Hour One Review 2024: Features, Performance & Alternatives
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8/10 | ||
Hour One Review: Text to video with AI human avatars | ||
I like
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Summary: Hour One targets the business market with a solid platform that offers unique features you won´t find elsewhere and many additional options. In this review, I review every Hour One feature to see if it can be your next AI video tool. Pricing: From $25/month. Free trial with no credit card. | ||
In this Hour One review, I will discuss the main features of this AI text-to-video generator. This tool creates videos with human-like avatars at a fraction of the cost of traditional video production.
Hour One is an Israel-based startup founded in 2019 by Oren Aharon. Its primary focus is to generate professional-looking videos at scale with meager costs. They raised $20 Million Series A funding in 2022 to enhance and develop the platform.
To make a video with this platform, you must enter a text prompt, choose a pre-made template and an avatar, and customize some basic configurations. It then handles the video creation process automatically.
As easy as it sounds, editing the video later in just minutes is possible, with no need to hire actors, equipment or costly locations again.
Hour One is not a substitute for professional video software like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. These software have many features for color corrections, transitions, special effects, and more options suitable for making a professional video. Still, it is an excellent complement for creating videos.
Check how it works in this video
Who is Hour One for?
Anyone creating videos regularly can benefit from this platform, with specific advantages for
- Content creators: Hour One enables quick and affordable video creation, saving time and money.
- Course creators: Engage students and viewers with tutorials and e-learning content can be created and modified quickly.
- Corporate communications management: Companies can manage internal communications and onboarding seamlessly.
- YouTube creators: Using Hour One, there is no need to show your face on camera. All you need is to find the right avatar that fits your audience.
- Social media users: Create compelling short videos in just minutes to enhance your social media presence.
Hour One main features
Avatars and Voices
- 130+ Avatars: Huge range of diverse avatars to create your video.
- Custom web avatars and studio avatars: You can make an avatar of yourself using your webcam, but if you need professional quality, you can go for a studio avatar.
- 100+ languages and 200+ voices: An essential tool for working with global audiences.
- Voice cloning and voice uploads: You can make a copy of your own voice or even upload a voice.
- Translation: No more localization costs; translate your video with a single click.
- Up to 15 scenes per video:
Video Editor and Media
- 100+ templates: Choose from tenths of pre-made templates, but you can start from scratch with your design too.
- 3D templates: Amazing 3D templates for video creation (a unique feature of Hour One, available on higher plans)
- Document and URL to video: Automatically convert an article into a video, turn a static PDF into an engaging video.
- Media assets: You can use included Unsplash free-royalty media or upload your own.
- Screen recorder: Record and add your own screen to your video, which is a helpful resource for video tutorials.
- Branding kit: You can personalize your videos with colors and logos.
- Mobile app: iOS app to create your videos on the go.
AI Tools
- Video Wizard: Create a template with this Chat-GPT integration.
- Script Wizard: An AI-powered script assistant that helps in those “blank canvas” days.
- AI-meeting summary: Auto-summarize online meetings using your avatars.
Collaboration and publishing
- Up to 8K resolution (depending on plan)
- Publishing: Share the video link, download it in MP4 format, or embed the video on your website.
- Team and collaboration features: Manage your team editors, viewers, projects, and permissions.
Security and Privacy
- Enterprise-grade security: SOC 2 Type II, SSO, ISO27001, and secure cloud infrastructure.
- Privacy: GDPR Compliance.
Integrations and Pricing
- Integrations: Zapier, Chat-GPT, Slack, Gmail integration, and proprietary API.
- Free 3-minute Plan to test the platform. Paid plans start at $ 30 per month. Pay-per-second charging (unique to hour One)
How to make a video with Hour One
First, you must register for an account. Hour One gently offered me a Business account to write this review, but you can begin signing up for a free plan to test the platform.
When I open the dashboard, a draft video is already present. Clicking on it is a good starting point to learn the ropes.
This draft video has two scenes and some basic text, but playing around with it will give you an overall idea of how Hour One works and the possibilities available through this software.
The main dashboard has a quick access section, "Create video from anything."
Here, I can start with a template, a presentation PPT or PPTX files), a document (form docx or PDF files), a URL, create a video using the wizard (an AI assistant with ChatGPT integration), a sales meet summary, or create an avatar.
I will begin with a template. There are more than 100 to choose from. These include Learning and development, product marketing, sales, e-commerce, product experience, human resources, office, social marketing, creators, news, and general.
Hour One also offers unique 3D templates that are not found in any similar application and add extra value to the platform.
Check them out:
I chose the "Your first marketing video" template. Notice that it shows a preview that includes voice and avatar lip-syncing, but you can modify it later.
There are over 100 diverse avatars available for creating your video, and some of them look really impressive. You can either use the one that comes with the template or choose another one.
Now, the system opens a dashboard where the video creation process runs. The right sidebar shows content and layout.
The layout feature is very interesting because it gives many options for avatar position and overall design. Anyway, there is no option to drag-and-drop the avatar on the screen.
A wide range of voice options are available, including male, female, natural, young, middle-aged, and more. It is possible to add pauses to the speech, but this feature is only available in specific voices.
Music can also be selected, and genres are available on the upper side. For some reason, I couldn't preview how the music sounded.
I write a simple text in the text box and change the media. There are tons of Unplash assets, but you can also upload your own media. There is an interesting option to use a screen capture as a scene background, an useful resource for tutorials and demo videos.
The video editor is bare basic. There are no options to change fonts, sizes, or text colors. You can change text only on text-container templates. I create another scene with a modified layout and new media from Unsplash.
I added the third scene, now with a circled avatar and text. The text position cannot be changed; you must limit yourself to the template design.
