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Social Media · head to head

Runway vs YouScan

Runway logo

Runway

Social Media

AI-powered creative tools for video and images

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
YouScan logo

YouScan

Social Media

Social listening with image recognition, priced from $499 a month with a hard limit on search topics

From
$499/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Runway has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Runway the free tier is 125 one-time credits rather than a monthly allowance, so it runs out and does not refill; YouScan the binding constraint on the published plan is search topics, not mentions: three topics on Starter 3 forces agencies to merge unrelated clients into a single query, which corrupts reporting and pushes them to the quote-only tier.
  • They diverge on capability: Runway covers Gen-2 video generation, YouScan covers Visual Insights.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Runway and YouScan actually diverge.

Attributes where Runway and YouScan differ
AttributeRunwayYouScan
Starting priceFree$499/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month by mention volume and search topics
Free tierYesNo
Founded2018Unknown

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Social Media).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Runway

  • Gen-2 video generation
  • Green screen
  • Inpainting
  • Super resolution
  • Motion tracking
  • Adobe Premiere
  • Final Cut Pro
  • API access

Only in YouScan

  • Visual Insights
  • Insights Copilot
  • Audience Insights
  • Auto-Categories
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Audio and video monitoring
  • Smart alerts and automation
  • Social Intelligence API

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Runway

  • Generating video clips from text or image promptsnot YouScan
  • Extending or editing existing footage with generative modelsnot YouScan
  • Removing objects and backgrounds from videonot YouScan
  • Storyboarding and previsualisation for productionnot YouScan

YouScan

  • A drinks or snack brand that needs to find product placement in user photos where nobody typed the brand name.not Runway
  • A consumer marketing team wanting demographic profiles of who is discussing a campaign, not just how many mentions it generated.not Runway
  • A support operation routing complaints found on social straight into Zendesk or Freshdesk as tickets.not Runway
  • A brand tracking sentiment across several languages in Central and Eastern Europe where larger vendors have thinner source coverage.not Runway

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Runway

  • The free tier is 125 one-time credits rather than a monthly allowance, so it runs out and does not refill
  • Outputs carry a watermark until the Standard plan at $12 a month
  • Everything is metered in credits, and Gen-4.5 video costs 60 credits per 5 seconds, so a Standard plan covers roughly 125 short videos a year
  • Only the Max plan at $76 a month rolls unused credits over, and only for one month
  • The free tier gives a selection of models rather than the full set

YouScan

  • The binding constraint on the published plan is search topics, not mentions: three topics on Starter 3 forces agencies to merge unrelated clients into a single query, which corrupts reporting and pushes them to the quote-only tier.
  • Unlimited means sampled, not complete: high-volume topics collect every nth mention and analytics are extrapolated, so the top tier structurally cannot deliver exhaustive capture for legal or crisis forensic use.
  • Sampling frequency is fixed at topic creation and cannot be changed, so a wrong initial choice means building a new topic and losing historical continuity in the data you have already paid to collect.
  • Instagram coverage is structurally partial because it depends on hashtags being present, and channel-based Instagram history is capped at twelve months back, so caption-free visual mentions are undercounted.
  • Visual Insights and Audience Insights, the two capabilities that most differentiate the product, are only included on the quote-only Unlimited tier, so the published $499 price does not buy the reason you came.
  • Billing is annual only at the published tier with no monthly-rolling option and no published overage schedule, so the cost of a volume spike is unknown until you negotiate it.
  • X coverage now depends on constrained paid API access, which combined with sampling makes historic post depth the weakest part of the archive relative to Brandwatch or Talkwalker.

Pricing, plan by plan

Runway

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 125 credits
    • Basic tools
    • 720p exports
  • Standard$12/month
    • 625 credits/month
    • Gen-2 access
    • 4K exports
  • Pro$28/month
    • 2250 credits/month
    • All tools
    • Priority processing
  • Unlimited$76/month
    • Unlimited generations
    • Custom models
    • API access

YouScan

$499/month
  • Starter 3$499/month
    • Billed annually
    • Up to 15,000 mentions per month
    • 3 text search topics
  • Unlimited$undefined/month
    • Unlimited sampled mentions
    • Unlimited search topics, users and alert rules
    • Visual Insights included

Which should you pick?

Choose Runway if

  • You need gen-2 video generation.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want green screen.
Runway review

Choose YouScan if

  • You need visual insights.
  • You also want insights copilot.
YouScan review

Questions people ask

Is Runway or YouScan better?
Neither clearly leads. Runway starts at Free and YouScan at $499/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Runway or YouScan?
Runway has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Runway and $499/month for YouScan.
Does Runway or YouScan run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Runway for free?
Yes. Runway has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. YouScan starts at $499/month.
What is Runway best used for?
Runway is most often used for generating video clips from text or image prompts, extending or editing existing footage with generative models, removing objects and backgrounds from video, storyboarding and previsualisation for production. Of those, generating video clips from text or image prompts and extending or editing existing footage with generative models are not what YouScan is typically brought in for.
What can Runway do that YouScan cannot?
Runway covers Gen-2 video generation, Green screen, Inpainting, Super resolution. YouScan covers Visual Insights, Insights Copilot, Audience Insights, Auto-Categories.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Runway: How much does Runway cost?

Runway publishes four tiers on annual billing: Standard at $12 per month, Pro at $28 and Max at $76, against monthly rates of $15, $35 and $95. Enterprise is quoted. Annual billing is advertised as 20% off.

Source
YouScan: Does the Unlimited plan really collect every mention?

No. It collects a sample of high-volume topics and extrapolates the analytics. Ask for the sampling ratio in writing if completeness matters.

Runway: Does Runway have a free plan?

Yes. The free plan costs nothing and includes 125 one time credits to explore the AI tools, plus 5GB of asset storage. The credits are one time rather than monthly.

Source
YouScan: Is Visual Insights on the $499 plan?

No. Visual Insights and Audience Insights are included on the Unlimited tier only, which is quoted rather than published.

Runway: How many credits does each Runway plan include?

Standard includes 625 credits a month, Pro includes 2,250 and Max includes 9,500. Only Max offers credit rollover, and it rolls over for one month.

Source
YouScan: Was YouScan affected by the war in Ukraine?

It was founded in Kyiv but contracts through a Cyprus entity and moved infrastructure to Azure West Europe. It exited the Russian market entirely, liquidating both Russian entities by mid-2024, and now contractually bars customers with Russian Federation connections.

Runway: When do I need Runway Pro rather than Standard?

Pro adds custom voices for lip sync, raises storage to 500GB and gives access to the best models, on top of Standard's AI image and video models, 4K upscaling and watermark free output.

Source
YouScan: Can I pay monthly?

Not at the published tier. Starter 3 is $499 a month billed annually.

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