Wan (Wan 2.1) vs Runway
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
Wan (Wan 2.1)
Alibaba's open-weight video AI — Wan 2.2 is the current flagship.
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Runway
AI video generation and editing — Gen-4.5 adds native audio
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| RECATOOLS Score | 8.4 / 10 | 7.6 / 10 |
| Capability | ||
| Value for money | ||
| Ease of use | ||
| ASEAN readiness | ||
| API quality | ||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Free tier | Local self-hosting is fully free (Apache 2.0). wan.video offers limited hosted free generation. | 125 one-time credits for video generation |
| Paid from | DashScope API ~$0.10-0.15 per 5-second 720p clip (usage-based per-second) | Free $0 (125 credits); Standard $12-15/mo; Pro $28-35/mo; Max $76-95/mo; Enterprise custom |
| Has API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✓ | ✓ |
| Users | 16,000+ GitHub stars; 1M+ model downloads across HuggingFace and ModelScope | ~4M registered users (≈1.2M monthly active, 2025-2026) |
| Founded | 2025 | 2018 |
| Maker | Alibaba Group (Alibaba Cloud / Tongyi Lab) | Cristobal Valenzuela, Alejandro Matamala, Anastasis Germanidis |
| Verdict | Wan 2.1's February 2025 splash — an 86.22% VBench score that beat OpenAI's Sora at launch — was real, but two things have moved since. Alibaba shipped Wan 2.2 (still Apache 2.0, still free, now the open-weights flagship... |
Runway is one of the most established AI video platforms, pairing generative models with a real editing suite — inpainting, green-screen, motion tracking, frame interpolation. Gen-4.5 closed the category's oldest gap by... |
| Full review → | Full review → |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.