I included a standard logo, but the position is fixed to the lower right corner, and there is no way to change it.
As you may guess, I am not the best at video creation, but I am only testing the platform here. I now have three scenes; let's preview the video. Like similar platforms, the preview does not take credits or minutes, and avatars are fixed with no lip-syncing.
Now that I am done with the video, it is time to render it so i click on "Create Video"
The video is 0:30 seconds long and took 8:40 minutes to render, not the best score. Rendering time depends on video size and server workload, but I hope this works better next time.
Now, I can download it in 720p or 1080p resolution. By clicking the "Share" button, I can also share it on social media or embed it in emails or websites.
Here is the final video
The overall result is very good. Avatar movement looks natural, voice is clear and understandable, although lip-syncing could be better.
How to make a video with the Video Wizard
The video wizard is a Chat-GPT integration that runs into the platform and helps to create videos.
You can make videos for sales, anything, general, e-learning, training, product, and HR. This process is set on a dedicated window; it needs a few parameters to create a video from scratch.
I select video type, duration, format, and style on the first window.
The following window asks for the course topic, audience, and learning objectives. Suppose I want to make a video about a Python learning course:
Then I click on the “Create my video” button, and 20 seconds later the system creates a three-scene draft. This is simply amazing, now I can modify the script, avatar, voices, add or delete media, or any other specific item.
I go on and render it; a 40-second video takes 6:43 minutes to render. This time should be shorter, but let´s remember a pair of years ago, this simple video would take days, not minutes.
Here is the final video. Again, it looks good, with better lip-sync than the previous one and a clear voice.
Hour One Pros, what I like
- 3D templates: These are unique to Hour One and add a lot of value to the platform.
- Mobile App: Hour One is the only app in its class (along with Virbo) with a mobile app. Although it is only available for iOS users, it is a great add-on for creating videos on the go.
- Proprietary API: Hour One has a well-documented API that allows you to add virtual humans to your product or service.
Hour One Cons, what needs improvement
- Avatars: Although there are many diverse avatars to choose from, there are no workers, teachers, doctors, or professional-looking avatars. This would add more options for those seeking specific models.
- Avatar gestures: There are no avatar gestures, an exciting feature Synthesia and Colossyan offer.
- Integrations: Although Zapier allows you to connect to almost any platform into your workflow, there are few integrations. But YouTube, Vimeo, Thinkific, 360 Learning, and others would be excellent additions.
- Video Editor: The video editor lacks transitions and animations, valuable resources to craft a better video.
Hour One pricing
There are four pricing plans available:
- Free Plan: 3 minutes to test the platform. all avatars, only sharing link, 6 max scenes per video, limited voices with watermark.
- Lite Plan: $25/month billed yearly with 120 minutes/year, all avatars, 10 scenes per video, sharing and downloading, 1080p, all voices and languages.
- Business Plan: $95/month billed yearly with 240/360/480 minutes/year, all avatars, 15 scenes per video, 3D templates, screen recording, and branding kit.
- Enterprise Plan: Craft your own plan on demand.
Regarding pricing, let's compare for example, with Elai.io. Their Advanced Plan at $100/month (annually) gives you 600 minutes/year, up to 100 slides, unlimited photo avatars, interactivity video features, custom fonts upload, lottie animations, transitions, and a competent video editor. The drawback? Elai doesn't offer enterprise-grade security.
And if it is not a crucial requirement for you, there are cheaper options in the market like HeyGen and Vidnoz.
Hour One reviews and support
I found that the Hour One score on G2 is 4.5/5 from 113 reviews, an excellent rating from the customer side.
Hour One improves monthly, and you can track every update on a dedicated page on their website. Thus, every Hour One customer is confident that the platform always adds new features and enhancements.
Support is managed through a chat window within the platform. Only Business Plan users can open a support ticket, and enterprise users have access to priority support.
As with similar platforms, enterprise users can access to a dedicated success manager, 24/7 on call support and expert video assistance (this as a paid add-on)
3 best Hour One alternatives
If you are still unsure about Hour One, I consider these are the three best alternatives today:
Synthesia
I believe that Synthesia is one of the best video creation platforms available. With 160+ realistic avatars, 65+ templates, tons of resources, and 120+ languages, this software excels at creating videos with human avatars.
Synthesia's avatars look natural and polished, the video editor is excellent, and pricing starts at $22/10 minutes.
Read my Synthesia review or go to Synthesia website.
Colossyan
Colossyan is an excellent Hour One alternative.
You won't find many templates or stock avatars. Still, Colossyan has enough unique exciting features, like avatars' emotions and aging, conversations, and outstanding ChatGPT integration.
Pricing plans start from $28/month with 10 minutes of video creation.
Read my Colossyan review or go to Colossyan website.
Vidnoz
Vidnoz has the cheapest price on the market. With 800+ avatars, 800+ templates, a good video editor, and additional free tools like video face swap, AI image to video, AI talking photo, and more, this platform has many resources for AI video creation.
You have 3 free minutes daily or go for a paid plan starting at $19.99/month/15 monthly minutes. Lip syncing and avatar quality are quite good, and pricing is unbeatable.
Read my Vidnoz review or go to Vidnoz website.
Hour One Review: My Conclusion
Hour One offers a solid platform for creating AI videos. Its collaboration features, API development, content moderation policy and enterprise-grade security options make it a good choice for enterprise businesses.
Even though there is room for improvement, their continuous monthly updates contribute to developing a better user experience.
Is Hour One your best option? Sign up for a free account and give it a try.
RELATED READING: 8 Best Synthesia.io Alternatives in 2024 Free and Paid

Mario here. I am the owner of Vidmetoo, a one-man band.
I founded this website to provide you with useful insights about video tools and related resources. Thanks for reading!