does well, as it lets you set movement speeds and types in your prompts. It also gives you full control over how the camera moves during each video you create.
Again, Luma is left a little lacking in this area. If you want to control the camera or movement in your videos with Luma, your only option is to use your text prompts to tell the AI what you want to see. So, if you want to have a lot of control and influence over your videos and feel like an actual director, you may not get what you want with Luma.
Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI - Comparing Their Pricing
Last up, we’ll take a look at how the prices compare for these three tools.
With Pollo AI, you can use it for free, or sign up to monthly or annual plans that start as low as $10 a month. Runway also offers a free plan or premium plans starting at $12 a month. As for Luma, you can try it for free or sign up for premium plans from $9.99 a month.
So, all three tools offer similar pricing. However, if you actually look at value for money and which is the cheapest to work with on a serious, professional level, Pollo AI is definitely the best.
Final Word
After comparing Runway vs. Luma vs. Pollo AI, it’s clear that all three of these tools have certain advantages. Luma is very simplistic, Runway is quite advanced and produces great quality videos, but Pollo AI is the best in most areas.
It’s the easiest to work with, as well as being the most flexible, so it’s ideal for any kind of user. It also gives you lots of features, like its helpful templates and video enhancements, so you can use it in any way you like. Try Pollo AI today for best-in-class AI video generation!