Cartesia vs ElevenLabs vs Higgsfield vs Luma Dream Machine
A side-by-side look at Cartesia, ElevenLabs, Higgsfield and Luma Dream Machine for filmmakers: what each one can do, what it costs, and where they actually differ.
-
Low-latency AI voices (Sonic-3.6) for live agents, dubbing and fast VO drafts
- Price
- Free (20K credits/mo) · Pro $5/mo · Startup $49/mo · Scale $299/mo · Enterprise custom
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Real-time voice agents for phone lines, kiosks and customer support
-
Voiceovers, voice cloning, dubbing and music in 90+ languages, with Eleven v4 since Sept 2026
- Price
- Free: 10k credits/mo. Starter from $5/mo billed annually ($6 monthly). Creator $18.33/mo annual ($22 monthly). Pro $99/mo. Scale $299/mo. Business $990/mo.
- Learning
- Easy
- Best for
- Narration and explainer voiceovers that need revisions without re-recording
-
AI video studio with camera control: Seedance 2.5, Cinema Studio 4.0, API and MCP
- Price
- Free tier; paid plans from €19/mo billed annually (prices exclude VAT)
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Directors previsualising multi-shot sequences with camera direction and fixed characters
-
Agent-run video and image studio with Ray3.2 camera control and multi-model access
- Price
- From $30/month (Plus), or $25/month billed yearly ($300/yr)
- Learning
- Moderate
- Best for
- Storyboard-driven shorts and ads where keyframe timing matters (Ray3.2 and Scenes)
The short version
Where they differ
- Cartesia is the only one without music & SFX.
All 4 offer: voice / TTS, public API.
Feature by feature
Cartesia vs ElevenLabs vs Higgsfield vs Luma Dream Machine: capabilities
| Cartesia | ElevenLabs | Higgsfield | Luma Dream Machine | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (20K credits/mo) · Pro $5/mo · Startup $49/mo · Scale $299/mo · Enterprise custom | Free: 10k credits/mo. Starter from $5/mo billed annually ($6 monthly). Creator $18.33/mo annual ($22 monthly). Pro $99/mo. Scale $299/mo. Business $990/mo. | Free tier; paid plans from €19/mo billed annually (prices exclude VAT) | From $30/month (Plus), or $25/month billed yearly ($300/yr) |
| Infinite canvas | No | No | Partial | Yes |
| Node / flow builder | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Partial |
| AI agent | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Chat assistant | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes | Yes |
| Team collaboration | Not confirmed | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Text to image | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Image editing | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Text to video | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Image to video | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Video to video | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Native audio in video | No | No | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Lip-sync | No | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Yes |
| Voice / TTS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Music & SFX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Upscaling | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Character consistency | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Camera control | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom training | Partial | Partial | Not confirmed | Partial |
| Third-party models | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Public API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial |
| Mobile app | Not confirmed | Yes | Partial | Not confirmed |
| Desktop / local | Partial | Partial | Not confirmed | No |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed |
| Commercial use | Yes | Yes | Not confirmed | Yes |
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page. "Not confirmed" means the vendor doesn't say.
Plans
Pricing compared
Cartesia
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| Pro | $5monthly |
| Startup | $49monthly |
| Scale | $299monthly |
| Enterprise | Customcustom |
ElevenLabs
| Free | $0monthly |
|---|---|
| Starter | $6 ($5 annual)monthly |
| Creator | $22 ($18.33 annual; $11 first month promo)monthly |
| Pro | $99 ($82.50 annual)monthly |
| Scale | $299 ($249.17 annual)monthly |
| Business | $990 ($825 annual)monthly |
| Enterprise | Custommonthly |
Higgsfield
| Free | €0limited use |
|---|---|
| Starter | €19per month, billed annually |
| Plus | €47per month, billed annually (€59 monthly) |
| Ultra | €99per month, billed annually (€129 monthly) |
| Teams | From €65per seat per month |
Luma Dream Machine
| Plus | $30monthly, or $25/mo billed yearly ($300/yr) |
|---|---|
| Pro | $90monthly, or $75/mo billed yearly ($900/yr) |
| Ultra | $300monthly, or $250/mo billed yearly ($3,000/yr) |
| Team | Contact salescustom |
| Enterprise | Contact salescustom |
The verdict
Which one should you pick?
Cartesia
Pick it for
- Real-time voice agents for phone lines, kiosks and customer support
- Fast VO scratch tracks and rough-cut placeholders before a real session
- Multilingual test versions of a spot or trailer voice-over (44 languages)
Stands out
- Vendor-claimed response time under 90 ms on Sonic-3.6, the main reason to pick it over narration-first TTS tools
- Same vendor covers TTS (Sonic), STT (Ink) and a voice-agent layer (Managed Agents), so one API key runs a full voice loop
Watch out
- Built for speed; the vendor itself says less emotional nuance than ElevenLabs for narration
- No editor or timeline. Output is audio files or streams, so a filmmaker needs a DAW or NLE to place it
ElevenLabs
Pick it for
- Narration and explainer voiceovers that need revisions without re-recording
- Localising a finished film or series into several languages with the original performance kept
- Building a consistent narrator voice across a video series
Stands out
- Voice cloning from about 10 seconds of audio on v4, versus longer samples needed by many rivals
- Dubbing that carries over the original performance and emotion rather than only translating text
Watch out
- Credits are priced per mode (TTS, dubbing with or without watermark, studio), which makes budgeting hard
- The free tier has no commercial license and only about 10 minutes of speech
Higgsfield
Pick it for
- Directors previsualising multi-shot sequences with camera direction and fixed characters
- Agencies producing ad variants from a product link or brand assets
- Editors who want generation inside DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop or Blender via plugins or MCP
Stands out
- Many models, one credit balance: Seedance 2.5, Kling 3.0 Turbo, Wan 3.0, Grok Video 1.5, MiniMax H3 Max, Gemini Omni and image models such as FLUX 3 and GPT Image 2.5 run from one account, so you can shop models per shot.
- Cinema Studio 4.0 is a directed-scene workspace (30-second takes, 50 references, camera and colour controls) rather than a single prompt box.
Watch out
- Premium video models are credit-gated on every plan, so high-volume work gets expensive quickly
- The best access terms are time-limited promotions (unlimited windows, the 33-day Seedance 2.5 promotion, cashback offers)
Luma Dream Machine
Pick it for
- Storyboard-driven shorts and ads where keyframe timing matters (Ray3.2 and Scenes)
- Agencies producing one hero spot resized to many placements (Variants)
- Creature and character motion with consistent references (Master Reference Assets)
Stands out
- Agent-run workflow: Luma Agents plan, select models, generate and iterate from a brief, with a separate Brainstorm mode that doesn't spend credits on renders.
- Shot-level control on Ray3.2: up to 16 keyframes per clip, frame-by-frame direction, and Luma Scenes storyboards you can retime before rendering.
Watch out
- Entry price is $30/month, above the $15 Runway Standard list price
- Agent credit usage makes it hard to predict clips per plan before buying
Each column comes from that tool's own researched page, checked against vendor pricing and changelog pages (oldest check: ). Sources are listed on each tool's page.
Build a different comparison →