Two different kinds of app sit behind the pier videos, and picking the wrong kind is why people get stuck. CapCut templates edit photos and clips you already have — they do not generate a new you. AI video generators (PixVerse, Dreamina/Seedance, Kling, Hailuo, and purpose-built sites including ours) take one photo and generate a new eight-second scene of you on the pier. Decide which you want first; the rest is detail.
What app makes the singing on the pier AI trend?
No single app owns it. The trend started as a CapCut template challenge — the two biggest templates at the time of research were named "i love you" (~271.9K uses) and "Raindance" (~179.9K uses) — then spread to AI video generators once people wanted to appear in a scene they never filmed.
So:
- If you already have a video of yourself and want the trend's edit, cuts and timing applied to it, a CapCut template is the fastest and usually free route. See the CapCut template guide.
- If you only have a photo and want to appear on the pier, you need an image-to-video AI generator. That is the comparison below.
Comparison table
Prices and limits change constantly. Everything here is as at the time of writing (October 2026), and where we cannot state a detail confidently the cell says "varies" — check the tool's own current pricing rather than a table.
| Tool | Generates you from a photo? | Duet (two people) | Free option | Price note (at time of writing, October 2026) | Watermark | Sound included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapCut templates | No — it edits photos/clips you supply, it does not generate a new person | Template-dependent; some templates have two slots | Yes, templates are free to use | Free templates; paid tiers vary — check current pricing | Varies by template and tier | Yes — the template carries the audio in-app |
| PixVerse | Yes, image-to-video | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies by tier | Generated video is typically silent; add audio yourself |
| Dreamina / Seedance | Yes, image-to-video | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies by tier | Typically silent; add audio yourself |
| Kling | Yes, image-to-video | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies by tier | Typically silent; add audio yourself |
| Hailuo | Yes, image-to-video | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies by tier | Typically silent; add audio yourself |
| Kavel | Yes — has a page built for this trend | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies | Varies |
| Summrs | Yes — has a page built for this trend | Varies | Yes — 50 free credits advertised | Check current pricing beyond the free credits | Varies | Varies |
| Nsketch | Yes — motion-control app for this trend | Varies | Varies | Check current pricing | Varies | Varies |
| raindanceai.org | Yes — purpose-built for this trend | Varies | Varies | $6.99 per video | Varies | Varies |
| Raindance AI (us, raindance-ai.org) | Yes — 1 photo for Solo, plus a Pets mode | Yes — 2 photos, one person each | Yes — one free 5s 480p teaser per account, watermarked, view online | $4.99 for 1; $14.99 for 5; $34.99 for 15; $79.99 for 40; $3.99 to unlock a teaser into the full HD clip; monthly plans also available | No watermark on paid videos; the free teaser is watermarked | No — clip is silent by design, you add the official sound in TikTok |
Note the name collision: raindanceai.org and our raindance-ai.org are different, unaffiliated sites. We are also not affiliated with Dave, Tems, their labels, TikTok, CapCut or the Raindance Film Festival. Pippit and Viggle come up often too; we do not have enough current public detail to put honest numbers against them, so check their own pages.
How do I choose?
Work down this list and stop at the first yes.
- Do you already have a video of yourself? Use a free CapCut template. You do not need AI generation at all.
- Do you want two people side by side? Confirm the tool supports two source photos with separate identities before you pay. Many generators accept two images and then blend the faces. Ours takes one photo per person — how duets work.
- Do you want a cat or dog version? You need a mode that keeps animal anatomy, or the model tries to build a human face from fur. Pets mode handles this; general tools often do not.
- Do you already pay for a model subscription? If you have Kling, Hailuo, PixVerse or similar credits sitting unused, write the prompt yourself and spend nothing extra — the structure is in the prompt guide.
- Do you just want the pier clip without learning prompting? A purpose-built generator applies the right prompt, aspect ratio, duration and scene for you. That is what we do: pick a scene, upload, wait 2–5 minutes.
- Do you want to test before paying? Look for a genuine free tier rather than a trial that needs a card. Summrs advertises 50 free credits; we give one free 5-second 480p watermarked teaser per account — details.
What should I check before paying for any of them?
Four things, in order of how often they cause refund requests:
- Does the output have sound? Almost none of these produce the song, and that is correct — the licensed track comes from TikTok's own library. If a tool claims to generate the vocals, be sceptical; AI vocals are not what the trend uses. How to add the sound.
- Is lip-sync promised? It should not be. The model cannot hear the song, so what you get is a soft singing performance that reads convincingly once the real audio is trimmed to the bridge. Any tool promising exact lip-sync to a track it has not been given is overpromising.
- Watermark policy. Check whether the watermark goes on the entry paid tier or only the top one.
- Aspect ratio and length. You want 9:16 vertical and enough seconds to cover the bridge. Eight seconds is the usual default; 15 gives room to breathe.
- What happens to your photo. Read the retention terms. Ours are plain: photos are used only to make your video, you can delete them, and originals are deleted after 30 days.
Is a free app good enough?
For a CapCut template, yes, genuinely. They are free, popular, and the edit is the thing people recognise.
For AI generation, free tiers are usually watermarked, lower resolution and shorter — ours is all three, deliberately, because a 5-second 480p teaser is enough to tell you whether your photo renders well. Free tiers are for testing the photo, not producing the post. The free options guide covers what you can realistically get without paying anywhere.
If your result looks wrong on any of these tools, the cause is usually the input rather than the app: low resolution, sunglasses, heavy filters, a group photo, or a side angle. See best photo for Raindance AI, and for background, the trend explained and why "Raindance" is not an AI song.