Reviewers see RunwayML as a strong but uneven AI video tool: it stands out for short clips, realistic results, flexible scene-by-scene workflows, multiple models, and useful first-frame references that help control style and mood. People like it for concepting, b-roll, ads, and experimental or low-budget work, but several say it is not dependable enough for polished commercial use. The main complaints are weak prompt adherence, a real learning curve, slow generation on some plans, limited workflow guidance, and frustrating moderation and account support.

+16

Summarized with AI

Pros

AI-driven editing (3)

text-to-video (3)

API access (2)

cinematic effects (2)

fast performance (2)

Cons

inconsistent results (3)

high pricing (2)

poor prompt adherence (2)

Pros

Cons

Reviews

All Reviews

Most Informative

Founder Reviews (11)

Other Reviews (8)

•1 review

What's great

fast performance (2)time-saving (1)AI-driven editing (3)text-to-video (3)cinematic effects (2)

RunwayML is great for short video generation. It gives you a lot of flexibility, from using a larger text-to-video prompt to building a video scene-by-scene. It also offers multiple models, which gives you more control over the style and overall quality of the final video.

The realistic videos are very impressive. With the right model, the level of detail can look very realistic, and generation is fairly fast. You can create 5 to 15-second clips in different aspect ratios, which makes it useful for different uses and channels.

I also really like the option to use a first frame as a reference. It helps set visual style, and mood of the entire clip, giving you much more control over the final result.

What needs improvement

inconsistent results (3)

It has some of the typical issues you see with AI video generation. You ask it to change 1 thing, and 3 other things may change with it, so you often have to generate several versions and pick the best one rather than continuously refining a single version.

They need tutorials and guides, so users have a direction on how to use it with minimal waste, because there is definitely a learning curve, and currently I use ChatGPT to help me create the prompts. They also need guide around choosing a model. There are many options, but it isn’t always clear which model is best for a particular type of video without trying them. I haven’t tested every model and tend to stick with the ones I’m already familiar with.

The first-frame reference is very useful, but I’d love to see that expanded into a true storyboard feature. Being able to provide several reference frames for how a scene should progress would make it much easier to generate a short video that is close to what you envisioned.

I’ve worked around this by using a storyboard as the first-frame reference for a 15-second generation. It works surprisingly well, but it does waste 1 to 2 secs as it trying to animate the storyboard image itself, before it generates the actual usable video.

It would be great if it also offered a voice selection, so if I do want to use voice, where the avatar speaks, a voice could be selected each time to stay consistent.

vs Alternatives

HeyGen

Gemini Nano Banana

For my use case, creating engaging ad videos with little to no voiceover, RunwayML stood out compared with the alternatives I tested. It gave me better control over the visuals and consistently produced more realistic, polished results.

I also tested it for avatar-based video. That required using one of the more expensive AI models, but the results were very realistic. The avatar’s expressions and movements felt natural, and it wasn’t just the person that looked realistic. The background also had subtle, believable motion, which made the entire scene feel much more like an actual video rather than an AI-generated avatar placed over a static background.

Ratings

Ease of use

Reliability

Value for money

Customization

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45 views2mo ago

•1 review

A miserable experience. The prices are way too high. If you get the unlimited (Relaxed) subscription, generating a 10 second video takes about 20 minutes. You can't que videos either, you have to wait until they are finished one by one. The AI gets your prompt wrong half the time. Which make you lose time and credits. Then there's the oversensitive censorship. Even people in short-sleeved t-shirts are too risky. They don't tell you what's the problem either. While you're figuring out what exactly is the problem, your account gets suspended. They say you can appeal to this, but that's a lie. They just mention that their decision is final, give no explanation and tell you to go away. Anything is better than this overpriced mess.

What needs improvement

slow performance (1)high pricing (2)poor prompt adherence (2)limited video queuing (1)censorship issues (1)

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186 views1yr ago

•1 review

Nowhere near worth the exorbitant pricing. Even with the slightly less expensive Gen 3 Alpha Turbo, there is almost no prompt adherence, even if you follow their prompting guide. And given the extremely high expense, most users won't have the freedom to experiment in order to find that just-right-magical-prompt-wording that will yield any result that even approaches accurate. Even with start images, where most of the work is done for them, the resulting video is disappointing 9 times out of ten. Not worth the money at this time.

What needs improvement

high pricing (2)inconsistent results (3)poor prompt adherence (2)

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154 views2yr ago

•5 reviews

Wild how far video gen has come. Been messing with Runway to create b-roll from prompts, and it actually holds up for abstract sequences. Wouldn’t trust it for commercial work yet, but great for concepting or low-budget indie projects.

What's great

AI-driven editing (3)

What needs improvement

inconsistent results (3)

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101 views1yr ago

•1 review

Love the one-stop-shop approach to AI tools under one brand/domain. Quick, good explanations, expectation management is everything when it comes to AI tools and they do not overpromise things.

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25 views3yr ago